Technical Deep Dive: How Early-Boot DMA Attacks are bypassing IOMMU on modern UEFI systems

A new research paper highlights a critical implementation flaw in how major vendors (ASUS, MSI, etc.) configure IOMMU during the DXE phase of boot. The Core Issue: The firmware reports DMA protection as “Active” to the OS, but fails to actually enable the IOMMU translation tables during the initial boot sequence. This creates a window of vulnerability where a malicious peripheral can read/write system memory unrestricted. I’ve analyzed the root cause and the discrepancy between “Reported Status” vs “Actual Enforcement” in this report: [👉 Full Analysis & Mitigation Strategies]https://www.nexaspecs.com/2025/12/critical-uefi-flaw-exposes-motherboards.html Has anyone started seeing patched BIOS versions roll out yet? submitted by /u/Imaginary-Ad-8278 [link] [comments]Technical Information Security Content & DiscussionRead More