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New Cold Boot Attack Gives Hackers the Keys to PCs, Macs

September 14, 2018

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Researchers bypass a Trusted Computing Group security measure to manipulate the firmware and steal data in memory.
An updated version of the Cold Boot Attack lets threat actors bypass security mechanisms and access data that remain in memory after a machine shuts down. Modern machines from Apple, Dell, Lenovo, and other major tech firms are affected, researchers report.

The Cold Boot Attack itself is not new. Known since 2008, it lets attackers with physical access to a machine steal its encryption keys, which briefly remain in memory after a hard reboot. Most devices now protect against this with a Trusted Computing Group (TCG) mitigation that overwrites data when the machine is rebooted and protects it from third parties.

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