"AMD Flaws" Technical Summary - The Trail of Bits Blog
Summary: Trail of Bits was engaged by CTS Labs at standard consulting rates to review and confirm the technical accuracy of CTS's preliminary AMD findings, and it confirmed that the proof-of-concept code worked as described on the hardware it tested while deferring to AMD on final impact and remediation. The vulnerabilities include MASTERKEY, which bypasses PSP signature checks to load attacker firmware, FALLOUT and RYZENFALL, which exploit PSP APIs for code execution in the PSP or SMM, and CHIMERA, which abuses exposed AMD Promontory chipset interfaces to gain code execution in the chipset processor.
Key Takeaway: The AMD Platform Security Processor sits below the operating system with privileged access to the lowest level of the system, and MASTERKEY defeats the signature check that is supposed to keep anyone but AMD from updating its firmware. Trail of Bits states the flaws are simple programming flaws and insufficient security testing rather than novel research, and that building working attack tools is beyond the reach of most attackers.
Read the original at Trail of Bits Blog ↗
- Topics
- Zero-Days & Exploits
- Related
- New Sign Drop Exploit Can Abuse Windows Defender to Bypass Security Protections Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026New Sign Drop Zero-Day Exploit Turns Windows CLFS Security Feature Into SYSTEM Access Cyber Risks · Nov 12, 2026November Patch Tuesday: An Overflowing Cornucopia of CVEs Cyber Risks · Nov 10, 2026