Security News > 2020 > January > Dell, HP Memory-Access Bugs Open Attacker Path to Kernel Privileges

Vulnerabilities in Dell and HP laptops could allow an attacker to access information and gain kernel privileges via the devices' Direct Memory Access capability.

"This can allow an attacker to execute kernel code on the system, insert a wide variety of kernel implants and perform a host of additional activity such as spawning system shells or removing password requirements."

The high-severity bug is an insecure default BIOS configuration in the default firmware settings of the device - this was set to "Enable Thunderbolt pre-boot modules." According to Dell's advisory, a local, unauthenticated attacker with physical access to a user's system can obtain read or write access to main memory via a DMA attack during platform boot.

To wit: After mounting an attack and implanting malware on a target device, an attacker can then gain additional privileges and control over a compromised host.

"That malicious code could then DMA back into memory during boot to get arbitrary code injection during the boot process. The fundamental ability of DMA attacks to shim attacker code into the boot process makes it useful for almost any type of attacker goal."

News URL

https://threatpost.com/dell-hp-memory-access-bugskernel-privileges/152369/