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Saint UEFIcanhazbufferoverflow, the Kitten in the Firmware
Patron of UEFI firmware, TPM configuration, and computers that trust themselves from the moment they switch on.
Life
In June 2024 Eclypsium revealed a buffer overflow in Phoenix SecureCore (CVE-2024-0762), in the code handling a TPM configuration variable. Present in a great many laptops with Intel processors, it was reached very early in boot, before the operating system existed, allowing firmware-resident code that is hard to detect and remove. The name, kitten and all, does not take itself too seriously; the problem does.
Prayer
O Saint UEFIcanhazbufferoverflow, who settles in before the system wakes, let our firmware check the size of its own variables. Amen.
How to celebrate
Celebrated by updating the UEFI firmware from the laptop vendor and, ideally, adopting a real kitten.
A bad start at power-on stays a guest the whole session long.