Firmware Version

capriciousduck · February 14, 2026, 7:21am

So I see that the firmware version is like 4 years old (inside a KVM machine). I feel like since these are virtual machines and the kernel version is relatively new (6.8 in Noble VM), there’s no issue.

However I would like to doublecheck. In a security perspective should I be worried?

Following is what I see when I run hostnamectl

 Static hostname: jumphost
       Icon name: computer-vm
         Chassis: vm 🖴
      Machine ID: 79ddd724287b4835bea2718d23a522fa
         Boot ID: ea9eeefd05f44260a77f91a2e4211c6e
  Virtualization: kvm
Operating System: Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS              
          Kernel: Linux 6.8.0-50-generic
    Architecture: x86-64
 Hardware Vendor: QEMU
  Hardware Model: Standard PC _Q35 + ICH9, 2009_
Firmware Version: unknown
   Firmware Date: Wed 2022-02-02
    Firmware Age: 4y 1w 5d

Input from anyone is appreciated.

stgraber · February 14, 2026, 7:28am

github.com/tianocore/edk2

OvmfPkg/SmbiosPlatformDxe/SmbiosPlatformDxe.c

master


      
          VersStr = (CHAR16 *)FixedPcdGetPtr (PcdFirmwareVersionString);

          VersLen = StrLen (VersStr);

          if (VersLen < 3) {

            VersStr = L"unknown";

            VersLen = StrLen (VersStr);

          }

          

          DateStr = (CHAR16 *)FixedPcdGetPtr (PcdFirmwareReleaseDateString);

          DateLen = StrLen (DateStr);

          if (DateLen < 3) {

            DateStr = L"02/02/2022";

            DateLen = StrLen (DateStr);

          }

          

          DEBUG ((DEBUG_INFO, "FirmwareVendor:            \"%s\" (%d chars)\n", VendStr, VendLen));

          DEBUG ((DEBUG_INFO, "FirmwareVersionString:     \"%s\" (%d chars)\n", VersStr, VersLen));

          DEBUG ((DEBUG_INFO, "FirmwareReleaseDateString: \"%s\" (%d chars)\n", DateStr, DateLen));

          

          Type0 = AllocateZeroPool (sizeof (mOvmfDefaultType0) + VendLen + VersLen + DateLen + 4);

          if (Type0 == NULL) {

            return EFI_OUT_OF_RESOURCES;

It’s a random hard-coded date in the EDK2 firmware, completely unrelated to the actual build time.

stgraber · February 14, 2026, 7:32am