Some systems running Linux distribution Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) no longer boot due to the BootHole patch. The BootHole vulnerability in the popular Grub2 boot loader makes it possible for criminals to access Linux systems.
The patch was supposed to fix the BootHole vulnerability but prevents some Linux systems from booting. In any case, it affects RHEL 8.2 and RHEL 7.8, while RHEL 7.9 and RHEL 8.1 may also experience problems.
Red Hat advises users not to install the BootHole patches until these issues are resolved. If users have already installed these patches, they should under no circumstances restart the system. These users are advised to use one roadmap to remove these patches. It is also possible to roll back to an older version of Grub2. This still leaves the system vulnerable to the BootHole bug.
The startup problem also occurs on others Linuxdistributions such as Ubuntu and Debian. New updates have since been released to address the issue with these distributions.
BootHole
Cyber criminals can get through the BootHole vulnerability take control of the boot-loading process before the operating system boots. The vulnerability resides in the Grub2 boot loader. This popular boot loader is the most widely used boot loader for Linux distributions. Although it is possible to access all kinds of systems, in practice this is a lot more difficult, since criminals must have physical access to these systems.
Tip: Billions of Windows and Linux devices at risk from bug BootHole
–
