Is it possible to flash an EEPROM chip while it's still plugged into the board?

[chrstrbrts]

Hi everyone,

Is it possible to flash an EEPROM chip while it's still plugged into the board?

I've seen devices like this.

You remove the chip first, then plug it into the device and program it through some interface through a computer.

But, I'd like to flash chips right there on the mobo or peripheral card.

 

[Cuular]

Pretty unlikely. The pins used for certain portions of programing are usually not connected when the eeproms are in use.

It also depends upon the device it's in and whether that device is built to allow it.

Some devices are made to allow in operation programming.

 

[chrstrbrts]

Pretty unlikely. The pins used for certain portions of programing are usually not connected when the eeproms are in use.

It also depends upon the device it's in and whether that device is built to allow it.

Some devices are made to allow in operation programming.

OK. What about BIOS EEPROMs that hold boot code for Intel platforms?

I've heard of people writing malicious firmware rootkit code and sneaking it into people's BIOSes.

Though, what I'm really interested in is the EEPROM memory that NIC cards use to store their permanent MAC addresses.

Can those be modified on-board?