● Importantworld1 outlet covering thisCalibrating

Microsoft’s Secure Boot has been broken for a decade and no one noticed until now

First publishedJul 14, 22:20 UTC
Last updatedJul 15, 01:36 UTC · 6m ago
11 outletArs Technica
1 outlets over time — hover a bar for its window & outletslast updated
Microsoft’s Secure Boot has been broken for a decade and no one noticed until now
● Story signals

How strong is this topic?

6.2/10Significanceimpact & urgency
7.0/10Source trustoutlet authority
1Outletsindependent sources

Significance weighs impact, urgency & coverage breadth · Source trust is the outlets' average authority · more outlets means a more confirmed story.

Answer

An industry-wide standard Microsoft invented to protect Windows, and later Linux, devices from firmware infections has been trivial to bypass for 13 of its 14 years of existence. The discovery was made by researchers at security firm ESET after identifying 11 firmware images, at least one from 2013, that were known to be defective but remained signed by the software company anyway.

Reported by 1 outlet Ars Technica. See all sources ↓

An industry-wide standard Microsoft invented to protect Windows, and later Linux, devices from firmware infections has been trivial to bypass for 13 of its 14 years of existence. The discovery was made by researchers at security firm ESET after identifying 11 firmware images, at least one from 2013, that were known to be defective but remained signed by the software company anyway. The images are known as shims, which were invented to extend Secure Boot to Linux devices and utility software. Using a technique simple enough to be performed by novice hackers, these old, forgotten shims can be used to completely circumvent the protection, which is embedded into the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) of the device's motherboard.

Read the full report at Ars Technica

Why it matters

A world story we're tracking; its significance and source trust firm up as more outlets confirm it.

In brief
What's the story?
An industry-wide standard Microsoft invented to protect Windows, and later Linux, devices from firmware infections has been trivial to bypass for 13 of its 14 years of existence. The discovery was made by researchers at security firm ESET after identifying 11 firmware images, at least one from 2013, that were known to be defective but remained signed by the software company anyway.
How widely is it covered?
1 outlet, average source rating 7.0/10.
When was it last updated?
6m ago.
Different angles across outlets
Coverage map

How outlets are framing the same story

Here's how each outlet is covering the story — compare their headlines and timing at a glance.

  • Coverage card1 outlet
    1Coverage
    Scouting report

    Microsoft’s Secure Boot has been broken for a decade and no one noticed until now

    Sources1
    TypeCoverage
    Ars Technica
Related in the knowledge graph
Sources (1)
Avg source rating 7.0/10
Processing cluster
A1A2A3B1B2B3
Share this article
Summarize with AI (opens AI chat with article URL · Gemini: prompt copied to clipboard)