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Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

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Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#41

Post by lstamour »

nfmangano wrote: post #27

I'm surprised that this is just now news. I received complaints from people participating in our beta trial ( http://sketchtogether.com ) from as early as October 22nd, 2014 that our website was broken, and it was because of Superfish being installed on their lenovo laptops. When they uninstalled Superfish, our webpage started working again. Superfish injected a line of code that referenced "sf_main.jsp" from a remot…

Line 194 -- They customized their ad script for Lenovo. Making them entirely aware of what's going on...

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#42

Post by sounds »

lstamour wrote: post #36
lstamour wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The certificate technique they use dates back to at least 2010 (possibly only in add-on form back then?) See https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/mozilla.support.fi... for example. This causes other problems too: http://www.id.ee/index.php?id=37046 It's not alone in this behavior: http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/display/istcontrib/Programs+tha...

What's funny is that they have three apps for photo-based matching of products...and pets. They really are a "visual search" company, a CA start-up of 80-200 people according to LinkedIn... They just seem to have forgotten the "don't be evil" parts of their business model...

I think you mean "do no evil"? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9013374

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#44

Post by rodgerd »

michaelelliot wrote: post #26

Just found this: Spy agencies ban Lenovo PCs on security concerns (27th July 2013) - http://www.afr.com/p/technology/spy_agencies_ban_lenovo_pcs_... "Multiple intelligence and defence sources in Britain and Australia confirmed there is a written ban on computers made by the Chinese company [Lenovo] being used in “classified” networks."

Another black eye if they knew about Superfish and didn't alert their citizens.

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#46

Post by BorisMelnik »

As a Lenovo owner, I'm really pissed off, and offended. I feel violated. I just can't comprehend how they could think they wouldn't get caught at something like this. Especially with the current climate of the privacy movement in the US. This is bad, very bad for Lenovo.

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#48

Post by mojoe »

faster wrote: post #13

This reinforces my policy of buying laptops with the cheapest drive offered and replacing the drive with an SSD before the first boot. I run Linux anyway, so booting Windows has no value for me.

I recently did this exact thing -- bought a Lenovo laptop with a 5400 RPM disk drive, and immediately popped it out and replaced it with a Crucial MX100 SSD. Installed Linux, it works great :)

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#49

Post by acadien »

ohazi wrote: post #37
acadien wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it that the firmware can achieve? Is the firmware capable hijacking data, communicating with the NIC and transmitting data? Or is it somehow injecting harmful code? I feel like I'm missing something here.

Brilliant demonstration from a few years ago of what's possible with a hard drive firmware hack. You're basically completely fucked. http://spritesmods.com/?art=hddhack&page=1

Thanks, exactly the kind of information I was trying to elicit.

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#50

Post by Untit1ed »

jamesmcq24 wrote: post #15

Was just about to purchase a lenovo... although I would have wiped it and installed linux immediately this has caused me to look elsewhere. when will companies learn this kind of behavior is toxic to their business?

Unfortunately a very small proportion of potential customers are going to hear or care about this... it's about as toxic to their business as stepping in some stinging nettles is toxic to me.
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