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Top Windows OEM Lenovo Urges Customers To Uninstall Accelerator Application (lenovo.com)
Two-Factor Authentication service Duo Security reported earlier that third-party updating tools found on Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus (the top five Windows OEMs) are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attack. Hours later, Lenovo, the world's largest Windows OEM by shipment figure, has issued an advisory in which it urges users to uninstall Accelerator Application, which comes preinstalled on many of its laptops and desktops models. Fortune reports: Specifically, as Lenovo said in an advisory notice, the auto-update feature in its Accelerator Application software can be exploited by a "man-in-the-middle attack" -- someone could get in between the computer and the server pushing out the updated software, fooling the computer into installing a fake version of the update instead of the genuine article. Such attacks can allow anything from surreptitious malware installation to the insertion of surveillance capabilities, or even the hijacking of PCs.
Just getting that out of the way for the "Linux cures everything" crowd.
Here we go again
Kids, just say NO to drugs!
I wouldn't be surprised if more attacks don't start targeting the installed-by-default bloatware on most home and some business PCs. From what I've seen, these steaming piles are usually written by the cheapest offshore dev place the vendor could find, or are licensed reskinned third-party applications using a million out of date components. The good news is that there are fewer vendor-specific tools absolutely _required_ to run hardware on a Windows laptop anymore because Microsoft provides native controls for most components in Windows 10. The bad news is that the few that remain required are very tied to the hardware and probably have a lot of privilege use on the system that people don't know about. Just look at what happens on some HP laptops when you press the Volume or Brightness keys -- CPU spikes for a few seconds while Windows loads whatever .NET module HP wrote to talk to the device driver and tell it to do its thing. I doubt any of that interaction is heavily audited or even well tested before it goes out.
All the more reason to just wipe the machine and install a clean OS build from scratch when you get it!
This headline brought to you by the department of redundancy department.
The app so nice, they had to name it twice?
Or maybe it's an Application Application because of two-factor?
The Slashdot post and the article referenced has to do mostly with Lenovo, not HP.
NTLite + (Windows10 ISO | Insider Preview ISO) + slipstreamed Lenovo Drivers + create ISO.
Rufus to USB Stick (GPT Partition Scheme, FAT32).
Clean Install Windows 10. Change License key to: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Change License key to purchased Windows 10 Pro key. Register.
Don't even bother trying to use the recommended Media Creation Tool. When you have a OEM Windows machine it appears to ALWAYS fail to actually create the media (usb stick).
This planet has a problem, which is this: most of the people living on it are unhappy pretty much all of the time. Many solutions are suggested for this problem, but most of these are largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it isn't the small green pieces of paper that are unhappy.
Many are increasingly of the opinion that we've all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some say that even the trees have been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.
Just use the exploit in the application to uninstall the application. Users who would be effected by the exploit will have the application removed, users who would not be effected will not have it removed.
Is it legal? No. But who among the people that still have this bloatware installed is going to notice?
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
do a fresh install from a Win10 iso. That way all crapware from lenovo is gone. Or... Install Linux!
It's not "bloatware", it's "subsidyware".
The software subsidizes the cost of the hardware. Software makers pay to have this software installed, and the PC maker passes savings on to you!
Don't like it? Pay the full cost of the hardware.
Software makers pay between $1-$10 per piece of software, and a typical PC may have hundreds of applications.
Don't like "bloatware" on your $350 PC, prepare to pay $700.
Dpn't like "bloatware" on your $500 laptop, prepare to pay $1000.
When I first received my Lenovo laptop I immediately removed the copy of windows it came pre-installed with along with the not-so-wondrous bloatware, and installed a clean copy of Ubuntu after zeroing out the m2 drive.
Since I've always loved the "IBM keyboard", I bought a lenovo laptop a couple of years ago. It was so insanely full of bloatware with all forms of stange behavior trying to get me to download more crap, register at suspicious sites etc. I tried to get rid of a lot of it, but the machine was slow and some things did not seem to be possible to get rid of and in the end I had to reinstall Windows. To get a Windows DVD to install from, I had to go to some Lenovo site and pay some money for shipping. And that site tried to get me to pay to some bank in Slovakia (I'm in Sweden) and that's when I went out and bought a new license for Windows. Also the last time I buy anything from Lenovo except for standalone "laptop-ish" keybboard.
Summary: Spent a number of hours trying to get the machine into shape, had to pay an extra Windwos license and had to spend tie to do a reinstall of Windows before I dared using the machine. After that, the mahcine has served its purpose and I can't complain about the hardware (and works fine as a dual-boot too), but never again that I buy some preinstalled crapware laptop.
Do you have an original thought, or just like stealing quotes without attribution?
This planet has a problem, which is this: most of the people living on it are unhappy pretty much all of the time. Many solutions are suggested for this problem, but most of these are largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it isn't the small green pieces of paper that are unhappy.
Many are increasingly of the opinion that we've all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some say that even the trees have been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.
This would be a witty comment if you didn't steal it form Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Don't quote Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and not give credit. You suck.
Why VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).