• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Apple addressed the seventh actively exploited zero-day

 | 

Hackers deploy DripDropper via Apache ActiveMQ flaw, patch systems to evade detection

 | 

A Scattered Spider member gets 10 years in prison

 | 

FBI: Russia-linked group Static Tundra exploit old Cisco flaw for espionage

 | 

US CERT/CC warns of flaws in Workhorse Software accounting software used by hundreds of municipalities in Wisconsin

 | 

DOJ takes action against 22-year-old running RapperBot Botnet

 | 

Google fixed Chrome flaw found by Big Sleep AI

 | 

Pharmaceutical firm Inotiv discloses ransomware attack. Qilin group claims responsibility for the hack

 | 

A hacker tied to Yemen Cyber Army gets 20 months in prison

 | 

Exploit weaponizes SAP NetWeaver bugs for full system compromise

 | 

Allianz Life security breach impacted 1.1 million customers

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Trend Micro Apex One flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

AI for Cybersecurity: Building Trust in Your Workflows

 | 

Taiwan Web Infrastructure targeted by APT UAT-7237 with custom toolset

 | 

New NFC-Driven Android Trojan PhantomCard targets Brazilian bank customers

 | 

Cisco fixed maximum-severity security flaw in Secure Firewall Management Center

 | 

'Blue Locker' Ransomware Targeting Oil & Gas Sector in Pakistan

 | 

Hackers exploit Microsoft flaw to breach Canada ’s House of Commons

 | 

Norway confirms dam intrusion by Pro-Russian hackers

 | 

Zoom patches critical Windows flaw allowing privilege escalation

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Reports
  • Unsigned Firmware running on peripherals could expose Windows, Linux systems to hack

Unsigned Firmware running on peripherals could expose Windows, Linux systems to hack

Pierluigi Paganini February 18, 2020

Peripheral devices with unsigned firmware can expose Windows and Linux machines to hack, warn experts from firmware security firm Eclypsium.

Experts at firmware security firm Eclypsium have discovered that many peripheral device manufacturers have not implemented security checks to prevent the installation of firmware from an untrusted source.

An attacker could exploit the lack of checks to execute malicious firmware and perform malicious actions on both Windows and Linux systems, such as the installation of persistent backdoors.

“The problem is that peripheral devices often lack the same security best practices that we take for granted in operating systems and in other more visible components, like the UEFI or BIOS.” reads the post published by Eclypsium.

“Many peripheral devices do not verify that firmware is properly signed with a high quality public/private key before running the code. This means that these components have no way to validate that the firmware loaded by the device is authentic and should be trusted. An attacker could simply insert a malicious or vulnerable firmware image, which the component would blindly trust and run.”

Experts highlighted that attackers could tamper the firmware of devices, such as network cards, drives, and other peripherals, to remotely control them or for sabotage.

This kind of attack is not theoretical, the NSA-linked APT group Equation Group used these techniques to compromise the firmware on hard drives.

The researchers analyzed the flaws in four types of peripheral firmware for touchpads/trackpads, cameras, WiFi adapters, and USB hubs.

Peripheral devices don’t implement mechanisms to validate that the firmware loaded by the device is authentic, this means that an attacker could simply insert a malicious or vulnerable firmware image, which the component would run.

Attackers can plant malicious firmware on a network adapter to intercept or alter traffic or hack into PCI devices to carry out DMA attacks.

Eclypsium has found security issues in the touchpad and TrackPoint firmware used in Lenovo laptops, in the HP Wide Vision FHD (Sunplus) camera on an HP laptops, in the WiFi adapter installed on a Dell XPS laptop, and a VLI USB hub.

The experts also published a video PoC of an attack on a network interface, a Broadcom chipset, that runs an unsigned firmware.

“A malicious attack on a NIC can have a profound impact on the server, compromising the operating system remotely, providing a remote backdoor, snooping and exfiltrating raw network traffic and bypassing operating system firewalls to extract data or deliver ransomware.” reads the analysis published by the experts. “Such an attack could disconnect a server from a network upon a signal, disrupting connectivity for an entire data center,”

The attack chain demonstrated by the experts sees the attackers initially delivering a piece of malware to the targeted machine via email, a malicious website or an evil maid attack. The malware act as an attack vector used to load the tainted firmware onto a peripheral device that is not able to validate its origin and authenticity.

Experts pointed out that the difficulty in carrying out the attack depends on specific devices. For some devices, the firmware could be updated by unprivileged users, such as the case of the Sunplus webcam firmware.

The experts pointed out that on Linux and Windows it is necessary to implement a mechanism to verify the firmware signature before an update, while Apple devices mitigate implements a verification of the signature of the files in a driver package, including the firmware, every time it’s loaded on a device.

“The issue of unsigned firmware in peripheral devices is a widespread problem affecting a broad spectrum of brands and their ODM suppliers.” concludes the report. “Unsigned firmware in peripheral devices remains a highly overlooked aspect of cybersecurity. Depending on the capabilities of the component, unsigned firmware can lead to the loss of data, integrity, and privacy, and can allow attackers to gain privileges and hide from traditional security controls. Given the widespread nature of unsigned firmware, enterprises should scan their devices for any vulnerable components, and should assess the firmware posture of new devices during procurement.”

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – unsigned firmware, hacking)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Firmware Hacking hacking news it security news Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News The Hacking News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini August 21, 2025
Apple addressed the seventh actively exploited zero-day
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini August 21, 2025
Hackers deploy DripDropper via Apache ActiveMQ flaw, patch systems to evade detection
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Apple addressed the seventh actively exploited zero-day

    Security / August 21, 2025

    Hackers deploy DripDropper via Apache ActiveMQ flaw, patch systems to evade detection

    Malware / August 21, 2025

    A Scattered Spider member gets 10 years in prison

    Cyber Crime / August 21, 2025

    FBI: Russia-linked group Static Tundra exploit old Cisco flaw for espionage

    Intelligence / August 21, 2025

    US CERT/CC warns of flaws in Workhorse Software accounting software used by hundreds of municipalities in Wisconsin

    Security / August 21, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT