UEFI flaws can be exploited to install highly persistent ransomware

Over the past few years, the world has seen ransomware threats advance from living inside browsers to operating systems, to the bootloader, and now to the low-level firmware that powers a computer's hardware components.

Earlier this year, a team of researchers from security vendor Cylance demonstrated a proof-of-concept ransomware program that ran inside a motherboard's Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) -- the modern BIOS.

On Friday, at the Black Hat Asia security conference, the team revealed how they did it: By exploiting vulnerabilities in the firmware of two models of ultra compact PCs from Taiwanese computer manufacturer Gigabyte Technology.

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