- Tactics
- Impact
- Platforms
- Linux, macOS, Network Devices, Windows
- Reference
- attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1495
Description
Adversaries may overwrite or corrupt the flash memory contents of system BIOS or other firmware in devices attached to a system in order to render them inoperable or unable to boot, thus denying the availability to use the devices and/or the system.(Citation: Symantec Chernobyl W95.CIH) Firmware is software that is loaded and executed from non-volatile memory on hardware devices in order to initialize and manage device functionality. These devices may include the motherboard, hard drive, or video cards.
In general, adversaries may manipulate, overwrite, or corrupt firmware in order to deny the use of the system or devices. For example, corruption of firmware responsible for loading the operating system for network devices may render the network devices inoperable.(Citation: dhs_threat_to_net_devices)(Citation: cisa_malware_orgs_ukraine) Depending on the device, this attack may also result in Data Destruction.
How GTK Cyber trains on this
GTK Cyber's Threat Hunting with Data Science course teaches you to build machine-learning detections for techniques like this across the MITRE ATT&CK framework, including the Impact tactic this technique falls under. Practitioner-led, focused on real detections, not memorizing technique IDs.
Related techniques
- T1485 — Data Destruction
- T1486 — Data Encrypted for Impact
- T1489 — Service Stop
- T1490 — Inhibit System Recovery
- T1491 — Defacement
- T1496 — Resource Hijacking
- T1498 — Network Denial of Service
- T1499 — Endpoint Denial of Service
- T1529 — System Shutdown/Reboot
- T1531 — Account Access Removal
- T1561 — Disk Wipe
- T1565 — Data Manipulation