New Attack Vector Shows Dangers of S3 Sleep Mode
Two researchers at Black Hat Asia last month gave computers a reason to sleep with one eye open in their demo of "S3 Sleep," a new attack vector used to subvert the Intel Trusted eXecution Environment (TXT). A flaw in Intel TXT lets hackers compromise a machine as it wakes up.
Intel TXT is the hardware-based functionality that supports the dynamic root-of-trust measurement (DRTM) and validates the platform's trustworthiness during boot and launch. This attack targets trusted boot (tBoot), a reference implementation of Intel TXT normally used in server environments. tBoot is an open-source project that protects the virtual machine monitor (VMM) and operating system.
Senior security researcher Seunghun Han and security researcher Jun-Hyeok Park, both with the National Security Research Institute of South Korea, presented an exploit of the "Lost Pointer" vulnerability (CVE-2017-16837), a software flaw in tBoot. This specific attack vector has never been reported, the two said at Black Hat, and attackers only need root privilege to do it.
