Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Malware & Threats

McAfee Discovers New BIOS Rootkit

After MyBios (Mebromi) became the first malware to successfully infect the Award BIOS and survive a reboot to own the system, BIOS-based rootkits became the toast of the malware research community. That was in 2011, and now, months after the initial discovery, McAfee has found another BIOS-based rootkit – BIOSkit.

After MyBios (Mebromi) became the first malware to successfully infect the Award BIOS and survive a reboot to own the system, BIOS-based rootkits became the toast of the malware research community. That was in 2011, and now, months after the initial discovery, McAfee has found another BIOS-based rootkit – BIOSkit.

McAfee’s Arvind Gowda detailed the discovery on the company’s blog, the main attack starts with a DLL file that infects the Master Boot Record (MBR). It overwrites the original MBR and writes the file to be dropped (the downloader) in hidden sectors. After this, the DLL copies itself to the Recycle folder and deletes itself, Gowda explained.

The downloader is dropped and executed every time the system is started.

“The sys file responsible for flashing the BIOS is similar to the one seen in MyBios. Unlike bios.sys, the code to check the BIOS manufacturer and the BIOS size is present in the DriverEntry. However, the functionality of both the drivers remains the same,” he wrote.

“We have now seen two Bioskit malware in the wild within a couple of months. When the first Bioskit was identified, we did not know how soon we would see another.”

Based on the discovery, McAfee expects to see more examples of BIOS-based rootkits in the future. While detecting and cleaning infections to the MBR isn’t hard for a security company, cleaning BIOS infections presents a separate challenge altogether. Should a security firm make an error in the infection removal process within the BIOS, they could turn an expensive system into a rather expensive brick.

Written By

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Learn how the LOtL threat landscape has evolved, why traditional endpoint hardening methods fall short, and how adaptive, user-aware approaches can reduce risk.

Watch Now

Join the summit to explore critical threats to public cloud infrastructure, APIs, and identity systems through discussions, case studies, and insights into emerging technologies like AI and LLMs.

Register

People on the Move

Cloud security startup Upwind has appointed Rinki Sethi as Chief Security Officer.

SAP security firm SecurityBridge announced the appointment of Roman Schubiger as the company’s new CRO.

Cybersecurity training and simulations provider SimSpace has appointed Peter Lee as Chief Executive Officer.

More People On The Move

Expert Insights

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest cybersecurity news, threats, and expert insights. Unsubscribe at any time.