Recently, the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has assigned a unique identifier, CVE-2022-23924, to a set of potential vulnerabilities affecting the system BIOS of certain HP PC products. This post aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of these vulnerabilities, including code snippets, original references, and exploitable details. The vulnerabilities in question could potentially lead to significant security risks, including Escalation of Privilege, Arbitrary Code Execution, Unauthorized Code Execution, Denial of Service, and Information Disclosure.

Code snippet demonstrating the vulnerability

The following hypothetical code snippet demonstrates a vulnerability allowing for unauthorized resuming of an HP device, bypassing authentication:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>

int main() {
    char user_input[10];
    
    printf("Enter user input: ");
    gets(user_input);
    
    if (strcmp(user_input, "SecretHPCode") == ) {
        printf("Access granted, resuming HP device...\n");
        // Code to bypass BIOS authentication and resume device
    } else {
        printf("Invalid input, access denied.\n");
    }
    return ;
}

In this example, the code employs insecure gets() function, which could allow malicious actors to exploit the vulnerability by providing input longer than the expected buffer size, leading to buffer overflow and potentially arbitrary code execution.

Original references

1. HP Security Bulletin: PC BIOS Security Vulnerability
2. Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures: CVE-2022-23924
3. NIST National Vulnerability Database: CVE-2022-23924

The exploitation of these vulnerabilities may result in the following security risks

1. Escalation of Privilege: Attackers with regular system user accounts could potentially escalate their privileges to administrator-level access, gaining full control over the device.

2. Arbitrary Code Execution: A malicious user can exploit these vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code at the BIOS level, potentially allowing them to disable security controls or perform other malicious activities.

3. Unauthorized Code Execution: By exploiting these vulnerabilities, an attacker could execute unauthorized code at the BIOS level, bypassing security mechanisms and potentially enabling them to take control of the device.

4. Denial of Service: Taking advantage of these vulnerabilities, a malicious actor might cause the system to crash or become unresponsive, disrupting normal operation and potentially leading to a denial of service (DoS).

5. Information Disclosure: Through exploiting these vulnerabilities, an attacker could potentially disclose sensitive system information, such as account credentials or cryptographic keys, further compromising the security of the device.

Conclusion

The potential vulnerabilities identified in the system BIOS of specific HP PC products, as detailed in CVE-2022-23924, pose a considerable risk to users. It is highly recommended that users affected by these vulnerabilities promptly apply the relevant security updates and patches provided by HP and follow best security practices to mitigate any potential exploitation attempts by malicious actors.

Timeline

Published on: 03/11/2022 18:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 03/21/2022 18:38:00 UTC