NUC8 BIOS Security Jumper Settings

[UMath]

Intel® NUC Products

NUC8i3BE/NUC8i5BE/NUC8i7BE

Technical Product Specification PDF

Table 28 / page 41 and 42

BIOS Security Jumper Settings

Function/Mode: Lockdown

Jumper Setting: 2-3

Is the BIOS write-protected?

Is the BIOS protected against manipulation?

Protected against UEFI viruses and malicious code?

For example LoJax?

This is not clear in the manual.

[David_V_Intel]

Hello UMath, Thank you for posting on the Intel ® communities. In this case we have not receive any reports so far about issues with "LoJax" as you have mentioned, our BIOS should be secure; however, keep in mind that you can keep it safer by adding a password to the BIOS, you can do this from the security section of the BIOS. Now, the way of actually adding or manipulating something like that would be to directly be interacting with the unit. If you have a password with it however. it is not possible to be managed or changed. I hope this helps. Regards, David V Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[UMath]

Hallo David V,

Thank you for your reply. You helped me a lot.

I still have 2 questions.

Question 1:

Will a stored Supervisor Password interfere with a later BIOS update?

Question 2:

Will setting the BIOS Security Jumper from "Normal (1-2)" to "Lockdown (2-3)" still give me more security?

Regards,

UMath

[David_V_Intel]

Hello UMath, Thank you for your response. To answer your questions: 1 - It is possible that, when updating the BIOS of the system and keeping a password ON, the system may no longer recognize the password after the update, that is the reason why we recommend to remove the password before updating. This is a recommended practice for any system with password-protected BIOS. 2 - It will give you more security and control with what is accessed in the Intel ® NUC, for example, it will ask for a password for every POST setting you may want to change, including boot menu, BIOS and power button menu. Regards, David V Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[UMath]

Hallo David V,

Thank you for your reply. You helped me a lot.

I have one last question left.

It concerns the version numbers of the BIOS updates.

For example, in the Intel Donloadcenter on the Intel NUC Kit NUC8i3BEK.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/de/product/126149/Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC8i3BEK

I currently have version 00048.

There are now versions 00051, 00064 and 00066.

Can I update from version 00048 directly to version 00066? Or do I first have to carry out the updates for version 0051 and 0064?

Regards,

UMath

[David_V_Intel]

Hello UMath, Thank you for your response. It is strongly recommended to update the BIOS version by version (Available in the download center) until the latest one. This is to avoid any possible corruption during the update of BIOS version. I hope this helps. Regards, David V Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation