As a quick primer, Secure Boot is a feature that is designed to prevent malicious software from loading, whenever a system boot up. This is done through a series of verification of signed drivers and Windows boot files. In MSI’s case, the process and settings within its motherboards have supposedly been set wrong, and for over a year, to boot. Discovery of the Secure Boot issue was made by Dawid Potocki, a Polish security researcher, who found it during what was his routine check on an MSI Pro Z790-A WiFi motherboard. Within its BIOS, the feature was found to have been set to “Always Execute”, meaning that the motherboard would accept every OS image, without even vetting it. Over on the AMD Ryzen motherboard side, the issue with the firmware was found to be present all the way back to a B450 Tomahawk Max. Potocki confirmed that the Secure Boot issue with MSI’s motherboards could be dated all the way back to Q3 2021. For that matter, the issue isn’t just limited to the most recent motherboard models; the goes back at least three generations for both Intel and AMD. Below is a short list of some of the affected motherboard models. AMD:
Every X670(E) motherboard Every B650(E) motherboard
X570:
MEG X570S ACE MAX MEG X570S UNIFY-X MAX MPG X570S CARBON MAX WIFI / MPG X570S CARBON EK X
B550:
B550 GAMING GEN3 MAG B550 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI PRO B550M-P GEN3 PRO B550-P GEN3 PRO B550-VC
Intel:
Every Z790 motherboard Every B760 motherboard
Z590:
MEG Z590 UNIFY-X
B660:
MAG B660M MORTAR MAX WIFI DDR4 PRO B660M-A CEC WIFI DDR4 V2
H610:
PRO H610M 12VO PRO H610M VDHP DDR4 PRO H610M-E DDR4
H410:
PRO H410M-B
Again, this is just a handful of MSI motherboards affected by the Windows 11 Secure Boot flaw. You can check out Neowin’s report for the full list, which we’ve embedded in the source at the end of the article. (Source: Neowin)
