+44 (0)203 88 020 88

Menu

Search

Cyber Security News & Articles

 

Cyber Security
News & Articles

Trusted Cyber Security Experts
25+ Years Industry Experience
Ethical, Professional & Pragmatic

Millions of Dell systems vulnerable

For the last 12 years, a driver deployed on millions of Dell computer systems contains 5 severe vulnerabilities which can be exploited to take over the system.

First reported by researchers at SentinelOne, the vulnerabilities allow a local user to escalate their privilege and obtain admin rights on the Windows operating system.  The vulnerabilities are tracked as a single issue CVE-2021-21551 by Dell.  The flaws reside in a driver used to update firmware on the system.  Simply put, the problem is the driver will accept instructions from any user or application running on the system without performing any security checks. Since drivers necessarily run in kernel mode, this means the driver can be abused to read and write to any area of memory or write to any area of the disk and install malware or a root-kit.

Dell has published a security advisory which recommends users immediately remove the vulnerable dbutil_2_3.sys driver and then update the firmware utility packages to prevent the vulnerable driver from being reinstalled.

In addition, Dell has provided a utility that will automate the identification and removal of the vulnerable driver which will help manage the issue on larger enterprise networks.

The researchers that discovered the vulnerability plan to publish proof of concept code on 1st June 2021, which is likely to accelerate the targeting of this vulnerability by malicious users.

In order to exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need to already be logged into the system meaning it would need to be chained with other vulnerabilities or malware in order to be exploited.

 

 

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter today

If you’d like to stay up-to-date with the latest cyber security news and articles from our technical team, you can sign up to our monthly newsletter. 

We hate spam as much as you do, so we promise not to bombard you with emails. We’ll send you a single, curated email each month that contains all of our cyber security news and articles for that month.

Why Choose SecureTeam?

Customer Testimonials

“We were very impressed with the service, I will say, the vulnerability found was one our previous organisation had not picked up, which does make you wonder if anything else was missed.”

Aim Ltd Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

"Within a very tight timescale, SecureTeam managed to deliver a highly professional service efficiently. The team helped the process with regular updates and escalation where necessary. Would highly recommend"

IoT Solutions Group Limited Chief Technology Officer (CTO) & Founder

“First class service as ever. We learn something new each year! Thank you to all your team.”

Royal Haskoning DHV Service Delivery Manager

“We’ve worked with SecureTeam for a few years to conduct our testing. The team make it easy to deal with them; they are attentive and explain detailed reports in a jargon-free way that allows the less technical people to understand. I wouldn’t work with anyone else for our cyber security.”

Capital Asset Management Head of Operations

“SecureTeam provided Derbyshire's Education Data Hub with an approachable and professional service to ensure our schools were able to successfully certify for Cyber Essentials. The team provided a smooth end-to-end service and were always on hand to offer advice when necessary.”

Derbyshire County Council Team Manager Education Data Hub

“A very efficient, professional, and friendly delivery of our testing and the results. You delivered exactly what we asked for in the timeframe we needed it, while maintaining quality and integrity. A great job, done well.”

AMX Solutions IT Project Officer

“We were very pleased with the work and report provided. It was easy to translate the provided details into some actionable tasks on our end so that was great. We always appreciate the ongoing support.”

Innovez Ltd Support Officer

Get in touch today

If you’d like to see how SecureTeam can take your cybersecurity posture to the next level, we’d love to hear from you, learn about your requirements and then send you a free quotation for our services.

Our customers love our fast-turnaround, “no-nonsense” quotations – not to mention that we hate high-pressure sales tactics as much as you do.

We know that every organisation is unique, so our detailed scoping process ensures that we provide you with an accurate quotation for our services, which we trust you’ll find highly competitive.

Get in touch with us today and a member of our team will be in touch to provide you with a quotation. 

0

No products in the basket.

No products in the basket.