Thunderbolt flaws can leave PCs vulnerable to physical attack

Millions of computers manufactured before 2019 are said to be vulnerable to physical attacks targeting a common component: the Thunderbolt port. Security researcher Bjorn Ruytenberg revealed on Sunday the so-called Thunderspy attack, which allows hackers to read and copy data to a PC, even if it is locked or asleep, in just a few minutes.

Ruytenberg said seven vulnerabilities were discovered in Intel’s Thunderbolt design. The flaws make it possible for someone with “5 minutes on the computer, a screwdriver and easily portable hardware” to bypass security measures to steal data from encrypted drives and memory, according to Ruytenberg.

LightningFirst hosted by Apple in 2011 and later by some manufacturers of Windows PCs, it has proven popular in high-end computing situations that require a multipurpose connector. A single Thunderbolt port can connect to external monitors, network adapters, storage systems, and more.

In a blog post on Sunday, Intel said that Thunderspy-type attacks were mitigated with the implementation of Kernel’s Direct Memory Access (DMA) protection. However, the security feature is not available on computers built before 2019. Intel also encouraged people to use only trusted peripherals and prevent unauthorized physical access to computers.

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