Developed in a lab at the University of Washington, scientists have created the first “DNA-based exploit of a computer system.” Researchers were able to gain access using $89 DNA purchased online by encoding a buffer overflow attack into it and having the computer process genetic data when read by the DNA sequencing machine.

Although the linked story’s headline is a bit click-bait of “horrifying” DNA hacking, it is merely just a test of an exploit of the computer system as DNA data storage is looming. The researchers fully admit, they created the best-case scenario by disabling the goddamn security features. But still a cool trick as the command string stored was 176 DNA letters interpreted into binary.



An outline and link to the paper can be found here.

The researchers warn that hackers could one day use faked blood or spit samples to gain access to university computers, steal information from police forensics labs, or infect genome files shared by scientists.

“Their exploit is basically unrealistic,” says Yaniv Erlich, a geneticist and programmer who is chief scientific officer of MyHertige.com, a genealogy website.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Scientists Hack a Computer Using DNA Exploit