Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Submission Preview

Link to Story

Microsoft will take nearly a year to finish patching new 0-day Secure Boot bug

Accepted submission by Freeman at 2023-05-12 16:31:02 from the out with the old in with the new dept.
News

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/microsoft-patches-secure-boot-flaw-but-wont-enable-fix-by-default-until-early-2024/ [arstechnica.com]

Earlier this week, Microsoft released a patch to fix a Secure Boot bypass bug used by the BlackLotus bootkit [arstechnica.com] we reported on in March. The original vulnerability, CVE-2022-21894 [microsoft.com], was patched in January, but the new patch for CVE-2023-24932 [microsoft.com] addresses another actively exploited workaround for systems running Windows 10 and 11 and Windows Server versions going back to Windows Server 2008.

The BlackLotus bootkit is the first-known real-world malware that can bypass Secure Boot protections, allowing for the execution of malicious code before your PC begins loading Windows and its many security protections. Secure Boot has been enabled by default for over a decade on most Windows PCs sold by companies like Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, and others. PCs running Windows 11 must have it enabled to meet the software's system requirements.
[...]
Additionally, once the fixes have been enabled, your PC will no longer be able to boot from older bootable media that doesn't include the fixes. On the lengthy list of affected media [microsoft.com]: Windows install media like DVDs and USB drives created from Microsoft's ISO files; custom Windows install images maintained by IT departments; full system backups; network boot drives including those used by IT departments to troubleshoot machines and deploy new Windows images; stripped-down boot drives that use Windows PE [microsoft.com]; and the recovery media sold with OEM PCs.

I.E.: You will have to turn "Secure Boot" off in order to install Linux, probably.


Original Submission