You almost certainly do not know the name Hugues Anguelkov. He's an intern working for Quarkslab, where he spends his time researching potential security issues. He's also a bit of an unsung hero because he recently uncovered a string of five devastating vulnerabilities in the Broadcom wl driver and the open-source brcmfmac driver for Broadcom WiFi chipsets. If you own or manage a business, always get managed IT services to stay away from these problems.
That's significant because it turns out that these drivers
are used in a staggering array of equipment around the world.
Anguelkov writes:
"You can find these chips almost everywhere from
smartphones to laptops, smart-TVs and IoT devices. You probably use one
without knowing it, for example if you have a Dell laptop, you may be using a
bcm43224 or a bcm4352 card. It is also likely you use a Broadcom WiFi
chip if you have an iPhone, a Mac book, a Samsung phone or a Huawei phone,
etc. Since these chips are so widespread they constitute a high value
target to attackers and any vulnerability found in them should be considered to
pose high risk."
He goes on to say that two of vulnerabilities he found are
present in both the Linux kernel and the firmware of certain Broadcom chips. He
added that the most common application, from a hacker's perspective, would be to
utilize them to launch a remote denial of service attack. Shield your business
from such attacks by having managed
IT services Myrtle Beach.
In all, this vulnerability impacts equipment made by a staggering
166 different technology vendors worldwide, which means that it's incredibly
likely that you're using a vulnerable piece of equipment right now.
The good news is that Broadcom is currently working on the
issue and although no firm timeframe has been given for when we might expect a
fix, given the scope and scale of this issue, the company is certainly
motivated to make it happen quickly. For the time being, there's not much
for you to do here, other than be mindful that the issue exists and be on the
lookout for a fix from Broadcom. Updates will patch up the vulnerabilities and
improve computer
security for all affected users.
Call SpartanTec, Inc. if you are looking for a reliable and reputable IT consultant to help make
sure that your computers are safe and secure.
