Possible threats in firmware
Malicious code infecting firmware, such as a BIOS rootkit, seems to be the newest attack vector on a global scale. It is also a difficult-to-detect issue for security teams. This problem is industry-wide and, by that statement, it impacts virtually all hardware vendors creating solutions for the x86_64 platform family. One high-profile example of such evil comes through the appropriately named LogoFAIL attack.
LogoFAIL exploits a feature within all manufacturers’ UEFI BIOS, which enables them to create a custom splash screen at boot, hence displaying their company logo. It has found a way of injecting malicious code into the process, which enables the execution of code without the users’ knowledge with severe security implications.
In the past couple of years, two dozen high-severity CVEs have been created for vulnerabilities that impact millions of systems globally – network hardware, storage systems, servers, industrial controllers...