Critical NTFS bug in Windows 10 can corrupt HDD/SSD filesystem

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 01/15/2021 11:39 AM | source: hardware.info | 31 comment(s)

Let me start off by declaring, DO NOT try to replicate/attempt what we write here in this article as it's very dangerous. A new vulnerability in Windows 10 has been detected, in specific if you have an NTFS formatted HDD/SSD.

And yes, NTFS if what pretty much everybody uses in Windows 10. Explained in its most simple essence the bug envokes triggering the filesystem/volume on a storage unit (NTFS formatted) to become corrupt. All you need to do is type one command line, and you can do so with limited privileges meaning you do not need to be an admin. And that by itself makes this a big vulnerability. Do NOT try this yourself! You have been warned:

Running this one command line causes hard drive errors that immediately corrupt the file system. The user is thereby forced to restart the computer to repair the damaged file system. The issue was found by infosec researcher Jonas L. A disk can be corrupted simply by accessing the $ i30 NTFS attribute in a folder. The command line shown below the precise example command that can damage the file system of a disk. The Windows ntfs index attribute, or $ i30 string, is associated with a directory that contains a list of files and subfolders of a folder. In some cases, the ntfs index may also contain deleted files and folders, which can be useful for sending the problem report to Microsoft. It is unclear why access to this attribute damages the disk, Jonas betokens that a registry key that would help diagnose the problem is not working. After running the command in Windows 10 command prompt and pressing Enter, the user will see an error message saying "The file or folder is corrupt and cannot be read." Windows 10 will immediately start displaying notifications asking the user to restart their PC and recover the damaged disk volume. On reboot, disk check is performed to repair the hard disk, reports Dutch website Hardware Info, who's source was securitynewspaper.

The vulnerability was discovered around the Windows 10 April 2018 update and has not been resolved to this day. according to a spokesperson for Microsoft, a solution is being worked on as soon as possible.

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