Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed particulars of a now-patched security flaw in Phoenix SecureCore UEFI firmware that impacts a number of households of Intel Core desktop and cellular processors.
Tracked as CVE-2024-0762 (CVSS rating: 7.5), the “UEFIcanhazbufferoverflow” vulnerability has been described as a case of a buffer overflow stemming from the usage of an unsafe variable within the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) configuration that would end result within the execution of malicious code.
“The vulnerability permits an area attacker to escalate privileges and acquire code execution inside the UEFI firmware throughout runtime,” provide chain security agency Eclypsium stated in a report shared with The Hacker Information.
“This sort of low-level exploitation is typical of firmware backdoors (e.g., BlackLotus) which can be more and more noticed within the wild. Such implants give attackers ongoing persistence inside a tool and infrequently, the flexibility to evade higher-level security measures operating within the working system and software program layers.”
Following accountable disclosure, the vulnerability was addressed by Phoenix Applied sciences in April 2024. PC maker Lenovo has additionally launched updates for the flaw as of final month.
“This vulnerability impacts gadgets utilizing Phoenix SecureCore firmware operating on choose Intel processor households, together with AlderLake, CoffeeLake, CometLake, IceLake, JasperLake, KabyLake, MeteorLake, RaptorLake, RocketLake, and TigerLake,” the firmware developer stated.
UEFI, a successor to BIOS, refers to motherboard firmware used throughout startup to initialize the {hardware} elements and cargo the working system through the boot supervisor.
The truth that UEFI is the primary code that is run with the best privileges has made it a profitable goal for menace actors seeking to deploy bootkits and firmware implants that may subvert security mechanisms and keep persistence with out being detected.
This additionally signifies that vulnerabilities found within the UEFI firmware can pose a extreme provide chain threat, as they will influence many various merchandise and distributors directly.
“UEFI firmware is among the most high-value code on fashionable gadgets, and any compromise of that code may give attackers full management and persistence on the gadget,” Eclypsium stated.
The event comes almost a month after the corporate disclosed an identical unpatched buffer overflow flaw in HP’s implementation of UEFI that impacts HP ProBook 11 EE G1, a tool that reached end-of-life (EoL) standing as of September 2020.
It additionally follows the disclosure of a software program assault referred to as TPM GPIO Reset that may very well be exploited by attackers to entry secrets and techniques saved on disk by different working programs or undermine controls which can be protected by the TPM corresponding to disk encryption or boot protections.
