Computing desk
< December 28	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	December 30 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

December 29

How can a compromised BIOS compromise the security of a computer?

As I understand it, a BIOS will just boot (or not) and pass control to a OS, but the OS doesn't need to call it after it's running, nor will it need parameters from the BIOS as to how to run. So, how would an attacker exploit it? (if at all) Isn't the OS isolated from the BIOS? OsmanRF34 (talk) 13:29, 29 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's still possible to read from it in some way, and the fact that certain laptops come with firmware-based rootkits for security purposes make it viable for a BIOS or an EFI firmware to be tainted and/or used for malicious purposes. Writing to the ROM in a platform-independent manner is another story - a surefire way to rig the BIOS would be manipulating the PC yourself and flashing it with a hacked one. Blake Gripling (talk) 14:13, 29 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The BIOS has a lot of power. It could, for example, arrange for malicious code to run in System Management Mode after the OS has started. Or it could force the OS to boot in a VM. Or it could reprogram other motherboard components. Many motherboards have an embedded controller that runs code even in sleep/standby mode. -- BenRG (talk) 21:51, 29 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It is possible to install a key logger into the bios. Vespine (talk) 00:19, 30 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

What Is New in Windows Server 2012

Well, I have this question. I do have an installation disk for Win Server 2008 (x64) and one option is to install it on my newly cleared second disk drive. The second option is either to subscribe to MSDN and get WinServ 2012 from there or purchase Win Server 2012 new disk alone which will be less than half the price. The description of Win Server 2012 new features is available here and here (R2). My question is: Is there anybody here with a good knowledge of both versions who could confirm that owing WinServer 2012 offers a major advantage? Thanks. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 18:04, 29 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

What is your purpose for this server? We use 2008r2 where I work and no one is in a terrible rush to upgrade. But knowing what you are actually doing with the server might help make a more informed decision. Vespine (talk) 06:00, 30 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Vespine. In the meantime this is what I ended up doing last night. I installed Windows Server 2008 on my freed and newly formatted second hard disk and was surprised to get more than a hundred upgrades. So, I assume it is now more close to Server 2012 with all the upgrades factored in. Hyper V is a part of the server and this will allow me to install any VM. And Vespine confirmed that with his first hand experience. Thanks --AboutFace 22 (talk) 17:59, 30 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Flickr fees vs free Flickr

I have subscribed to Flickr for years - paying $29.99 per year (I believe). I still get charged this amount on my credit card, however I have heard there is a free Flickr account possible with uploading large amounts of pictures. So, what is the advantage of me continueing to pay their annual fee? Does it get rid of advertising banners, that might come with a free Flickr account? They are a nousance, that I would rather not see. I'll even pay the fee NOT to see the advertising banners! Thanks for answering my dumb blonde question.--Christie the puppy lover (talk) 19:38, 29 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Surely you can easily find this info on Flickr it self. Google Flickr membership levels, I guarantee they have a page that compares the different accounts you can get. I'd do it for you but flickr is blocked where I work. Vespine (talk) 23:31, 29 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

See Flickr#Accounts.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 11:11, 30 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you gentlemen.Christie the puppy lover (talk) 16:43, 30 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

How to print the escape character in UNIX?

Way back in the 1990s, I made a simple AmigaDOS shell script to toggle between the original and New Worlds versions of Utopia: The Creation of a Nation. I'd like to convert this script to a UNIX shell script so I could use it directly from Linux, without having to start up an Amiga emulator. I know enough about UNIX shell scripting for the most part, except for one thing: the AmigaDOS shell script uses ANSI colour graphics to print its messages in a pretty format. I think that ANSI colour graphics should work equally well under UNIX, but how do I make the script print the escape character, rather than having to write a physical escape character into the file? On AmigaDOS, the echo command understands *e to mean the escape character, but is there a similar thing in UNIX? JIP | Talk 20:18, 29 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

At least in bash, you can say echo $'\e[36mCyan text'. In principle Unices support many different terminal types with unrelated control codes, but in practice, the codes listed in ANSI escape code will probably work. -- BenRG (talk) 21:10, 29 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've been writing shell scripts (and emitting ANSI terminal escape sequences) for 30+ years, and I've never come across a way of doing this other than embedding the ESC character in my shell script, which is what I do all the time. —Steve Summit (talk) 23:34, 3 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If you don't like embedding the escape character all over the place, you could do it once:

e='␛'

(where that thing between the single quotes is a single ESC character), and then use it all over the place (remembering to use double quotes, so that the shell variable is expanded):

echo "$e[H$e[2J"

echo "$e[1mbold$e[m"

echo "$e[4munderlined$e[m"

—Steve Summit (talk) 01:09, 4 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]