-Pretty sure embedding a fractal pattern on realistic bones would cost more than $1M
-Computers that combust at a critical temperature? Nope. They're made of balsa wood? Plus, a CPU would lock up at a critical temperature.

That said, props for a vivid imagination. I think its a cool concept.

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by Hybrid.

It's like a QR code engraved in the bone. Scan it in and it links to a website, downloading the virus/malware.

It's a neat concept but they would have had to scan it knowing that it was there and scanned it with the right software, not just any scanner would understand and execute the command.

No scanner would see a program in an image, realize it's an executable and execute the program all without the user's knowledge.

It's barely possible that you could transfer a workable program that way through fractals, and the people on the other end would have to spend weeks or months decoding the program before they could make it run IF they could figure out what it was in the first place.

CPUs do combust. It happens all the time. Don't know why there would be more than some smoke though as it wouldn't be surrounded by many materials that would fuel a fire like that. Reading malformed data may cause a system to malfunction which may leave it open for someone to attack it but as stated before there is no reason the data on its own would be executed as a program. Pretty dumb overall. Is this from a spoof type show, I didn't recognize it at all.

Interesting. I've heard of batteries combusting, and CPU packaging melting, but never heard of combustion of a CPU or its packaging. How would this happen? What material in the packaging would be susceptible to becoming inflamed?

Also, I know some CPUs have thermal sensors built in to "lock up" at a particular temperature (at least some Intel CPUs). Why wouldn't these kick in? >> ^swedishfriend:

CPUs do combust. It happens all the time. Don't know why there would be more than some smoke though as it wouldn't be surrounded by many materials that would fuel a fire like that. Reading malformed data may cause a system to malfunction which may leave it open for someone to attack it but as stated before there is no reason the data on its own would be executed as a program. Pretty dumb overall. Is this from a spoof type show, I didn't recognize it at all.

I wasn't sure should I laugh or cry when I watched this episode.

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I've burnt up a few computers - releasing the magic smoke, as they say. Computers tend to run quite hot, and even a few minutes with a faulty fan can do it, particularly in essential components with less heat-sink like the southbridge. But, like @swedishfriend said, there's no reason it should light on fire like that.
>> ^longde:

Interesting. I've heard of batteries combusting, and CPU packaging melting, but never heard of combustion of a CPU or its packaging. How would this happen? What material in the packaging would be susceptible to becoming inflamed?
Also, I know some CPUs have thermal sensors built in to "lock up" at a particular temperature (at least some Intel CPUs). Why wouldn't these kick in? >> ^swedishfriend:
CPUs do combust. It happens all the time. Don't know why there would be more than some smoke though as it wouldn't be surrounded by many materials that would fuel a fire like that. Reading malformed data may cause a system to malfunction which may leave it open for someone to attack it but as stated before there is no reason the data on its own would be executed as a program. Pretty dumb overall. Is this from a spoof type show, I didn't recognize it at all.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! MY BALSA WOOD SUPER COMPUTER!!!!!

Haha I saw this on Reddit too.

this is actually very possible, you smartypants would know this if you watched star trek.

In the episode "I, Borg" the crew develops a virus that operates on the visual processors of the borg, infecting them with a "topological anomaly" that could destroy the collective.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/I_Borg_(episode)

DICOM doesn't allow execution of modalities. Bones has just called mutiny on the faleboat.

>> ^Sagemind:

It's like a QR code engraved in the bone. Scan it in and it links to a website, downloading the virus/malware.
It's a neat concept but they would have had to scan it knowing that it was there and scanned it with the right software, not just any scanner would understand and execute the command.

People still watch TV? What the f...

I don't know, Windows might manage it>> ^Drachen_Jager:

No scanner would see a program in an image, realize it's an executable and execute the program all without the user's knowledge.

>> ^Drachen_Jager:

No scanner would see a program in an image, realize it's an executable and execute the program all without the user's knowledge.
It's barely possible that you could transfer a workable program that way through fractals, and the people on the other end would have to spend weeks or months decoding the program before they could make it run IF they could figure out what it was in the first place.
pattern might be constructed in such a way that when scanned it can confuse any piece of software in the chain to cause a buffer overrun, at which point they could craft the following data to actually be executable and contain malware payload.

This is kinda what happened in a few instances of MP3-based viruses. MP3 file's metadata was malformed in such a way that it would crash the player and execute trojan payload that was embedded in that MP3 file.
Look up information about MP3Concept(MP3Virus.Gen)
There was another incident that involved MP3 file played in Winamp player. I can't find link about it now.

So while realistically unlikely, it's possible.

