Training: Security of BIOS/UEFI System Firmware from Attacker and Defender Perspectives

This repository contains materials for a hands-on training Security of BIOS/UEFI System Firmware from Attacker and Defender Perspectives

A variety of attacks targeting system firmware have been discussed publicly, drawing attention to the pre-boot and firmware components of the platform such as BIOS and SMM, OS loaders and secure booting. This training will detail and organize objectives, attack vectors, vulnerabilities and exploits against various types of system firmware such as legacy BIOS, SMI handlers and UEFI based firmware, mitigations as well as tools and methods available to analyze security of such firmware components. It will also detail protections available in hardware and in firmware such as Secure Boot implemented by modern operating systems against bootkits.

The training includes theoretical material describing a structured approach to system firmware security analysis and mitigations as well as many hands-on exercises to test system firmware for vulnerabilities. After the training you should have basic understanding of platform hardware components and various types of system firmware, security objectives and attacks against system firmware, mitigations available in hardware and firmware. You should be able to apply this knowledge in practice to identify vulnerabilities in BIOS and perform forensic analysis of the firmware.

Materials

  • Module 0 Introduction to Firmware Security
  • Module 1 BIOS and UEFI Firmware Fundamentals
  • Module 2 Bootkits and UEFI Secure Boot
  • Module 3 Hands-On Platform Hardware and Firmware
  • Module 4 System Firmware Attack Vectors
  • Module 5 Hands-On EFI Environment
  • Module 6 Mitigations
  • Module 7 System Firmware Forensics
  • Miscellaneous Materials