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Every technique
T1495Detection written

Firmware Corruption

ImpactLinux, macOS, Network Devices, Windows

Where this stands

One published detection covers this technique. Every one is unverified — no rule on Siemphony has been executed against real telemetry.

What the technique is

Adversaries may overwrite or corrupt the flash memory contents of system BIOS or other firmware in devices attached to a system in order to render them inoperable or unable to boot, thus denying the availability to use the devices and/or the system. Firmware is software that is loaded and executed from non-volatile memory on hardware devices in order to initialize and manage device functionality. These devices may include the motherboard, hard drive, or video cards. In general, adversaries may manipulate, overwrite, or corrupt firmware in order to deny the use of the system or devices. For example, corruption of firmware responsible for loading the operating system for network devices may render the network devices inoperable. Depending on the device, this attack may also result in Data Destruction.

Read it on attack.mitre.org

What MITRE says you would watch

  • AN0474

    Firmware flash utility invoked with elevated privileges followed by raw access to firmware device path or changes to boot configuration.

  • AN0475

    Direct write access to /dev/mem or /sys/firmware combined with usage of firmware flashing utilities (e.g., flashrom).

  • AN0476

    EFI updates executed via system processes or binaries outside of expected patch windows or using unsigned firmware packages.

Technique names and descriptions © MITRE ATT&CK®, CC BY 4.0. Not endorsed by MITRE.