Security News > 2020 > March > Vulnerability in Intel Chipsets Allows Hackers to Obtain Protected Data

Most Intel chipsets released in the past five years are affected by a vulnerability that can be exploited to obtain encrypted data and compromise data protection technologies, Positive Technologies revealed on Thursday.

According to Positive Technologies, CVE-2019-0090 is an unfixable vulnerability that affects the Converged Security and Management Engine boot ROM on most Intel chipsets and system on chips, except for Ice Point chipsets.

"An early-stage vulnerability in ROM enables control over reading of the Chipset Key and generation of all other encryption keys. One of these keys is for the Integrity Control Value Blob. With this key, attackers can forge the code of any Intel CSME firmware module in a way that authenticity checks cannot detect. This is functionally equivalent to a breach of the private key for the Intel CSME firmware digital signature, but limited to a specific platform," Positive Technologies explained in a blog post.

Mark Ermolov, lead specialist of OS and hardware security at Positive Technologies, told SecurityWeek that once an attacker has obtained this chipset key, they can decrypt any data encrypted using Intel Platform Trust Technology.

"Standard Windows BitLocker hard drive encryption supports Intel PTT if there isn't a dedicated TPM chip. BitLocker is increasingly used in corporate Windows 10 machines to encrypt drives in order to prevent data theft or exposure. So any data that was encrypted using Intel PTT technology could be decrypted, such as bank account information, passwords and other log-in credentials, and any confidential files relating to intellectual property. Attackers can also write malware to run on Intel CSME with all consequences," Ermolov explained.

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