Description
IGEL OS 12 before 12.9.0, 12.8.3 LTS and IGEL OS 11 before 11.11.150 contain a secure boot bypass vulnerability in the GRUB boot stage that allows physically present attackers to gain unauthorized root access by placing an unsigned empty file named igel.conf on a partition. Attackers can exploit GRUB's fail-open signature verification behavior to drop into an interactive GRUB prompt, then boot the device's own kernel with additional command-line arguments to obtain a root shell with the disk unlocked while leaving TPM PCR values unaltered.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| IGEL | IGEL OS 12 | 12.0.0 – ≤ 12.8.2 | 12.8.3 |
| IGEL | IGEL OS 11 | 11.0.0 – < 11.11.150 | 11.11.150 |
Advisories 1
- WID-SEC-2026-1979 IGEL OS: Schwachstelle ermöglicht Ausführen von beliebigem Programmcode mit Administratorrechten BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Aug 30, 2026
References
- Vendor Advisory vendor-advisory patch
- AmberWolf Blog technical-description
- DEF CON 34 Presentation
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/igel-os-12-11-secure-boot-bypass-via-unsigned-igel-conf-file third-party-advisory