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[tlug] New Laptops with BIOS Rootkit Pre-Installed



No need to worry about rootkits and unsigned BIOS upgrades. Manufacturers are installing them in new machines. The issue seems to lie in the BIOS itself ... a layer below the OS, thus makes LIN installations just as vulnerable as WIN.

I suppose we're going to hear that it is never installed in laptops destined for Japan ...

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*Researchers find insecure BIOS 'rootkit' pre-loaded in laptops*

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3828&tag=nl.e550

LAS VEGAS — A popular laptop theft-recovery service that ships on
notebooks made by HP, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Gateway, Asus and
Panasonic is actually a dangerous BIOS rootkit that can be hijacked
and controlled by malicious hackers.

The service — called Computrace LoJack for Laptops — contains design
vulnerabilities and a lack of strong authentication that can lead to
“a complete and persistent compromise of an affected system,”
according to Black Hat conference presentation by researchers Alfredo
 Ortega and Anibal Sacco from Core Security Technologies.

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CL


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