VAR-201707-1049
Vulnerability from variot - Updated: 2025-04-20 23:32Intense PC Phoenix SecureCore UEFI firmware does not perform capsule signature validation before upgrading the system firmware. The absence of signature validation allows an attacker with administrator privileges to flash a modified UEFI BIOS. Intense PC Phoenix SecureCore UEFI The firmware contains a vulnerability related to input validation.Information is obtained, information is altered, and service operation is disrupted (DoS) There is a possibility of being put into a state. CompuLabIntensePC is a mini PC device from CompuLab, Israel. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to read and write to any system firmware. Credits: Hal Martin Website: watchmysys.com Source: https://watchmysys.com/blog/2017/07/cve-2017-9457-compulab-intense-pc-lacks-firmware-validation/
Vendor:
CompuLab (compulab.com)
Product:
Intense PC / MintBox 2
Vulnerability type:
Platform lacks signature verification and does not validate firmware update before flashing
CVE Reference:
CVE-2017-9457
Summary:
Since 2013 CompuLab manufactures and sells the Intense PC (also sold under the name "MintBox 2"), which is a small Intel-based fanless PC sold to end-users and industrial customers. No timeline was provided to implement capsule signature verification.
Affected versions:
All firmware versions since product release (latest public firmware is 21 May 2017)
Attack Vector:
An attacker tricks the user into running a malicious executable with local administrator privileges, which updates the system firmware to include the attacker's code. The attacker may instead use a known OS exploit to perform the upgrade remotely (without user interaction or notification).
Proof of concept:
I have created a modified firmware update which replaces the stock UEFI shell with the UEFI shell from EDK2. The update can be flashed from within Windows without any user interaction or notification. Firmware updates are not signed by CompuLab or verified by the existing firmware before upgrade.
The modified update, based on the 21 May 2017 firmware, can be downloaded here: https://watchmysys.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/update-IPC-20170521-edk2.zip
Details of the full proof of concept can be found at the Source link above.
Mitigation:
At this time there is no means for the end user to enable Capsule Signature verification or to prevent the Phoenix update utility from updating the system firmware.
Therefore Intense PC owners should consider the following options:
- Ensure your operating system is up to date with the latest security patches. Do not run software from untrusted sources.
- Do not connect your Intense PC to any networks with internet access (i.e. air-gap the computer).
Disclosure timeline:
6 June 2017: Issue reported to CompuLab 6 June 2017: CompuLab confirms that aDefault settings of this source tree [Phoenix SecureCore Tiano Enhanced Intel Ivy Bridge CPU Panther Point M] has disabled Capsule Signature option.a 6 June 2017: Issue is reported to MITRE 6 June 2017: Vulnerability is assigned CVE-2017-9457 7 June 2017: CompuLab are informed that the vulnerability has been assigned CVE-2017-9457 and details of the vulnerability will be published after 45 days 22 July 2017: Details of the vulnerability are published
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Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.