can a virus harm hardware?

[spacekowboy]

this came up in a different forum, i am almost sure it can
possibly from experience...but i dont have a reference doc,
is this true and is there a reference anyone knows about?

thanks

X-)

 

[butchrecon]

It is true. Some Viruses are written to "kill" BIOS/EPRM chips. They are rare but still dangerous. The only way to fix a damaged chip is to buy new hardware or "reburn" the the chip with new code.

 

[spacekowboy]

well, i have an undocumented answer to my own question:
yes and no

it can write an instruction to say, tell a hd to go to a nonexistent address past the end of the drive and have it burn out the drive, given no failsafe, but, if you stop the machine and format, it shld be fine.

otherwise, viruses can affect firmware, software, but not hardware.

now i feel better.

X-)

 

[butchrecon]

You are correct. They cant physically damage hardware, but the code in some chips can be ruined.

 

[thadwalt]

To my knowledge at this time there are no viruses that can destroy physical computer hardware. But the virus can cause so many problems within the hardware that is would be like it did physical damage to it.