Surface Studio Vulnerable to INTEL-SA-00086 Critical Security Vulnerability - Requires Microsoft to Issue a Firmware Update - How Long?

Anonymous
2017-11-21T00:42:36+00:00

Intel released a disclosure today on a series of vulnerabilities in their management engine and trusted execution engine, affecting Surface Studio (and presumably other Surface devices). 

https://security-center.intel.com/advisory.aspx?intelid=INTEL-SA-00086&languageid=en-fr

They included a tool to check to see if your system is vulnerable:

http://www.intel.com/sa-00086-support

I've run the tool on a Surface Studio and confirmed that is vulnerable and requires Microsoft to issue a firmware update with the patch Intel provided. As they have presumably already given the patch to you, I'm wondering how long you're going to leave us all vulnerable to this before you release the required firmware update to patch this?

We need this fixed ASAP!

Surface | Surface Studio | Safety and security

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-12-11T20:46:14+00:00

    Thank you for your answer Greg, and if what you say here is official word from Microsoft, you really need to make a msdn / general blog post and have Intel link it here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000025619/software.html under the Resources for system/motherboard manufacturers, probably with the title "Microsoft Surface" so people don't get confused and think it applies to Windows in general.

    If you don't, then users are going to start attempting firmware bypasses and adjustments that could brick their devices.

    While I appreciate the answer, this took you nearly two and a half weeks to post after the story was picked up.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-12-11T22:25:12+00:00

    Thanks for the response, Greg. I appreciate the update.

    I look forward to the firmware update and will leave this question as unanswered until the required firmware patch is released. Please continue to keep us posted.

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  3. Barb Bowman 80,805 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-12-12T11:19:51+00:00

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-12-15T08:06:58+00:00
    1. Local exploit of this vulnerability requires Direct Connect Interface (DCI) access via USB, which is not provided on Surface devices.

    Thanks for posting the same statement on all these topics but could you please answer this question: 

    • Are there other ports that could provide DCI access on the surface?
    • Does the surface dock has a USB with DCI or does the surface dock has other ports with DCI
    • Is there a way, vurnability to turn a normal usb in to one with DCI access.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-12-21T22:42:33+00:00

    While I understand MS's stance on this, I find it comical that my old Gigabyte H170 chipset motherboard which should long ago have been abandoned by the manufacturer got patched for this just recently, while my Surface Pro 2017 and Surface Book (1st gen) are still technically (even if unlikely to be exploited) vulnerable.

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