Vulnerability in ASUS Rog Zephyrus M Gm501gs

CVE-2019-18216

The BIOS configuration design on ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GM501GS laptops with BIOS 313 relies on the main battery instead of using a CMOS battery, which reduces the value of a protection mechanism in which booting from a USB device is prohibited. Attackers who have physical laptop access can exhaust the main battery to reset the BIOS configuration, and then achieve direct access to the hard drive by booting a live USB OS without disassembling the laptop. NOTE: the vendor has apparently indicated that this is "normal" and use of the same battery for the BIOS and the overall system is a "new design." However, the vendor apparently plans to "improve" this an unspecified later time

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.8 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (29.0th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 29th percentile — 29.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2019-18216: held from 0.004 to 0.004.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000

Affected products

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2019-18216?
CVE-2019-18216 is a medium-severity vulnerability in ASUS Rog Zephyrus M Gm501gs. CVSS score: 6.8/10. Published 2019-10-20.
How severe is CVE-2019-18216?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.8 out of 10.