Intel issues mitigation for another CPU vulnerability

Earlier this month, Intel disclosed details about a new vulnerability in its CPUs that enables local attackers to alter or delete the BIOS firmware. To the best of Intel's knowledge, the vulnerability isn't exploited in the wild. Mitigation is known and available, it's up to the motherboard makers or system builders to implement the CPU microcode updates via a UEFI update.

The following CPUs are vulnerable:

8th generation Intel® Core™ Processors

7th generation Intel® Core™ Processors

6th generation Intel® Core™ Processors

5th generation Intel® Core™ Processors

Intel® Pentium® and Celeron® Processor N3520, N2920, and N28XX

Intel® Atom™ Processor x7-Z8XXX, x5-8XXX Processor Family

Intel® Pentium™ Processor J3710 and N37XX

Intel® Celeron™ Processor J3XXX

Intel® Atom™ x5-E8000 Processor

Intel® Pentium® Processor J4205 and N4200

Intel® Celeron® Processor J3455, J3355, N3350, and N3450

Intel® Atom™ Processor x7-E39XX Processor

Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors

Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 v6 Family

Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 v5 Family

Intel® Xeon® Processor E7 v4 Family

Intel® Xeon® Processor E7 v3 Family

Intel® Xeon® Processor E7 v2 Family

Intel® Xeon® Phi™ Processor x200

Intel® Xeon® Processor D Family

Intel® Atom™ Processor C Series

The announcement flew under the radar. One of the first companies to patch the hole is Lenovo. Their advisory reads that an attacker could exploit this vulnerability to prevent a system from booting, to cause it to operate in an unusual way, or to execute arbitrary code during the system boot process.

On a somewhat related note, there's also a non-security related bug in the Intel Atom E3800 "Bay Trail" processors. This errata can cause LPC circuitry to stop functioning, which can cause operation to cease or inability to boot. This sounds awfully similar to the problems with the Atom C2000 series!