Many Linux users started complaining that their devices were unable to start up. Despite this, they received an abstruse message, “Something has gone seriously wrong.”
This issue has been raised due to the August 2024 Microsoft updates. The new updates are breaking dual boot on Linux systems with Secure Boot enabled. The Secure Boot is enabled to ensure that devices and other Windows systems are protected from malicious malware through the booting process.
The monthly patch release of Microsoft intends to fix a two-year-old vulnerability in GRUB. GRUB is a bootloader and boot manager for Linux and other devices. This vulnerability was rated 8.6 out of 10, which makes it easier for hackers to dodge the Secure Boot.
Therefore, the update affects the dual boot devices to run both Windows and Linux while Secure Boot is enabled. When users try to load Linux, an error message appears, “Verifying shim SBAT data failed: Security Policy Violation. Something has gone seriously wrong: SBAT self-check failed: Security Policy Violation.”
Moreover, the reports said that various distributors like Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Zorin OS, and Puppy Linux, are all affected by the update. Microsoft yet incapable of recognizing the error and didn’t respond to all those affected users.
On the contrary, the Microsoft Bulletin for CVE-20220-2601 ensures that the update would install an SBAT. Hence, the dual boot devices are not affected by the update but the old versions of Linux experience troubles.
In fact, there are affected systems that run recently released Linux versions, such as Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian 12.6.0. The only alleged way to activate the device is to disable the Secure Boot and then update the latest version of Linux, again re-abled the Secure Boot.
