Acer May Be Bugging Computers

tomjen writes "What if a well known laptop company had silently placed an ActiveX Control on their computers that allowed any webpage to execute any program? Well Acer apparently has and they have (based on the last modified-by date of the file) been doing this since 1998. 'Checking the interface of the control reveals it has a method named "Run()" as shown below. The method supports parameters "Drive", "FileName", and "CmdLine". Isn't it strange for a control that's marked "safe for scripting" to allow a method that is suggestive of possible abuse?'"

Comments

Re:Late again!

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Mods, this is Informative. Not insightful. Morons.

There is still a reason I like Acer

[CapitalT]

It has the best laptop keyboard (writing this from a Toshiba)

acer

[msamoylov]

i have acer laptop and i can say for sure it's a piece of crap :(

Re:Phew!

[JudgeFurious]

Why do we call "pig" ham and "cow" beef? When we order chicken we just ask for chicken. It doesn't make sense.

I'll check this on my Acer

[CompMD]

I have an Acer Travelmate C303XMi convertible tablet running Windows XP Tablet edition. I will check out this bug on that machine and report back soon.

Re:But dude...

[mysticgoat]

My sig made me post this. Otherwise, I don't really have anything to say on the subject.

Acer are Evil

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

I had a touchpad fail on my new Acer a few years back. On their phone technical support they gave me the name of a local company who could repair it. At that point Acer told me I had voided the warranty by having a 3rd party look at it and I had to pay for the repair. This is the dirtiest trick I've ever had played on me by a company. Fortunately I lost less than $100 and was able to get my money back through the store that had sold me it. But it's one of the few times I've felt like firebombing a company.