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LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

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Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#371

Post by mixmastamyk »

evilduck wrote: post #337
treyd wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> don't fool yourself if you think this won't come to the Linux world. I'm curious what you mean by this. I'm not necessarily rejecting the point, but I also don't see how this could happen without substantial shifts in the industry first.

Yeah, curious here too. Torvalds would need to pass first I think, and I just don't see other major players like RedHat, Google, Canonical, or Valve introducing this themselves or agreeing to do it in aggregate. And as end users we could still fork and patch it out. Some shitty company might try but I don't think it would stand.

Lots of bad ideas have come to Linux, like non-consensual telemetry, mobile-first interfaces etc. Don’t believe? Run OpenSnitch.

Traditional CADT means features get lost over time.

It is not immune from these forces, just not a focus by the powers that be. Fewer developers remember the good old days of Y2Kas as well, meaning they don’t resist these forces instinctively, since they grew up in iOS captivity.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#372

Post by drnick1 »

999900000999 wrote: post #230
regexorcist wrote: post #166

Seriously, why use Windows in 2026? Such a hideous OS and ecosystem with endless malware, backdoors, and dark patterns.

Linux is great if you win the hardware support lottery. I've had several laptops where audio just doesn't work even on rolling releases. Or the screen freezing up constantly. This was all with relatively new hardware within the last year or so. My issue with the Linux community is if you bring this up it's all of a sudden the fault of everyone but Linux. The end user should of picked better hardware. The hardware OEM…

You don't have to win the hardware support lottery if you do a bit of research or buy a laptop made for it.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#373

Post by msla »

There's two maxims:

You get what you pay for.

If you're the customer, you're the product.

"You get what you pay for" means if you buy proprietary software, you get software from proprietary vendors who act like modern proprietary vendors act these days, which is using every avenue to maximize profits. There's no recourse, because it is proprietary and, therefore, belongs to the software maker, and not you. It is not your property, it is theirs.

Which leads into...

"If you're the customer, you're the product" because customers are valuable products. You willingly bought the service, so your data is data from someone who is interested in the company and probably willing to buy more from it and its partners if the company can target you. Your data, therefore, has resale value, making you a product to be sold.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#374

Post by garciansmith »

timpera wrote: post #336
inigyou wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your OS is malware, if it's Windows.

Windows may not be the best OS for you but it definitely isn't malware.

If Windows continually supports third parties installing malware (without your consent and through Windows update, not some third party updater), at what point can the OS itself be considered malware?

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#375

Post by drnick1 »

scottydelta wrote: post #321
newsoftheday wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a smart TV on the way. We do not plan to run the setup, it won't have Internet access. We plan to do what we've done for over a decade now, connect our Kubuntu laptop in the entertainment center to it and select it as the default input device. And occasionally watch OTA TV shows. So we will use it as ... a monitor and plain TV, that happens to have far better video and sound quality than our old TV.

that's the same conclusion I came to and the device I am developing is basically a Raspberry Pi with my own modified OS that has a casting canvas and it can show all kinds of content. No third-party installs, ads and spywares!

Not sure what your homegrown solution is, but check out Plasma Bigscreen too.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#376

Post by deathanatos »

Malware like this will continue until there is privacy laws that make it illegal.

The GN video focuses a lot on consent, and while maybe this is notionally currently illegal without consent, that just steers towards companies shipping a generic ToS popup, claiming you "read" that 1.8 PiB of ToS, and including the "oh btdubs we can modify these terms at any times and if you want to go to court lol forced arbitration has other ideas about that."

MS & Windows having conditioned users to expect / think they need drivers for peripherals speaking standard protocols is also part of this. A monitor shouldn't need a driver. It takes the pixels, it displays the pixels.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#377

Post by rsync »

felooboolooomba wrote: post #222
gkbrk wrote: post #109

A monitor cannot install software on your computer by the way. It's Windows installing this software automatically (for some reason), so the blame should be on Microsoft. Autorun of malware when you plugged in a USB drive was also a Windows issue, I'd classify this as the same security problem.

> A monitor cannot install software on your computer by the way. I think everyone in the HN crowd knows that. > the blame should be on Microsoft No, they blame should ALSO be on Microsoft, they are the enablers.

“I think everyone in the HN crowd knows that.”

I would think everyone in the HN crowd would be aware of HEAC, the hdmi Ethernet channel, etc.

With full access to the hosts tcp/ip stack, we’d do well not to overlook the potential vectors for a monitor to install software on your computer… especially when the operating system is complicit.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#378

Post by londons_explore »

orbital-decay wrote: post #128
devttyeu wrote: post #20

This is so much worse that the title makes it out to be: 1. Your OS installs malware (technically manufacturers software) from a 3rd party vendor in background, zero user interaction 2. Happens as soon as you or anyone with physical access plug in a device into the HDMI port 3. That malware has internet and full system access, no sandboxing 4. It starts with every system boot 5. This software gets installed when you…

>This situation has.. no precedent as far as I can tell.. Printer, mouse, tablet and display tablet makers use this to insert their crapware since at least Windows Vista or Windows 7, I think. The last one I remember is plugging a Razer mouse just to watch it instantly pulling 1.5GB of bloated junk with "telemetry" exfiltrating the data from my gaming PC in realtime. At least it doesn't leave my mouse in a non-workin…

Microsoft could easily make a rulebook for drivers, and say any company which violates the rulebook can only send open source drivers, or even ban them from driver distribution entirely which would quickly kill a consumer hardware brand.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#379

Post by mrob »

globalnode wrote: post #194
Findecanor wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago, plugging in a Razer USB mouse made Windows download and run a installer from which the current user could start PowerShell with administrator privileges. Razer first tried to downplay the issue, but fixed it later. [1] The USB protocol does not have any authentication, just a VendorID/ProductID pair: 2×16 bits that Windows uses for looking up the driver package to install. Programming a MCU to use an…

not a usb programmer, but are you saying i can buy any old usb chip and program it with any vendors ID and spoof windows into giving me admin? if so, gj micrcosoft.

You can also spoof a keyboard and simulate keystrokes to open terminals and run arbitrary commands. I don't know about Windows, but on Linux it's possible to block USB connections by default and filter them in userspace:

https://usbguard.github.io/

This allows enforcing rules like "never add an additional keyboard". But the USB protocol has no support for strong device authentication, so there's no way to prevent a device from acting like a malicious version of something in the device class you expected it to be without abandoning "plug and play" altogether (a reasonable solution in secure environments where unused ports are often physically blocked).

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#380

Post by xboxnolifes »

dimgl wrote: post #288
Chaosvex wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Razer was always low quality garbage at premium prices. Gamer marketing for you.

What do you recommend instead? In my opinion the Razer mice are always superior for FPS.

80% of a mouse decision should be which form fits best for your hand. Unfortunately for me that's razor mice. (Well, the Viper v2, I dont love the v3 I have now.)
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