Earlier this week, AMD published a new chipset driver that addressed “important security issues,” although the company did not specify which vulnerabilities the patch addressed in detail.
Cybersecurity experts revealed a weakness in the driver that may allow attackers to acquire personal information such as passwords and much more critical data. The issue affects all Ryzen CPUs as well as numerous earlier AMD versions, according to the researchers’ findings.
AMD’s Platform Security Processor (PSP) chipset driver contains a vulnerability (CVE-2021-26333), which allows remote code execution. This component of the operating system collaborates with the PSP to store sensitive information in safe regions of memory that are often only accessible by administrators.
According to The Record, Kyriakos Economou, co-founder of security research firm ZeroPeril, issued a study last week in which he claimed that non-privileged users may abuse the driver to access critical information stored in memory. AMD first said that the issue only affected Ryzen 1000 CPUs, which was incorrect. AMD has subsequently revised its security disclosure to reflect the fact that all desktop and mobile Ryzen CPUs are vulnerable, according to the sources.
Because the assault is focused on the motherboard chipset, it will not be effective if you have an AMD graphics card but no AMD processor installed (though another security flaw is posing a risk to AMD cards at the moment).
In accordance with the study, Economou was capable of leaking “several gigabytes” of information. The vulnerability also allows attackers to circumvent mitigations such as kernel address space layout randomization (KASLR), which prevents attacks that exploit a known address for the kernel from succeeding. Attackers can use these vulnerabilities to acquire sensitive information such as passwords and gain access to more restricted areas of a network.
While this is a frightening prospect, AMD has already addressed the issue with a new PSP chipset driver, which was made available last week as part of Microsoft’s September Patch Tuesday. Continue reading to discover how to update your drivers to ensure that you have the most up-to-date version.
What can you do to keep yourself safe from this?
The most recent version of the AMD PSP driver is 5.17.0.0, which is included in AMD Chipset Driver 3.08.17.735, which is the most recent version available. Although you may manually install the driver, it is also accessible through Windows Update at this time.
If you want to update your software, click Windows Key + S, input “update,” and then select Check for Updates. Using this method, you will be sent to the Windows Update page.
Once this is done, choose Check for Updates and then install any updates that are found. After you’ve finished, make sure to restart your computer in order for the latest patches to take effect. Alternatively, you may download AMD’s auto-detect program, which will automatically find and install the most recent Ryzen chipset drivers on your computer. If you want to go this way, make sure you are familiar with your motherboard’s chipset and that the AMD PSP Driver checkbox is selected throughout the chipset driver installation process.
Alternatively, if you arrive at Windows Update and do not see anything, you may check to see if you have the most recent chipset driver loaded on your computer. Device Manager may be accessed by using the Windows Key + X combination. Right-click AMD PSP in the Security Devices list and select Properties from the drop-down menu. Select the Driver tab from the drop-down menu that appears in the newly opened window to examine your driver version.
If your driver version differs from the secure version (5.17.0.0), you’ll need to install an update to be safe. Despite the fact that the vulnerability is primarily focused on newer Ryzen processors, it really impacts a wide range of AMD CPU generations. Here is the whole list:
- 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen Mobile Processor with Radeon Graphics
- 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper processor
- 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper Processors
- 6th Generation AMD A-series CPU with Radeon Graphics
- 6th Generation AMD A-Series Mobile Processor
- 6th Generation AMD FX APU with Radeon R7 Graphics
- 7th Generation AMD A-Series APUs
- 7th Generation AMD A-Series Mobile Processor
- 7th Generation AMD E-Series Mobile Processor
- AMD A4-Series APU with Radeon Graphics
- AMD A6 APU with Radeon R5 Graphics
- AMD A8 APU with Radeon R6 Graphics
- AMD A10 APU with Radeon R6 Graphics
- AMD 3000 Series Mobile Processors with Radeon Graphics
- AMD Athlon 3000 Series Mobile Processors with Radeon Graphics
- AMD Athlon Mobile Processors with Radeon Graphics
- AMD Athlon X4 Processor
- AMD Athlon 3000 Series Mobile Processors with Radeon Graphics
- AMD Athlon X4 Processor
- AMD E1-Series APU with Radeon Graphics
- AMD Ryzen 1000 series Processor
- AMD Ryzen 2000 series Desktop Processor
- AMD Ryzen 2000 series Mobile Processor
- AMD Ryzen 3000 Series Desktop Processor
- AMD Ryzen 3000 series Mobile Processor with Radeon Graphics
- AMD Ryzen 3000 series Mobile Processor
- AMD Ryzen 4000 Series Desktop Processor with Radeon Graphics
- AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop Processor
- AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop Processor with Radeon Graphics
- AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors with Radeon Graphics
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO Processor
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper Processor
