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Thunderclap and Linux

Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Thursday 28th of February 2019 02:53:42 AM Filed under
Linux
Security

Thunderbolt security has been in the news recently: researches presented a set of new vulnerabilities involving Thunderbolt which they named Thunderclap1. The authors built a "fake" network card2) and performed various DMA attacks and were able to temper with memory regions that their network card should have no access to whatsoever. In some way this is not all that surprising because the foundation of Thunderbolt are PCIe tunnels to external hardware and one of the reasons that PCIe is fast is because it can do direct memory access (DMA).

The current primary defense against DMA attacks for Thunderbolt 3 are the security levels: if enabled (the default on most systems) it gives the software the ability to decide on a per device level to allow or deny PCIe tunnels (and with that potentially access to the all the memory via DMA)3. While not protecting from DMA attacks per se it protects from some — maybe the most — prominent threat scenarios4: 1) somebody plugging that evil device into your computer while you are away or 2) you have to plug in a device into your computer that you don't trust, i.e. a projector at a conference. On GNU/Linux boltd will authorize a plugged-in device only if an admin user is logged in and the screen is unlocked. For untrusted environments the authorization by boltd can be disabled, i.e. when you go to a conference, via the GNOME settings panel. The toggle is called "Direct Access" (see screenshot below).

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Thunderclap context

Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Thursday 28th of February 2019 01:08:33 PM.

More in the news (mostly affects Apple circles)

Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Friday 1st of March 2019 01:02:10 AM.
  • Thunderclap flaw could let hackers to crack into PCs with infected peripherals

    SECURITY BOFFINS have uncovered a flaw in the Thunderbolt specification that could leave PCs and Macs open to attack through USB-C and DisplayPort peripherals.

    Dubbed 'Thunderclap' by cybersecurity researcher Theo Markettos and fellow boffins, the vulnerability allows hackers to exploit the privileged direct-memory access (DMA) provided through the speedy Thunderbolt connection to get access to the workings of a targeted gadget.

    That access could allow hackers to carry out the usual pilfering of passwords and encryption keys, the executing of malicious code and user tracking.

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