PixieFail UEFI Flaws Expose Millions of Computers to RCE, DoS, and Data Theft

Multiple security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the TCP/IP network protocol stack of an open-source reference implementation of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) specification used widely in modern computers. Collectively dubbed PixieFail by Quarkslab, the nine issues reside in the TianoCore EFI Development Kit II (EDK II) and could be exploited to

NSA Releases Guide to Combat Powerful BlackLotus Bootkit Targeting Windows Systems

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) on Thursday released guidance to help organizations detect and prevent infections of a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) bootkit called BlackLotus. To that end, the agency is recommending that "infrastructure owners take action by hardening user executable policies and monitoring the integrity of the boot partition." BlackLotus is an advanced 

Critical Firmware Vulnerability in Gigabyte Systems Exposes ~7 Million Devices

Cybersecurity researchers have found "backdoor-like behavior" within Gigabyte systems, which they say enables the UEFI firmware of the devices to drop a Windows executable and retrieve updates in an unsecure format. Firmware security firm Eclypsium said it first detected the anomaly in April 2023. Gigabyte has since acknowledged and addressed the issue. "Most Gigabyte firmware includes a Windows

Bootlicker - A Generic UEFI Bootkit Used To Achieve Initial Usermode Execution

bootlicker is a legacy, extensible UEFI firmware rootkit targeting vmware hypervisor virtual machines. It is designed to achieve initial code execution within the context of the windows kernel, regardless of security settings configured.

Architecture

bootlicker takes its design from the legacy CosmicStrain, MoonBounce, and ESPECTRE rootkits to achive arbitrary code excution without triggering patchguard or other related security mechanisms.

After initial insertion into a UEFI driver firmware using the the injection utility, the shellcodes EfiMain achieves execution as the host starts up, and inserts a hook into the UEFI firmware's ExitBootServices routine. The ExitBootServices routine will then, on execution, find the source caller of the function, and if it matches WinLoad.EFI, attempts to find the unexported winload.efi!OslArchTransferToKernel routine, which will allow us to att ack the booting kernel before it achieves its initial execution.

Once OslArchTransferToKernel executes, it will search for the ACPI.SYS driver, find the .rsrc PE section, and inject a small stager shellcode entrypoint called DrvMain to copy over a larger payload that will act as our kernel implant.

Resources

Entirely based upon d_olex / cr4sh's DmaBackdoorBoot

Epilogue

This code is apart of a larger project I've been working on that on / off in between burnout, like most of the concepts I've produced over the years under various aliases, will never see the light of day. Some of the code comments I've been to lazy to strip out that refer to unrelated functiaonlity, despite it being previously present. Do not expect this to work out of the box, some slight modifications are certainly necessary.

MSI Data Breach: Private Code Signing Keys Leaked on the Dark Web

The threat actors behind the ransomware attack on Taiwanese PC maker MSI last month have leaked the company's private code signing keys on their dark website. "Confirmed, Intel OEM private key leaked, causing an impact on the entire ecosystem," Alex Matrosov, founder and CEO of firmware security firm Binarly, said in a tweet over the weekend. "It appears that Intel Boot Guard may not be