Bootstrappin' Boogie: Why Your Secure Boot Might Not Be So Secure
Ned and Chris explore a newly discovered flaw in UEFI Secure Boot that’s led to a critical OEM blunder that allows rootkit attacks, and the only fix is a potentially daunting firmware update.
Secure Boot’s Achilles’ Heel
Ned and Chris dive into a freshly uncovered flaw in the Secure Boot process of PCs using UEFI firmware. They trace the evolution of boot processes from ENIAC’s manual grind to today’s automated systems, highlighting the crucial role of cryptographic keys in blocking unauthorized code. Along the way, they expose a serious blunder where some OEMs carelessly included untrusted platform keys in their UEFI firmware, opening the door to rootkit attacks. The fix? A firmware update—if you’re brave enough to handle it.
Links
• Binarly post (https://www.binarly.io/blog/pkfail-un...)
• Keys in the Intel Boot Process (https://eclypsium.com/blog/the-keys-t...)
• How Bootguard works (https://trmm.net/Bootguard/#chain-of-...)
• Securing the Boot Process (https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.11...)
• Bootstrapping (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstr...)
• X86 Boot Process with BIOS (https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/System_I...)
• BlackLotus UEFI Bootkit (https://www.binarly.io/blog/the-untol...)
