Cyber-Security Firm Discovers Firmware Backdoor in Many Gigabyte Motherboards

Cyber-Security firm, Eclypsium has revealed today that they have discovered a hidden security backdoor in the firmware of GIGABYTE motherboards.

Security Backdoor in Gigabyte Motherboards

As shared by Wired.com, the cyber-security company Eclypsium discovered that many Gigabyte motherboards use code within the firmware to update quietly in the background. This code runs the update program on the computer and downloads and executes another piece of software. Now this is a reasonably unmalicious thing as all it is doing is keeping your firmware up to date however, the code has not been implemented securely meaning that it can be hijacked for malicious use. Eclypsium in a blog post shared the information including a list of the affected models, including various newer motherboards from B450 AMD boards to Intel Z790 boards. Currently, the firm has contacted GIGABYTE to resolve this issue and hopefully, it is a quick one. As of now, GIGABYTE has not commented on this issue though I imagine they will once a resolution is found.

GIGABYTE may not have had any malicious intent with this feature however it will most definitely affect the trust that users place in the company when purchasing their components. It seems as though GIGABYTE will be joining ASUS for a public flogging until another company buggers up and takes the heat away.