Chrrstiaan Beek of Rapid7 wrote the concept code of concept for ransomware which can attack your CPU and warns against future threats that could lock your reader until a ransom is paid. This attack would bypass most traditional forms of ransomware detection.
In an interview The registerBeek, who is the principal director of analysis of Rapid7 threats, revealed that a AMD Zen chip Bug gave him the idea that a highly qualified attacker could in theory “allow these intruders to charge an unprepared microcode in the processors, to break the encryption at the material level and to modify the behavior of the processor at will”.
Google‘s Security The team previously identified a security vulnerability in AMD’s Zen 1 in Zen 4 CPUS This allows users to load unique microcode fixes. He later became that AMD Zen 5 processors are also affected by vulnerability. Fortunately, the problem can be resolved with a new microcode, just like a previous Lac Raptor instability. However, Beek has seen its opportunity. “Coming from firmware security training, I said to myself, Woah, I think I can write ransomware from the processor”, and that’s exactly what he did.
According to the report, Beek wrote concept code of proof for ransomware that can hide in a CPU. Reassuring, he promises that they will not free him.
According to the report, Beek believes that this type of feat could lead to the worst case: “Ransomware at the processor level, alteration of the microcode, and if you are in the processor or the firmware, you will outline all the frightening traditional technologies that we have there.”
Beek also referred to the disclosed comments of the Ransomware gang, which surfaced in 2022. In a given presentation to RSAC, he underlined the group’s cat newspapers. “I work on a POC where ransomware settles inside the UEFI, so even after resettled Windows, encryption remains,” we read one. Another has noted that with the modified UEFI firmware, “we can trigger encryption even before the operating system is responsible. No AV can detect this.”
The result? “Imagine that we control the BIOS and load our own start -up charger that locks the reader until the ransom is paid,” supposed a pirate.
Beek warns that if bad players worked on these exploits a few years ago, “you can bet that some of them will become intelligent enough at some point and will start to create this kind of thing.”
To close his interview, Beek expressed his frustration that “we should not speak of ransomware in 2025”, and said that all those involved should come together to fix the foundations of material security. He also deplored the number of ransomware violations that have been supported by high -risk vulnerabilities, low passwords, a lack of authentication, and more.
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