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

>> ^mxxcon:

>> ^Drachen_Jager:
No scanner would see a program in an image, realize it's an executable and execute the program all without the user's knowledge.
It's barely possible that you could transfer a workable program that way through fractals, and the people on the other end would have to spend weeks or months decoding the program before they could make it run IF they could figure out what it was in the first place.
pattern might be constructed in such a way that when scanned it can confuse any piece of software in the chain to cause a buffer overrun, at which point they could craft the following data to actually be executable and contain malware payload.
This is kinda what happened in a few instances of MP3-based viruses. MP3 file's metadata was malformed in such a way that it would crash the player and execute trojan payload that was embedded in that MP3 file.
Look up information about MP3Concept(MP3Virus.Gen)
There was another incident that involved MP3 file played in Winamp player. I can't find link about it now.
So while realistically unlikely, it's possible.


The main difference there being that the MP3 was a digital file which had been manipulated, not a sound recording. The file was corrupted in a very clever way. In the show the bone 'picture' was taken by the forensics team. They did not bring in a file the guy had created, they took a photograph. You can't insert corrupted data, because the data is coming from the camera they own.

>> ^Drachen_Jager:

>> ^mxxcon:
>> ^Drachen_Jager:
No scanner would see a program in an image, realize it's an executable and execute the program all without the user's knowledge.
It's barely possible that you could transfer a workable program that way through fractals, and the people on the other end would have to spend weeks or months decoding the program before they could make it run IF they could figure out what it was in the first place.
pattern might be constructed in such a way that when scanned it can confuse any piece of software in the chain to cause a buffer overrun, at which point they could craft the following data to actually be executable and contain malware payload.
This is kinda what happened in a few instances of MP3-based viruses. MP3 file's metadata was malformed in such a way that it would crash the player and execute trojan payload that was embedded in that MP3 file.
Look up information about MP3Concept(MP3Virus.Gen)
There was another incident that involved MP3 file played in Winamp player. I can't find link about it now.
So while realistically unlikely, it's possible.

The main difference there being that the MP3 was a digital file which had been manipulated, not a sound recording. The file was corrupted in a very clever way. In the show the bone 'picture' was taken by the forensics team. They did not bring in a file the guy had created, they took a photograph. You can't insert corrupted data, because the data is coming from the camera they own.
you've never had a legitimate program crash while working with a legitimate file? this is when malware gets to do its stuff.

zoom.
enhance.

@mxxcon is right in that there's no absolute reason this isn't possible. There's lots of exploits that start with malicious data, and exploit overflows or error conditions to trick the computer into executing data. This is obviously easier if you start with a digital file, but it wouldn't be impossible to create an analog object that when measured would create that equivalent file.

I mean obviously it would take a chain of crazy that's very, very long (and has nothing to do with fractals), but it's not absolutely impossible.

The target could perhaps be a set of values that are automatically calculated and that wouldn't be affected by things outside of the bad guy's control (random things like the orientation of bones for scanning). Perhaps (and bear with me on the crazy) there would be a set of measurements that are stored as a string, and the artifact could be crafted to have much larger values for those measurements (or more of that feature) than the buffer was prepared to receive. That's a very normal start for an exploit.

Having the surrounding data correspond to a valid popped address, and in turn having that point to runnable code would require either a lot of data, with very predictable quantization, stored consistently and together, or (more simply) omniscience.

Theoretical discussion aside, it was a vaguely clever idea very poorly executed. This is really, really bad for a police procedural. Honestly, though, it's still much better than what you get in sci-fi (eg. Warp 10 made us slugs, transporter fixed it, we're fine now so let's forget about Warp 10).

Seriously? We're arguing whether or not this is scientifically possible? I'd take Warp speed over this crap any day. Does this mean that if I take an infinite number of pictures with the same camera of an infinite number of bones, I will somehow take a picture that will crash my camera? Don't think it works that way... UGh! NO NO NO! I will not let myself become trapped in that argument. This scene is silly and brainless. Just like most things on TV, especially our politicians.

Well, I would say this is more engineering than science. But if it was really feasible it would have great applications. You could embed triggers in popular photoscapes, for example.

>> ^longde:

-Pretty sure embedding a fractal pattern on realistic bones would cost more than $1M
-Computers that combust at a critical temperature? Nope. They're made of balsa wood? Plus, a CPU would lock up at a critical temperature.
That said, props for a vivid imagination. I think its a cool concept.


But wouldn't you love to be the guy that just walks up and pulls out the plug, police squad style?

Pshh I did that last week. The hard part is not going crazy whilst looking at the fractal pattern. That's what happened to Sony. Anonymous sent them a hand written letter saying they would not sign the EULA. Sony's computer scanned the letter and executed the tantrum virus. Happens all the time.

>> ^longde:

Well, I would say this is more engineering than science. But if it was really feasible it would have great applications. You could embed triggers in popular photoscapes, for example.

or better yet, embed malware that will destroy TSA porno-tron machines the moment they take a picture of you!

"Oh my god!"-
"What?"/
"This scene is fucking retarded!"-

>> ^marinara:

this is actually very possible, you smartypants would know this if you watched star trek.
In the episode "I, Borg" the crew develops a virus that operates on the visual processors of the borg, infecting them with a "topological anomaly" that could destroy the collective.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/I_Borg_(episode)

They should have just told the Borg "this sentence is false". Works every time

My bones have a virus called awesome.

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