Security News > 2022 > August > Researchers Uncover UEFI Secure Boot Bypass in 3 Microsoft Signed Boot Loaders

A security feature bypass vulnerability has been uncovered in three signed third-party Unified Extensible Firmware Interface boot loaders that allow bypass of the UEFI Secure Boot feature.

"These vulnerabilities can be exploited by mounting the EFI System Partition and replacing the existing bootloader with the vulnerable one, or modifying a UEFI variable to load the vulnerable loader instead of the existing one," hardware security firm Eclypsium said in a report shared with The Hacker News.

The following vendor-specific boot loaders, which were signed and authenticated by Microsoft, have been found vulnerable to the bypass and have been patched as part of the tech giant's Patch Tuesday update released this week -.

Secure Boot is a security standard designed to thwart malicious programs from loading when a computer starts up and ensure only the software that is trusted by the Original Equipment Manufacturer is launched.

Security handlers can include Trusted Platform Module measurements and signature checks, Eclypsium researchers Mickey Shkatov and Jesse Michael said.

"Much like BootHole, these vulnerabilities highlight the challenges of ensuring the boot integrity of devices that rely on a complex supply chain of vendors and code working together," the researchers concluded, adding "These issues highlight how simple vulnerabilities in third-party code can undermine the entire process."

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2022/08/researchers-uncover-uefi-secure-boot.html