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Posted by DamnInteresting 12 hours ago

Code-execution flaw in UEFI firmware threatens most servers on planet Earth(arstechnica.com)
120 points | 45 commentspage 2
saidnooneever 10 hours ago|
so how many firmwares actually compile in this ICMP stuff? because edk2 builds in a way that it will only package the stuff actually used. u include protocola and handles etc.

personally never found a reason why to include icmp in there for what i was building using edk2.

as others noted pxe is also already very fragile and enough network access to perform the icmp attack is likely enough access to mitm the entire pxe run and slap in your own boot image or modules etc.

i dont think most servers boot using PXE so that is grossly overstated? or would it include the attacker going into the boot menu and selecting to pxe boot... because why use an exploit then if you can just point it to your own server and again pull the image like that.

all u need is a konboot or similar tool inserted to then subsequently load the original image -_-

Jhsto 5 hours ago|
Suppose the server only boots signed images created by itself, which the PXE server happens to serve. You cannot just switch or mess with the menu. But if you can exploit the boot chain before any Secure Boot components run, then you might find your way in.
userbinator 4 hours ago||
Another breathless fearmongering. "threatens"? No, I don't think network booting is even all that common outside of extremely niche scenarios.

Instead, it applies only to organizations with machines that boot from local networks, or conceivably from Internet-connected resources.

Who is PXE-booting over the open Internet!?

tptacek 3 hours ago||
Several large bare-metal hosting companies. Not over the open Internet, but that doesn't matter if the management networks are shared and the price of admission a single server rental.
kg 2 hours ago|||
> No, I don't think network booting is even all that common outside of extremely niche scenarios.

It's incredibly common though? I've run across it and I work on games and client software, not server stuff.

loeg 55 minutes ago||
> Another breathless fearmongering.

It's Ars; you come to expect it.

Pavilion2095 1 hour ago|
Not only this is clickbait, they want me to solve a captcha in order to open it. What a trash website.
timbaboon 1 hour ago||
They had a massive amount of bot attacks recently. That captcha wasn’t always there, but the website became so slow as to be unusable. That captcha only surfaces from certain countries. It comes up far, far less frequently than it did a few weeks ago
lopis 1 hour ago||
Clearly you don't work on anything on the Web in 2026, if you're complaining about a captcha.