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Guru3D.com » News » Vulnerability in Thunderbolt allows unlimited memory access

Vulnerability in Thunderbolt allows unlimited memory access

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 03/04/2019 08:53 AM | source: lightbluetouchpaper | 17 comment(s)
Vulnerability in Thunderbolt allows unlimited memory access

A big Vulnerability in Thunderbolt has surfaced, the researches call it Thunderclap (Vulnerability these days need to have a fancy name for some sort of reason). The vulnerability allows direct memory access attacks, or simply DMA attacks, to be carried out, which ensure that an attacker has unrestricted access to the memory.

Thunderbolt peripherals and accessories are effectively considered to be trusted components of a computer, complete with direct memory access that can bypass operating system security policies, according to security researcher Theo Markettos. Thunderbolt offers devices "more privilege than regular USB devices," giving them more freedom and access to potentially sensitive information.

The researchers say that most modern laptops, as well as a number of desktop computers, are susceptible to being vulnerable to Thunderclap-based attacks which can be carried out either with specially built malicious peripheral devices or common devices such as projectors or chargers that have been altered to automatically attack the host they are connected to.  Even though most vendors have implemented Input-Output Memory Management Units (IOMMUs) designed to provide memory protection for DMA and block all memory access from unrecognized devices altogether.

In collaboration with the research team, OS vendors have also added Thunderclap mitigation measures to their platforms starting with 2016 but the measures are not 100% effective and security flaws still impact systems protected using IOMMU.

Thunderclap affects basically all operating systems—the researchers call out macOS, Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD—and all Macs released since 2011 other than the 12-inch MacBook, which has only USB-C. 

The researchers have published their finding here in this PDF.



Vulnerability in Thunderbolt allows unlimited memory access




« Microsoft to stop to support its Fitness Band and Health Dashboard apps in May · Vulnerability in Thunderbolt allows unlimited memory access · Video card sales again dropped compared to last year »

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longest
Member



Posts: 31
Joined: 2018-05-29

#5645985 Posted on: 03/04/2019 11:38 AM
hot take: nobody uses thunderbolt devices. less than 0.01% of pc users and less than 0.5% of mac users. thunderbolt is pcie, what did they expect? this has also been discovered years ago, why is it a thing again?

DeskStar
Senior Member



Posts: 1103
Joined: 2011-01-11

#5646032 Posted on: 03/04/2019 02:17 PM
hot take: nobody uses thunderbolt devices. less than 0.01% of pc users and less than 0.5% of mac users. thunderbolt is pcie, what did they expect? this has also been discovered years ago, why is it a thing again?


I personally never heard of it, so I'm glad it was spoken up about again.

Hardware vulnerabilities are a big thing these days and I truly never thought it would be this bad. Software is what i always thought was the mess up, but i guess even after the bios' being corrupted/attacked years ago it was only a matter of time.

longest
Member



Posts: 31
Joined: 2018-05-29

#5646041 Posted on: 03/04/2019 02:59 PM
I personally never heard of it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMA-attack

reix2x
Senior Member



Posts: 372
Joined: 2010-01-20

#5646049 Posted on: 03/04/2019 03:29 PM
if i have to chose a diabolic device, that red diabolic card looks the best!

schmidtbag
Senior Member



Posts: 5593
Joined: 2012-11-10

#5646057 Posted on: 03/04/2019 03:44 PM
With USB C becoming more common, TB is kinda obsolete these days anyway. I'm sure TB has better latency but not enough to be worth the vulnerabilities.

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