A critical set of 20 vulnerabilities in GRUB2, the ubiquitous bootloader underpinning most Linux distributions and Unix-like systems, has exposed millions of devices to potential secure boot bypass, remote code execution, and persistent firmware-level attacks. The vulnerabilities, discovered during a proactive code audit led by Daniel Kiper and security researchers from Red Hat, Oracle, and SUSE, exploit GRUB2’s role as the first software layer executed during system startup. For instance, CVE-2025-0624 enables remote code execution via DHCP server responses during network booting, allowing attackers within the same network segment to inject malicious payloads into pre-boot memory. Canonical’s discourse thread confirms similar threats to Ubuntu’s Secure Boot implementation, including CVE-2020-27779’s memory region manipulation via the cutmem command. Cyber Security News is a Dedicated News Platform For Cyber News, Cyber Attack News, Hacking News & Vulnerability Analysis. Attackers could overwrite boot measurements in TPM registers or modify kernel command lines to disable security policies. However, legacy systems using unsigned GRUB modules or custom Secure Boot keys remain vulnerable.
This Cyber News was published on cybersecuritynews.com. Publication date: Wed, 26 Feb 2025 14:40:23 +0000