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Just about every Windows and Linux device vulnerable to new LogoFAIL firmware attack
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Hundreds of Windows and Linux computer models from virtually all hardware makers are vulnerable to a new attack that executes malicious firmware early in the boot-up sequence, a feat that allows infections that are nearly impossible to detect or remove using current defense mechanisms.
The attack—dubbed LogoFAIL by the researchers who devised it—is notable for the relative ease in carrying it out, the breadth of both consumer- and enterprise-grade models that are susceptible, and the high level of control it gains over them.
LogoFAIL is a constellation of two dozen newly discovered vulnerabilities that have lurked for years, if not decades, in Unified Extensible Firmware Interfaces responsible for booting modern devices that run Windows or Linux.
The participating companies comprise nearly the entirety of the x64 and ARM CPU ecosystem, starting with UEFI suppliers AMI, Insyde, and Phoenix (sometimes still called IBVs or independent BIOS vendors); device manufacturers such as Lenovo, Dell, and HP; and the makers of the CPUs that go inside the devices, usually Intel, AMD or designers of ARM CPUs.
As its name suggests, LogoFAIL involves logos, specifically those of the hardware seller that are displayed on the device screen early in the boot process, while the UEFI is still running.
LogoFAIL is a newly discovered set of high-impact security vulnerabilities affecting different image parsing libraries used in the system firmware by various vendors during the device boot process.
The original article contains 663 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Summary does not contain the actual vulnerability or exploit.
Because there really isn't one, lol.
By the time an attacker has a write access to your boot permission everything else is kinda fucked already.
This is worse than many, since it persists across reinstalls and even potentially drive swaps, and fools systems such as secure boot.
If it's only on the ESP, it won't persist across reinstalls, and definitely not drive swaps.
But I do see mentions of attacking via firmware capsule. If that works, then yes, that will persist.
ESP is usually not cleared on a reinstall unless somebody takes the extra step to do so. Since each OS has its own directory within the ESP their installers don't push it. I was mostly referring to modification in firmware though.
Yes, an attacker with write access to boot already compromised the entire OS and data. Usually replacing the storage or reinstalling the OS would get rid of the attacker. But this exploit happens early in the boot process, before the OS even loads.
This means the only way to ensure a network remains uncompromised after an attack is physically destroying any infected devices or replacing their mainboard.
Good bot