In recent days Intel released a considerable amount of update patches to correct various vulnerabilities that could allow remote code execution in compromised systems, reports an ethical hacking training expert from the International Institute of Cyber Security.
The company launched some security alerts to
inform its users of the potential risks. According to the ethical hacking
training expert, a group of corrected vulnerabilities affects the Converging
Management and Security Engine (CSME), server platform services, reliable
execution engine, and active management technology (AMT).
These implementations run at such a low level
on the hardware stack that suspicious activity sometimes goes unnoticed for the
anti-malware software. Vulnerabilities would allow escalating privileges, sensitive
information leaking, or even generating denial-of-service
conditions, mentions Intel.
Within this group are 12 vulnerabilities, 5
identified as critical. Of these high severity errors, only the identified as
CVE-2018-12187 is remotely executable; this is a denial-of-service
vulnerability based on insufficient validation in Intel AMT, mention the
specialists.
Two of the vulnerabilities considered critical
require that attackers have local access, in other words, they must log into
the compromised machine so that the victim interacts with the malicious file. These
vulnerabilities (tracked as CVE-2018-12190 and CVE-2018-12200) could allow for
escalation of privileges and loss of control over the compromised device.
A second set of patches solved some bugs in the
Windows 10 graphics drivers that could generate denial of service conditions,
information leaking and execution problems, mentions the ethical hacking training
expert.
This second group of patches corrected 19
vulnerabilities, two of which were considered critical. The most serious
security errors are derived from memory corruption and insufficient input
validation on the Intel kernel mode controller. Other warnings issued by Intel
referred to critical firmware vulnerability (CVE-2018-12204) that enables
arbitrary code execution.
On the other hand, Lenovo issued updates to
implement many of these Intel corrections in its own products a few days after
Intel launched its updates.
