Read this if you have an Acer laptop.

Started by Vekseid, January 10, 2007, 12:13:45 PM

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Vekseid

http://vuln.sg/acerlunchapp-en.html

I have an Acer laptop.  It's rather distressing that a company would do this :-/

HairyHeretic

You don't recall Sonys rootkit fiasco last year?
Hairys Likes, Dislikes, Games n Stuff

Cattle die, kinsmen die
You too one day shall die
I know a thing that will never die
Fair fame of one who has earned it.

NightBird

It's standard on OEM software installations for most American companies. They put all sorts of garbage on your system, many of which have security issues. It's been happening since the mid-90s for certain. My ex and I were involved in systems testing, but I can't say for which company, or I'd be in deep violation of the NDA I signed. This is why you don't get a real copy of Windows with your PC for you to install all clean and vanilla. You get the version that the company has already tweaked, along with 'backup disks' that will reinstall everything to 'factory original,' meaning still with all their tweaks in place.

Vekseid

Quote from: hairyheretic on January 10, 2007, 05:27:48 PM
You don't recall Sonys rootkit fiasco last year?

I'm well aware of it.  This is worse, though - it's been around for seemingly eight years, and done by a computer manufacturer rather than the entertainment arm of a megacorp.

NightBird: If an ActiveX object that allowed remote command-line execution was installed on all Dell machines, there would be hell to pay of the highest order.  Classified work gets done on those things - a lot.

alahendra

OK Silly question time...

Can't you get rid of it?
"You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by his red right hand..."

Os & Os: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=5351.0

Vekseid

Of course.  The instructions are on the page linked.

alahendra

See? I told you it was a silly question...

*obviously missed that part of the page linked*

Another question, maybe not so silly...is this only a serious problem if you are using Internet Exploder Explorer, or does using a different browser make it safer?
"You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by his red right hand..."

Os & Os: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=5351.0

Vekseid

Well in this case yes, but nothing prevents some program you install inserting a firefox plugin which is similarly flawed.

IE 7.0 runs in a sandbox, and even patched IE 6 will warn the user.  It's still... annoying, though.