{"id":15016,"date":"2025-09-10T16:41:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=15016"},"modified":"2025-09-11T12:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T19:13:08","slug":"firmware-ransomware-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=15016","title":{"rendered":"Firmware ransomware is here"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rapid7.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rapid7.com\/\">Rapid7 <\/a>cybersecurity expert <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rapid7.com\/blog\/author\/christiaan\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.rapid7.com\/blog\/author\/christiaan\/\">Chrstiaan Beek<\/a> has written proof-of-concept code for ransomware that can attack your CPU firmware &#8211; and warns of future threats that could lock your drive until a ransom is paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomshardware.com\/tag\/google\">Google<\/a>&#8216;s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomshardware.com\/tag\/security\">Security<\/a>&nbsp;Team previously identified a security vulnerability in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomshardware.com\/pc-components\/cpus\/you-can-now-jailbreak-your-amd-cpu-google-researchers-release-kit-to-exploit-microcode-vulnerability-in-zen-1-to-zen-4-chips\">AMD&#8217;s Zen 1 to Zen 4 CPUs<\/a>&nbsp;that allows users to load unsigned microcode patches. It later emerged that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomshardware.com\/pc-components\/cpus\/amds-microcode-vulnerability-also-affects-zen-5-cpus-granite-ridge-turin-ryzen-ai-300-and-fire-range-at-risk\">AMD Zen 5 CPUs are also affected by the vulnerability<\/a>. It can be fixed by a firmware update, but leaving a hole that allows the loading of unsigned microcode seems&#8230;like a very unfortunate laps of security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Links:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomshardware.com\/pc-components\/cpus\/worlds-first-cpu-level-ransomware-can-bypass-every-freaking-traditional-technology-we-have-out-there-new-firmware-based-attacks-could-usher-in-new-era-of-unavoidable-ransomware#xenforo-comments-3879481\">https:\/\/www.tomshardware.com\/pc-components\/cpus\/worlds-first-cpu-level-ransomware-can-bypass-every-freaking-traditional-technology-we-have-out-there-new-firmware-based-attacks-could-usher-in-new-era-of-unavoidable-ransomware#xenforo-comments-3879481<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rapid7 cybersecurity expert Chrstiaan Beek has written proof-of-concept code for ransomware that can attack your CPU firmware &#8211; and warns of future threats that could lock your drive until a ransom is paid. Google&#8216;s&nbsp;Security&nbsp;Team previously identified a security vulnerability in&nbsp;AMD&#8217;s Zen 1 to Zen 4 CPUs&nbsp;that allows users to load unsigned microcode patches. It later emerged that&nbsp;AMD Zen 5 CPUs are also affected by the vulnerability. It can be fixed by a firmware update, but leaving a hole that allows&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=15016\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cool"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4WECr-3Uc","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15016"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15134,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15016\/revisions\/15134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}