MICROSOFT GOLDEN BACKDOOR KEYS - BECOMES THERE BIGGEST MISTAKE

MICROSOFT GOLDEN BACKDOOR KEYS - BECOMES THERE BIGGEST MISTAKE

News compressed : Microsoft update leaked there golden keys that unlock devices sealed by Secure Boot ( Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). It was revealed by two researchers on there blog post and it's impossible for microsoft to undo this changes


Microsoft is an american multinational technology company. It was founded on April 4, 1975 mostly famous for there world class operating system Windows. Microsoft routinely released windows update on second tuesday.

Windows updates are the service offered by Microsoft, provides updates for Windows components. Microsoft every time release their windows update and makes some changes on it, but this time it's becomes there biggest mistake

Actually, microsoft accidentally leaked their backdoor golden keys with their windows update that can unlocked windows-powered tablets, phones and other devices that sealed with secure boot(Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) feature.

These golden keys have power to unlock devices protected by UEFI or secure boot feature. Secure boot feature prevent you to run any microsoft alternative operating system in your device and also helps to secure your device from malware. When secure boot is disabled you can able to boot with microsoft disapproved operating system.

This flaw is discovered by two security researcher MY123 and Slipstream on there blog post. That helps to install any operating system on device having secure boot. According to it's impossible for \ microsoft to undo these keys.



Microsoft says about Golden keys

According to the pair of researchers, they contacted Microsoft's security team around March to say they had found the debug-mode policy. Initially, we're told, Redmond declined to follow up the find, then decided about a month later it was a security issue and paid out a bounty reward. 

 In July, Microsoft pushed out security patch MS16-094 in an attempt to stop people unlocking their Secure Boot-sealed devices. That added a bunch of policies, including the debug-mode policy, to a revocation list held in the firmware that's checked during startup by the Windows boot manager. That didn't fully kill off the magic policy, however. The revocation list is checked by the boot manager after policies are loaded. By the point in the startup sequence, it's too late. However, a Microsoft tool used to provision the policy into the firmware does check the revocation list, and thus refuses to accept the magic policy when you try to install it, so MS16-094 acts merely as a minor roadblock. 

This week, Microsoft issued patch MS16-100, which revokes more stuff but doesn't affect the golden policy, we're told. A third patch is due to arrive next month as a follow-up. If you haven't installed the July fix yet, you can use this script to provision the unlock policy onto your ARM-powered Windows RT tablet. You must be an administrator to update the firmware. After that, you can set about trying to boot a non-Windows OS or any other self-signed EFI binary. We're told by one brave tester that this policy installation method worked on a Windows RT tab that was not patched for MS16-094.

 The aforementioned script works by running a Microsoft-provided EFI binary during the next reboot that inserts the debug-mode policy into storage space on the motherboard that only the firmware and boot manager are allowed to access. The script's ZIP archive contains the leaked magic policy. If you have installed the July update, the above script will fail because the updated revocation list will be checked by Microsoft's installation tool and the magic policy will be rejected before it can be provisioned. In about a week's time, MY123 is expected to release a package that will work around this and install the debug-mode policy on all devices, including Windows RT tablets. People are particularly keen to unlock their ARM-powered Surface fondleslabs and install a new operating system because Microsoft has all but abandoned the platform. Windows RT is essentially Windows 8.x ported to 32-bit ARMv7-compatible processors, and Microsoft has stopped developing it. Mainstream support for Surface RT tabs runs out in 2017 and Windows RT 8.1 in 2018. A policy similar to the leaked debug-mode policy can be used to unlock Windows Phone handsets, too, so alternative operating systems can be installed. A policy provision tool for Windows Phone is already available. We expect to hear more about that soon. This Secure Boot misstep also affects Windows PCs and servers, but it's not that big a deal for them because these machines are typically unlocked anyway. You can boot your unrestricted computer into its firmware settings, and switch off Secure Boot, or delete all the keys from its database to disable it, if you really want to. You don't need any debug-mode tricks to do that. In the unlikely event you're using a locked-down Secure Boot PC and you have admin rights on the box, and you want to boot something else, all the above is going to be of interest to you. If you're an IT admin who is relying on Secure Boot to prevent the loading of unsigned binaries and drivers – such as rootkits and bootkits – then all the above is going to worry you. FBI and golden keys