Security problem BIOS Dell Inspiron 16 Plus (7610)

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus (7610) has a serious security problem in the Thunderbolt implementation, in BIOS v1.7.0 configuration:

This BIOS version has a security-critical option "Disable Docking Station Devices except video"

Turning on this option is designed to prevent hacking of the laptop by way of disabling PCIE tunnelling.

Problems:

a) turning on this option, applying changes, and rebooting, does _not_ disable PCIE tunnelling; the laptop can be attacked

b) turning on this option, applying changes, and entering BIOS again shows that the option is not turned on any more

As this is a BIOS security problem, it exists on Windows and on Linux. On Linux an additional way to demonstrate the problem is to simply

cat /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/domain0/security

The expected result of that is "nopcie" (which is derived from what the BIOS sends). The actual result is "none" - i.e. there is *no security at all on the Dell 7610 Thunderbolt 4 implementation*.

Do note that Thunderbolt also offers a BIOS authenticate model. Dell have also turned off this BIOS authentication model, so device authentication also cannot be made.