Security News > 2022 > April > Lenovo UEFI firmware driver bugs affect over 100 laptop models
Lenovo has published a security advisory on vulnerabilities that impact its Unified Extensible Firmware Interface loaded on at least 100 of its laptop models.
A total of three security issues were discovered, two of them allowing an attacker to disable the protection for the SPI flash memory chip where the UEFI firmware is stored and to turn off the UEFI Secure Boot feature, which ensures the system loads at boot time only code trusted by the Original Equipment Manufacturer.
Both UEFI-related security issues in Lenovo products result from introducing into production two UEFI firmware drivers - aptly named SecureBackDoor and SecureBackDoorPeim - that are used only during manufacturing process.
CVE-2021-3971: A potential vulnerability by a driver used during older manufacturing processes on some consumer Lenovo Notebook devices that was mistakenly included in the BIOS image could allow an attacker with elevated privileges to modify firmware protection region by modifying an NVRAM variable.
Detecting them is possible, although the process requires more advanced techniques like UEFI integrity checks, analyzing the firmware in real time, or monitoring the firmware behavior and the device for suspicious activity.
To protect against attacks stemming from the above vulnerabilities, Lenovo recommends users of affected devices update the system firmware version to the latest available.
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Related Vulnerability
| DATE | CVE | VULNERABILITY TITLE | RISK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-04-22 | CVE-2021-3971 | Unspecified vulnerability in Lenovo products A potential vulnerability by a driver used during older manufacturing processes on some consumer Lenovo Notebook devices that was mistakenly included in the BIOS image could allow an attacker with elevated privileges to modify firmware protection region by modifying an NVRAM variable. | 4.6 |