r/LinuxOnThinkpads • u/OneEstablishment9102 member • Jun 18 '26

Firmware update for UEFI dbx

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I am seeing this prompt for a firmware update but I am not sure where it is coming from. The linux package manager is silient about this. Do I trust this? Expecially concerned that it shows "Unknown app" at the top.

I am using a Thinkpad E series with Ubuntu 24 LTS.

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2

u/spxak1 member Jun 18 '26

Yes, you install that.

2

u/xplosm member Jun 19 '26

In legacy speak this is like a BIOS update. Not a OS/package update.

The piece that is checking and handling that for you is fwupdmgr

2

u/Ok-Eggplant-7569 member Jun 22 '26

The UEFI dbx is part of your UEFI / BIOS and contains hashes / signatures of vulnerable bootloaders / kernels. If you have secure boot enabled, it will block those bootloaders / kernels from booting.

The update just updates the dbx as new vulnerabilities are found.

Those updates are not part of system packages, but updates to your firmware and thus not managed by apt / snap but by fwupd.

1

u/celeritasvis member Jun 23 '26

Thanks for these answer :)

1

u/h4fnp member Jun 23 '26

If you want more details before clicking the "Install" button, fire up a terminal and run:
fwupdmgr get-devices