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Security Bulletin: This Power System update is being released to address CVE-2021-20487

Security Bulletin


Summary

Power9: A new Power Systems firmware update is being released to address Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures issue number CVE-2021-20487. The Self Boot Engine(SBE) can be compromised from the service processor to allow injection of malicious code. An attacker that gains root access to the service processor could compromise the integrity of the host firmware and bypass the host firmware signature verification process. This compromised state can not be detected through TPM attestation.

Vulnerability Details

CVEID:   CVE-2021-20487
DESCRIPTION:   IBM Power9 Self Boot Engine(SBE) could allow a privileged user to inject malicious code and compromise the integrity of the host firmware bypassing the host firmware signature verification process.
CVSS Base score: 8
CVSS Temporal Score: See: https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/197730 for the current score.
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H)

Affected Products and Versions

Affected Product(s)Version(s)
OPENBMCOP940
Server FirmwareFW930
Server FirmwareFW941
Server FirmwareFW940

Remediation/Fixes

Customers with the products below, install FW930.30 or later if using FW930.XX. Install FW940.20 or later if using FW940.XX.  Or install FW950.00 or later.

1) IBM Power Systems S922 (9009-22A)
2) IBM Power Systems H922 (9223-22H)
3) IBM Power Systems S914 (9009-41A)
4) IBM Power Systems S924 (9009-42A)
5) IBM Power Systems H924 (9223-42H)
6) IBM Power Systems L922 (9008-22L)
7) IBM Power Systems E950 (9040-MR9)
8) IBM Power Systems E980 (9080-M9S)

Customers with the products below, install  FW950.00 or later

1) IBM Power Systems S922 (9009-22G)
2) IBM Power Systems S914 (9009-41G)
3) IBM Power Systems S924 (9009-42G)
4) IBM Power Systems H922 (9223-22S)
5) IBM Power Systems H924 (9223-42S)

Customers with the products below, install OP940.20 or later

1) IBM Power Systems AC922 (8335-GTH)
2) IBM Power Systems AC922 (8335-GTX)
3) IBM Power Systems IC922 (9183-22X)


Workarounds and Mitigations

None

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References

Complete CVSS v3 Guide
On-line Calculator v3

Off

Related Information

IBM Secure Engineering Web Portal
IBM Product Security Incident Response Blog



Change History

29 Apr 2021: Initial Publication

*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.

Disclaimer

Review the IBM security bulletin disclaimer and definitions regarding your responsibilities for assessing potential impact of security vulnerabilities to your environment.

Document Location

Worldwide

[{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU009","label":"Systems - Server"},"Product":{"code":"SG8QV9","label":"Power 9 Systems"},"Component":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF009","label":"Firmware"}],"Version":"FW930 FW940 FW941 OP940","Edition":""}]

Document Information

Modified date:
25 May 2021

UID

ibm16455911

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