https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/05/thunderspy-what-is-is-why-its-not-scary-and-what-to-do-about-it/
By Dan Goodin
Ars Technica
May 12, 2020
There’s a new attack that uses off-the-shelf equipment to take full control of
a PC—even when locked—if a hacker gets just a few minutes alone with it. The
vector is a familiar one: the Thunderbolt ultrafast interface connects graphics
cards, storage systems, and other peripherals to millions of computers.
The hack, which took years to develop, is elegant. Its adept mix of
cryptanalysis, reverse engineering, and exploit development punches a major
hole in defenses that Thunderbolt creator Intel spent considerable time and
resources to erect. Ultimately, though, the technique is an incremental advance
in an attack that has existed for more than a decade. While the weakness it
exploits is real and should be closed, the vast majority of people—think 99
percent—shouldn’t worry about it. More about that later. For now, here are the
bare-bones details.
Accessing Memory Lane
Thunderspy, as its creator Björn Ruytenberg has named the attack, in most cases
requires the attacker to remove the screws from the computer casing.
From there, the attacker locates the Thunderbolt chip and connects a clip,
which in turn is connected to a series of commodity components—priced about
$600—which is connected to an attacker laptop. These devices analyze the
current Thunderbolt firmware and then reflash it with a version that’s largely
the same except that it disables any of the Intel-developed security features
that are turned on.
[...]
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