Intel CPU Privilege Escalation Exploit

Eukariote writes "A paper and exploit code detailing a privilege escalation attack on Intel CPUs has just been published. The vulnerability, uncovered by security researchers Joanna Rutkowska (of Blue Pill fame), Rafal Wojtczuk, and, independently, Loic Duflot, makes use of Intel's System Management Mode (SMM). Quote: "The attack allows for privilege escalation from Ring 0 to the SMM on many recent motherboards with Intel CPUs. Rafal implemented a working exploit with code execution in SMM." The implications of this exploit are severe."

Comments

Re:Doesn't seem that scary

[sjames]

It's much worse, when combined with a firmware re-write, it will survive a complete re-install and cannot be detected by a security scan booted from CDROM.

Re:CD Boot

[antifoidulus]

While you succeed at being snarky, you fail at being correct.

Dude, I think you came up with a new motto for slashdot!