Linux 4.2 To Support The EFI System Resource Table

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 4.2 To Support The EFI System Resource Table

The Linux 4.2 kernel cycle that will soon officially commence will be adding support for the EFI System Resource Table (ESRT) in order to allow the updating of UEFI/BIOS on modern systems from the Linux desktop...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.2-EFI-System-ESRT-Table

[Adarion]

Could anybody explain how that is supposed to work? I only understand "table" but a table is a table. Where is the very chip located? Behind which bridges / controllers? Don't we still need flashrom support for the very chip to flash it? Can this UEFI table know about flashable chips that were added later (periphery via SATA, added NICs or storage controllers via PCI(e) and so on)? Does UEFI magically have drivers to do all that?
And: How easily does it brick?

[uid313]

Can this mechanism be used to load malware or corrupt the firmware?

[Ericg]

Can this mechanism be used to load malware or corrupt the firmware?

Theoretically, probably. But you'd have to have root (not just sudo) and most motherboards I've seen with UEFI come with "Dual BIOS" where the user only ever interacts with one and a secondary one is available if for some reason it detects the first fails to load / crashes / bails. Basically its read-only and gets you up and running so you can reflash from BIOS / boot into an OS to flash there.

[LightBit]

Can this mechanism be used to load malware or corrupt the firmware?

Maybe UEFI firmwares are signed?
It would be stupid not to allow boot unsigned OS, but allowing to flash unsigned firmware.