Security Flaw Discovered in Nearly All Macs and PCs

Security Flaw Discovered in Nearly All Macs and PCs

A new vulnerability brings back the risk of a cold boot attack.

In new findings published last week, F-Secure said that no modern device, Macs and PCs alike, do not have existing firmware security measures that "do a good enough job" preventing a new attack that can steal sensitive data in a matter of minutes.

F-Secure principal security consultant Olle Segerdahl explained that the vulnerabilities put "nearly all" laptops and desktops at risk.

The new exploit is built on the foundations of a traditional cold boot attack, a technique that is well known in the hacking community. Modern computers overwrite their memory when a device is powered down to scramble the data from being read. F-Secure believes they have found a way to disable the overwriting process, making a cold boot attack possible again.

"It takes some extra steps," Segerdahl said. "But the flaw is easy to exploit."

So much so, that it would "very much surprise" him if this technique isn't already known by some hacker groups.

It is no secret that if you have physical access to a computer, the changes of someone stealing your data is usually greater. That's why so many use disk encryption, like BitLocker for Windows and FileVault for Macs, to scramble and protect data when a device is turned off. The researchers, however, found that in nearly all cases, they can still steal data protected by those programs.

After the researchers figured out how the memory overwriting process works, they said it took just a few hours to build  a proof-of-concept tool that prevented the firmware from clearing secrets from memory. From there, the researchers scanned for disk encryption keys, which, when obtained, could be used to mount the protected volume.

It's not just disk encryption keys at risk, Segerdahl said. A successful attacker can steal "anything that happens to be in the memory," like passwords and corporate network credentials, which can lead to deeper compromise.

Their findings were shared with Microsoft, Apple, and Intel prior to release. According to the researchers, only a smattering of devices aren’t affected by the attack. Microsoft said in a recently updated article on BitLocker countermeasures that using a startup PIN can mitigate cold boot attacks, but Windows users with “Home” licenses are out of luck. And, any Apple Mac equipped with a T2 chip are not affected, but a firmware password would still improve protection.

About the Author

Sydny Shepard is the Executive Editor of Campus Security & Life Safety.

Featured

  • Integration Imagination: The Future of Connected Operations

    Security teams that collaborate cross-functionally and apply imagination and creativity to envision and design their ideal integrated ecosystem will have the biggest upside to corporate security and operational benefits. Read Now

  • Smarter Access Starts with Flexibility

    Today’s workplaces are undergoing a rapid evolution, driven by hybrid work models, emerging smart technologies, and flexible work schedules. To keep pace with growing workplace demands, buildings are becoming more dynamic – capable of adapting to how people move, work, and interact in real-time. Read Now

  • Trends Keeping an Eye on Business Decisions

    Today, AI continues to transform the way data is used to make important business decisions. AI and the cloud together are redefining how video surveillance systems are being used to simulate human intelligence by combining data analysis, prediction, and process automation with minimal human intervention. Many organizations are upgrading their surveillance systems to reap the benefits of technologies like AI and cloud applications. Read Now

  • The Future is Happening Outside the Cloud

    For years, the cloud has captivated the physical security industry. And for good reason. Remote access, elastic scalability and simplified maintenance reshaped how we think about deploying and managing systems. But as the number of cameras grows and resolutions push from HD to 4K and beyond, the cloud’s limits are becoming unavoidable. Bandwidth bottlenecks. Latency lags. Rising storage costs. These are not abstract concerns. Read Now

  • Right-Wing Activist Charlie Kirk Dies After Utah Valley University Shooting

    Charlie Kirk, a popular conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, died Wednesday after being shot during an on-campus event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah Read Now

New Products

  • 4K Video Decoder

    3xLOGIC’s VH-DECODER-4K is perfect for use in organizations of all sizes in diverse vertical sectors such as retail, leisure and hospitality, education and commercial premises.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.