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Trojan Found In New HDs Sold In Taiwan

Posted by kdawson on from the bourne-again dept.

GSGKT writes "About 1,800 brand new 300-GB or 500-GB external hard drives made for Maxtor in Thailand were found to have trojan horse malwares pre-installed (autorun.inf and ghost.pif). When the HD is in use, these forward information on the disk to two websites in Beijing, China: www.nice8.org or www.we168.org. The article implies that authorities believe the Chinese government is behind the trojans. A later article pins down the point of infection to a subcontractor company in China. A couple of months back the Register was reporting on pre-installed malware detected on Maxtor disks sold in the Netherlands. This earlier report was downplayed by a Seagate spokesman." The more recent Taipei Times article says that Seagate admits the problem on its Web site, but a search there turns up nothing.

13 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Same by renegadesx · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lead in paint, malware in HD's same thing really

    --
    Make SELinux enforcing again!
  2. First off... by explosivejared · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone who doesn't wipe a new drive first off is just begging for this sort of thing. Secondly, I guess it's a new competition for Chinese manufacturers to see what's the worst secret addition to a product sent overseas. Lead in toys, GHB in toys, phone-homes on HDD's... what's next killer bees in new TV's... really. Consumerism bites!!

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    I got a catholic block.
    1. Re:First off... by colfer · · Score: 5, Informative

      Overriding autorun can be done in the registry, so you don't have to remember to hold down the shift key. Does it work for USB hard drives? Probably. These are the notes I have.

      Works for USB drives and CD-ROMS.
      [2007/10, from:
      http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/09/11/disable-auto-run-and-auto-play-of-u3-smart-drives-launchpad/%5D

            1. Click Start -> Run.
            2. Type RegEdit in the Open text box, then press ENTER.
            3. In the Registry Editor, locate and click the following registry key:

                  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom
            4. Modify the value of the Autorun to 0 (zero) so that CD-ROMs and Audio CDs do not run and start automatically when inserted.
            5. Next navigate to the following registry subkey:

                  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
            6. Modify the value of the NoDriveTypeAutoRun entry to 0xb5 value to turn off the AutoRun feature for CD-ROMs by right-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun and then click Modify to type B5 in the Value data box. Select Hexadecimal, and then click OK.
            7. Quit Registry Editor.
            8. Restart your computer.

    2. Re:First off... by timeOday · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sssh! The shift key is a copy-protection circumvention measure of questionable legality!

  3. It's a bargain! by techmuse · · Score: 5, Funny

    Most PCs ship without professionally produced malware installed. While everyone might *wish* that their PC came with such software, only a small percentage of customers are actually lucky enough to get their malware free of charge. Mac users, don't feel bad that your system won't come with it. You get iLife. :-)

  4. Obilgitory HOSTS comment: by killmofasta · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please add to your host files:
    127.0.0.1 www.nice8.org
    127.0.0.1 www.we168.org

    1. Re:Obilgitory HOSTS comment: by lordofthechia · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why not take some initiative.You can block the sites, or you can send them what they want! DATA! Send them lots of data, format it like it was sent with the virus and have fun coming up with a random assortment of websites to include in it (sure we could thing of a couple).

      So why ignore when you can use up their bandwidth and screw up their database. Just an idea.

      --
      Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
  5. Re:Not a trojan by Megane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A trojan is software that convinces the user to install it by looking like something else that the user might want to install.

    Something else like a... hard disk?

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    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  6. It could be worse by Tribbin · · Score: 5, Funny

    I once bought a computer with Windows preinstalled.

    --
    If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
  7. Oh, malware... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    By "Trojans Found In New HDs Sold In Taiwan", I thought they meant condoms.

    (OK, who's the comedian? My catchpas is "durable".)

    1. Re:Oh, malware... by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Funny

      By "Trojans Found In New HDs Sold In Taiwan", I thought they meant condoms.

      That would suck. Imagine hundreds of geeks getting a box in the mail from NewEgg filled with a product you have no use for.
  8. Re:Nope by LurkerXXX · · Score: 5, Informative

    3rd party tools? Who needs 3rd party tools?

    gpedit.msc

    It's a windows GUI tool.

    Computer Configuration > Click "Administrative Templates" > Click "System" > Double-Click "Turn off Autoplay", set it for "All Drives" and click the "apply" button.

  9. Troll Alert... by Belial6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    [Troll]
    That's the problem with Windows. It doesn't Just Work(tm). You have to know these cryptic menus to edit databases just to keep your new USB drive from running whatever application happens to be on it. Maybe one day Microsoft could start doing some real usability testing and get Windows to be as easy for a new user as Linux.
    [/Troll]