Firmware Corruption (T1495)
Tactic: Impact · Platforms: Linux, macOS, Network Devices, Windows
The interactive view maps 1 detection strategy, 3 mitigations, 2 software entries, 1 campaign to this technique, alongside D3FEND countermeasures and data-component coverage.
Overview
Adversaries may overwrite or corrupt the flash memory contents of system BIOS or other firmware in devices attached to a system in order to render them inoperable or unable to boot, thus denying the availability to use the devices and/or the system. Firmware is software that is loaded and executed from non-volatile memory on hardware devices in order to initialize and manage device functionality. These devices may include the motherboard, hard drive, or video cards.
In general, adversaries may manipulate, overwrite, or corrupt firmware in order to deny the use of the system or devices. For example, corruption of firmware responsible for loading the operating system for network devices may render the network devices inoperable. Depending on the device, this attack may also result in Data Destruction.