Battery Hacking

I love stories of unexpected weak spots, like the discovery that Apple laptop batteries can be hacked to store malicious code and brick the battery. The weakness revolves around cracking a couple of passwords, one of which is a factory default – with the protection being patches that will reset the password and lock the battery’s firmware. From there, it doesn’t seem like the researcher who discovered the weakness has found any particularly damaging holes from the battery back to the rest of the system, besides having the battery lie about its state, so this probably won’t be the root of the next big espionage incident. But it is awfully clever, and a good reminder of how even the most minor systems can end up as points of vulnerability.