ASRock Motherboards IOMMU Protection Mechanism Failure Vulnerability Allowing Arbitrary Memory Access

A protection mechanism failure vulnerability has been identified in certain motherboard models developed by ASRock, along with its subsidiaries ASRockRack and ASRockInd. This vulnerability arises from improper enabling of IOMMU, allowing unauthenticated physical attackers to exploit a DMA-capable PCIe device. The exploitation can lead to reading and writing arbitrary physical memory before the operating system kernel and its security features are loaded. Affected products include motherboards with Intel 500, 600, 700, and 800 chipsets.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability allows for unauthorized access to physical memory, potentially leading to memory corruption or leakage of sensitive information.

Remediation

Users are advised to update the motherboard firmware to the latest version. Instructions for updating the firmware can be found on the ASRock support website. Note that Intel 500 series motherboards are still in the process of being patched.