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UEFI Flaw Enables Early-Boot DMA Attacks on Multiple Motherboard Vendors

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2 unique sources, 2 articles

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A security vulnerability in UEFI implementations on motherboards from ASRock, ASUS, GIGABYTE, and MSI allows early-boot DMA attacks. The flaw, discovered by researchers at Riot Games, occurs due to a discrepancy in DMA protection status, where the firmware indicates DMA protection is active but fails to enable the IOMMU during the boot phase. This gap allows malicious PCIe devices with physical access to read or modify system memory before the operating system's security features are established. The vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2025-14304, CVE-2025-11901, CVE-2025-14302, and CVE-2025-14303, affect various chipset series from the mentioned vendors. Successful exploitation could enable pre-boot code injection and access to sensitive data. Vendors have released firmware updates to address the issue, and users are advised to apply these updates promptly. The vulnerability was discovered by Riot Games researchers Nick Peterson and Mohamed Al-Sharifi, who worked with CERT Taiwan to coordinate a response. On vulnerable systems, some Riot Games titles, such as Valorant, will not launch due to the Vanguard system, which blocks the game to ensure system integrity.

Timeline

  1. 19.12.2025 10:25 2 articles · 9h ago

    UEFI Flaw Enables Early-Boot DMA Attacks on Multiple Motherboard Vendors

    A security vulnerability in UEFI implementations on motherboards from ASRock, ASUS, GIGABYTE, and MSI allows early-boot DMA attacks. The flaw, discovered by researchers at Riot Games, occurs due to a discrepancy in DMA protection status, where the firmware indicates DMA protection is active but fails to enable the IOMMU during the boot phase. This gap allows malicious PCIe devices with physical access to read or modify system memory before the operating system's security features are established. The vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2025-14304, CVE-2025-11901, CVE-2025-14302, and CVE-2025-14303, affect various chipset series from the mentioned vendors. Successful exploitation could enable pre-boot code injection and access to sensitive data. Vendors have released firmware updates to address the issue, and users are advised to apply these updates promptly. The vulnerability was discovered by Riot Games researchers Nick Peterson and Mohamed Al-Sharifi, who worked with CERT Taiwan to coordinate a response. On vulnerable systems, some Riot Games titles, such as Valorant, will not launch due to the Vanguard system, which blocks the game to ensure system integrity.

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