search menu icon-carat-right cmu-wordmark
Carnegie Mellon University

Software Engineering Institute

CERT Coordination Center

UEFI EDK2 Capsule Update vulnerabilities

Vulnerability Note VU#552286

Original Release Date: 2014-08-07 | Last Revised: 2015-10-22

Overview

The EDK2 UEFI reference implementation contains multiple vulnerabilities in the Capsule Update mechanism.

Description

The open source EDK2 project provides a reference implementation of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). Researchers at The MITRE Corporation have discovered multiple vulnerabilities in the EDK2 Capsule Update mechanism. Commercial UEFI implementations may incorporate portions of the EDK2 source code, including the vulnerable Capsule Update code.

Buffer overflow in Capsule Processing Phase - CVE-2014-4859
During the Drive Execution Environment (DXE) phase of the UEFI boot process, the contents of the capsule image are parsed during processing. An integer overflow vulnerability exists in the capsule processing phase that can cause the allocation of a buffer to be unexpectedly small. As a result, attacker-controlled data can be written past the bounds of the buffer.

Write-what-where condition in Coalescing Phase - CVE-2014-4860
During the Pre-EFI Initialization (PEI) phase of the UEFI boot process, the capsule update is coalesced into its original form. Multiple integer overflow vulnerabilities exist in the coalescing phase that can be used to trigger a write-what-where condition.

For more details, please refer to MITRE's vulnerability note.

Impact

A local authenticated attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of system firmware, potentially allowing for persistent firmware level rootkits, bypassing of Secure Boot, or permanently DoS'ing the platform.

Solution

Please see the Vendor Information section below to determine if your system may be affected. We are continuing to communicate with vendors as they investigate these vulnerabilities.

Vendor Information

552286
 
Expand all

American Megatrends Incorporated (AMI) Affected

Notified:  July 22, 2014 Updated: August 01, 2014

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

AMI has addressed the issue on a generic basis and is working with OEMs to implement fixes for projects in the field and production. End users should contact their board manufacturer for information on when a specific updated BIOS will be available.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Apple Inc. Affected

Notified:  July 22, 2014 Updated: October 22, 2015

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Vendor References

Dell Computer Corporation, Inc. Affected

Notified:  July 22, 2014 Updated: October 28, 2014

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

The security of our systems and customer information is a top priority for Dell. Dell is aware of the recent security concerns that MITRE published, and is reviewing these claims against our products. Dell will take appropriate action to resolve any security related issues found on our products and provide updates to our customers.

The vulnerability outlined by MITRE is not a Dell specific issue, but instead is a larger industry issue. An exploit of this vulnerability would have to be executed on a UEFI installed OS and executed under administrative privileges with driver-level access. Dell recommends that our customers use best security practices and lock down system admin modes as a standard part of their security process.

BIOS Details

Client Solutions (CS) commercial platforms do not use the UEFI code described in the MITRE vulnerability report during any BIOS or firmware update. The code exists in some client systems in a dormant state and may be discovered through binary analysis. Updated BIOS code has been developed to further quarantine this code during the boot process to mitigate any potential for indirect exploit. A list of BIOS update patches is included below for planning purposes and BIOS revisions are included (subject to change):


Dell SystemBIOS UpdateRelease Planned
Latitude 13 (3340)A03Oct-14
Latitude 6430UA09Oct-14
Latitude E5440/E5540A09Nov-14
Latitude E5530/E5430A15Oct-14
Latitude E6230/E6330/E6430SA14Oct-14
Latitude E6530A16Oct-14
Latitude E6430A16Oct-14
Latitude E6440A09Nov-14
Latitude E6540A12Nov-14
Latitude E7240/E7440A12Nov-14
OptiPlex 3010A13Nov-14
OptiPlex 3011 AIOA06Oct-14
OptiPlex 3020A05Oct-14
OptiPlex 7010/9010A19Oct-14
OptiPlex 7020/9020A08Oct-14
OptiPlex 9010 AIOA16Oct-14
OptiPlex 9020 AIOA09Oct-14
Precision Mobile Workstation M4700A13Oct-14
Precision Mobile Workstation M6700A14Oct-14
Precision Workstation R7610A08Nov-14
Precision Workstation T1650A18Nov-14
Precision Workstation T1700A11Oct-14
Precision Workstation T3610/T5610/T7610A09Nov-14
Precision Workstation M6800/M4800A11Nov-14
PowerEdge Server T20A06Nov-14
Venue 11 Pro (5130-32Bit)A09Oct-14
Venue 11 Pro (5130-64Bit)A02Oct-14
Venue 11 Pro (7130/7139)A13Oct-14
Venue 8 Pro (5830)A09Oct-14

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Hewlett-Packard Company Affected

Notified:  July 09, 2014 Updated: August 12, 2014

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

Hewlett-Packard has released a list of affected systems.

Lenovo Affected

Notified:  July 22, 2014 Updated: October 02, 2014

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

Lenovo advises customers to view their advisory for more details.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Vendor References

Phoenix Technologies Ltd. Affected

Notified:  July 22, 2014 Updated: October 28, 2014

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

"These issues affected our currently shipping SCT3 products and were fixed as of May 23, 2014, and the updates were promptly provided to our customers. We verified that our new SCT4 product is not affected by these issues."

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

IBM Corporation Not Affected

Notified:  July 22, 2014 Updated: July 28, 2015

Statement Date:   October 30, 2014

Status

Not Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Insyde Software Corporation Not Affected

Notified:  July 22, 2014 Updated: February 03, 2015

Status

Not Affected

Vendor Statement

"Insyde has reviewed the Insyde BIOS code and believes that our Capsule Update implementation is not affected by this vulnerability. However some customers might have enabled the TianoCore implementation of Capsule Update. For this reason, Insyde did update to the latest available TianoCore implementation of Capsule Update.

OEM and ODM customers are advised to contact their Insyde support representative for documentation and assistance.

End users are advised to contact the manufacturer of their equipment."

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Intel Corporation Not Affected

Notified:  December 03, 2013 Updated: September 19, 2014

Status

Not Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

NEC Corporation Unknown

Notified:  July 22, 2014 Updated: July 22, 2014

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor References

    Sony Corporation Unknown

    Notified:  July 22, 2014 Updated: July 22, 2014

    Status

    Unknown

    Vendor Statement

    We have not received a statement from the vendor.

    Vendor References

      Toshiba Unknown

      Notified:  July 22, 2014 Updated: July 22, 2014

      Status

      Unknown

      Vendor Statement

      We have not received a statement from the vendor.

      Vendor References

        View all 12 vendors View less vendors


        CVSS Metrics

        Group Score Vector
        Base 6 AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C
        Temporal 5.4 E:POC/RL:ND/RC:C
        Environmental 7.3 CDP:MH/TD:H/CR:ND/IR:H/AR:ND

        References

        Acknowledgements

        Thanks to Corey Kallenberg, Xeno Kovah, John Butterworth, and Sam Cornwell of the MITRE Corporation for reporting this vulnerability. Thanks also goes to Intel's Advanced Threat Research and Security Center of Excellence for assisting with industry notification and coordination.

        This document was written by Todd Lewellen.

        Other Information

        CVE IDs: CVE-2014-4859, CVE-2014-4860
        Date Public: 2014-08-07
        Date First Published: 2014-08-07
        Date Last Updated: 2015-10-22 16:04 UTC
        Document Revision: 42

        Sponsored by CISA.

        Download PGP Key

        Read CERT/CC Blog

        Learn about Vulnerability Analysis