A fresh cybersecurity alert has raised concerns over the safety of millions of computer systems currently in use across India.
India’s national cybersecurity agency, CERT-In, operating under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has issued a high severity advisory warning about serious security vulnerabilities affecting widely used PC motherboards. The weaknesses exist at the early boot stage of devices and could allow system security to be compromised under certain conditions.
The advisory applies to motherboards manufactured by major global vendors including ASRock Inc., GIGABYTE, MSI, ASUS, and AMD based platforms. Systems running on Intel 500, 600, 700, and 800 series chipsets, along with several AMD chipset platforms, have been identified as vulnerable. These chipsets are commonly used in desktop systems across homes, enterprises, educational institutions, and government offices.
According to CERT-In, the vulnerabilities stem from flaws in early boot protection mechanisms that are meant to ensure systems start securely and prevent unauthorised changes. If exploited, attackers could bypass key security checks, gain elevated privileges, and take control of affected devices. The risk is considered higher in situations where attackers may gain physical access, such as shared workspaces, public institutions, or unsecured office environments.
The agency warned that such attacks could weaken core security foundations and enable persistent threats that are difficult to detect or remove once embedded at the firmware or boot level. This poses a serious risk for organisations that handle sensitive information or manage critical infrastructure.
CERT-In has urged organisations, IT administrators, and individual users to immediately assess their systems. This includes checking motherboard models, chipset details, and firmware versions to confirm whether systems are affected. Users are advised to follow mitigation steps issued by hardware vendors, apply recommended BIOS or firmware updates, and strengthen physical security controls wherever possible.
The advisory highlights the growing importance of hardware and firmware security, as cyber attackers increasingly target the most fundamental layers of computing systems to gain long term and covert access.
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