Dozens of Gigabyte motherboard fashions run on UEFI firmware weak to safety points that permit planting bootkit malware that’s invisible to the working system and may survive reinstalls.
The vulnerabilities might permit attackers with native or distant admin permissions to execute arbitrary code in System Administration Mode (SMM), an surroundings remoted from the working system (OS) and with extra privileges on the machine.
Mechanisms working code beneath the OS have low-level {hardware} entry and provoke at boot time. Due to this, malware in these environments can bypass conventional safety defenses on the system.
UEFI, or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, firmware is safer as a result of Safe Boot characteristic that ensures by way of cryptographic verifications {that a} system makes use of at boot time code that’s secure and trusted.
Because of this, UEFI-level malware like bootkits (BlackLotus, CosmicStrand, MosaicAggressor, MoonBounce, LoJax) can deploy malicious code at each boot.
Loads of motherboards impacted
The 4 vulnerabilities are in Gigabyte firmware implementations and had been found by researchers at firmware safety firm Binarly, who shared their findings with Carnegie Mellon College’s CERT Coordination Heart (CERT/CC).
The unique firmware provider is American Megatrends Inc. (AMI), which addressed the problems after a personal disclosure however some OEM firmware builds (e.g. Gigabyte’s) didn’t implement the fixes on the time.
In Gigabyte firmware implementations, Binarly discovered the next vulnerabilities, all with a high-severity rating of 8.2:
CVE-2025-7029: bug in an SMI handler (OverClockSmiHandler) that may result in SMM privilege escalation
CVE-2025-7028: bug in an SMI handler (SmiFlash) provides learn/write entry to the System Administration RAM (SMRAM), which may result in malware set up
CVE-2025-7027: can result in SMM privilege escalation and modifying the firmware by writing arbitrary content material to SMRAM
CVE-2025-7026: permits arbitrary writes to SMRAM and may result in privilege escalation to SMM and chronic firmware compromise
By our depend, there are a bit of greater than 240 motherboard fashions impacted – together with revisions, variants, and region-specific editions, with firmware up to date between late 2023 and mid-August 2024.
BleepingComputer reached out to Binarly for an official depend and an organization consultant instructed us that “over 100 product strains are affected.”
Merchandise from different enterprise system distributors are additionally impacted by the 4 vulnerabilities however their names stay undisclosed till fixes change into accessible.
Binarly researchers notified Carnegie Mellon CERT/CC concerning the points on April 15 and Gigabyte confirmed the vulnerabilities on June 12, adopted by the discharge of firmware updates, based on CERT/CC.
Nevertheless, the OEM has not revealed a safety bulletin concerning the safety issues that Binarly reported. BleepingComputer has emailed the {hardware} vendor a request for remark however we’re nonetheless ready for his or her response.
In the meantime, Binarly founder and CEO Alex Matrosov instructed BleepingComputer that Gigabyte more than likely hasn’t launched fixes. With most of the merchandise already having reached end-of-life, customers shouldn’t count on to obtain any safety updates.
“As a result of all these 4 vulnerabilities originated from AMI reference code, AMI disclosed these vulnerabilities some time in the past with their silent disclosure to paid prospects solely underneath NDA, and it prompted vital results for years on the downstream distributors once they stayed weak and unpatched” – Alex Matrosov
“Evidently Gigabyte has not launched any fixes but, and most of the affected gadgets have reached end-of-life standing, which means they’ll possible stay weak indefinitely.”
Whereas the danger for basic customers is admittedly low, these in essential environments can assess the precise threat with Binarly’s Threat Hunt scanner instrumentwhich incorporates free detection for the 4 vulnerabilities.
Computer systems from numerous OEMs utilizing Gigabyte motherboards could also be weak, so customers are suggested to watch for firmware updates and apply them promptly.
UPDATE (July 14th, 13:23 EST): Article up to date with remark from Binarly saying that the 4 vulnerabilities have an effect on greater than 100 motherboards, and that merchandise from different distributors are impacted.
Replace (July fifteenth, 02:15 EST): Gigabyte revealed a safety bulletin after we revealed this text, overlaying three of the 4 vulnerabilities Binarly found.
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