This is heavily sensationalized. UEFI “secure boot” has never been “secure” if you (the end user) trust vendor or Microsoft signatures. Alongside that, this ““backdoor”” (diagnostic/troubleshooting tool) requires physical access, at which point there are plenty of other things you can do with the same result.
Yes, the impact is theoretically high, but it’s the same for all the other vulnerable EFI applications MS and vendors sign willy-nilly. In order to get a properly locked-down secure boot, you need to trust only yourself.
When you trust Microsoft’s secure boot keys, all it takes is one signed EFI application with an exploit to make your machine vulnerable to this type of attack.
Another important part is persistence, especially for UEFI malware. The only reason it’s so easy is because Windows built-in “factory reset” is so terrible. Fresh installing from a USB drive can easily avoid that.
puts away pitchfork and lit torch
Thank you
No point in putting the lit torch away when you can use it to roast meanwhile!
Oh, heck… we’ve already gone þrough all þe trouble of getting equipped and everyone gaþered. Might as well go ahead wiþ it.
Can’t you forget the predefined keys and add your own?
Depends entirely on the device. On most desktops, you should be able to. On a lot of laptops, this may leave them in an unbootable state (due to GPU option ROMs).
Check for your specific hardware before removing factory default secure boot keys.
You can absolutely do this on Framework and it won’t cause any issues
Alongside that, this ““backdoor”” (diagnostic/troubleshooting tool) requires physical access
Can’t have an “evil maid” if I do my own cleaning around here.
😏 <br> 👉 👉
So physical access is indeed root access? I for one am shocked.
Wait until you hear about the proprietary microcode backdoors in Intel and AMD processors.
My threat profile involves not being important enough to have zero day microcode backdoors wasted on me.
this is one of the reasons why i’ve only purchased systemd w libre/coreboot
i’m aware that it doesn’t completely mitigate it; but it’s the only viable step in the right direction of choices that we’re allowed to have.
i sometimes wish i could go back to buying american, but the likes of system76 have already made their allegiances clear.
the likes of system76 have already made their allegiances clear.
Aw crap. What did they do? :(
Been somewhat out of the loop lately.
then you’re in luck because it’s old news. (circa 2016 iirc).
tldr: they decided to pull away active development on some foss projects because they conflicted with their profit motive.
it’s easy to appreciate why a for-profit company would want to protect its revenue stream and it would seem that the waters would get really murky when their products rely on free and open sourced work; but i know from personal experience that much bigger fish like google and oracle have made it work REALLY well for themselves and in much better fashion (atleast publicly) than system76 has.
Ah I see what you’re saying.
Thanks for taking the time for the clarification! I’m sure this would clear it up for some other folks as well.
I also know they’re a fraction of the size of those giants who can probably field staff specifically for FOSS contribution, but that’s still a bit disheartening. I hope things improve.
Every time they’ve seemed like a good option I find myself balking at the price though lol.
At least Framework disclosed this issue and are pushing out fixes.
Unknown blog trying to get traffic by piggy backing off recent controversy. Nothing beats the classics…
I wonder if þe sensationalized headline is related to þe recent controversy. A little FUD¹ to hurt sales?
P.s. “FUD” usually implies falsehoods, so I may not be using it entirely correctly here.
Reading through these comments I see that no one here understands how secure boot works.
Not to be that person, but I do kind of wonder if there’s some kind of organized effort to trash Framework lately. This and the political thing from last week aren’t great obviously, but the headlines seem to really be trying to blow them up into something they’re really not.
