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Just about every Windows and Linux device vulnerable to new LogoFAIL firmware attack (arstechnica.com)

submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Just about every Windows and Linux device vulnerable to new LogoFAIL firmware attack::UEFIs booting Windows and Linux devices can be hacked by malicious logo images.

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[-] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

The article quoted the researchers who indicated it can be done with remote access by using other attack vectors. This is because most UEFI systems store the logo on disk in the EFI system partition. It doesn't need to do anything crazy like compile and flash a modified firmware. All it needs to do is overwrite the logo file on disk.

[-] gnutrino@programming.dev 14 points 11 months ago

If you have access to directly write to arbitrary disk locations you already have full control. Why bother with overwriting the logo file with a malicious payload if you can just overwrite the actual kernel...

[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago

Because this can persist beyond an OS rebuild or patch. You infect the BIOS and you're on the device until the BIOS is free reflashed. And who ever does that?

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Or until you overwrite that malicious logo again?

[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

No. The logo is loaded, runs in BIOS context and is able to modify the BIOS. Now it's embedded and the logo is irrelevant.

[-] ClemaX@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago

Due to Secure Boot (if it actually enabled since there are some bogous implementations) this can be prevented. If I understand it correctly, LogoFAIL bypasses this security measure and enables loading unsigned code.

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

This is what I'm wondering

[-] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

Ah, that's much easier than I thought. I guess I'm horrible out of date on my "messing with BIOS" knowledge

[-] Octopus1348@lemy.lol 1 points 11 months ago

If it's on the disk, why doesn't the image get removed when I erase all partitions? Does the firmware put it back?

[-] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

If I'm understanding this correctly this isn't necessarily the very first logo that would appear but one that appears as the firmware starts to boot an OS from the EFI system partition. So technically installing your OS puts the original non-malicious logo there.

[-] matter@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

It does, but if it has compromised the BIOS before that, that won't get wiped.

this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023

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