This is an exploit in the shitty software that OEMs put on their Windows images. Stuff like this is practically universal (minus Apple), and the fact that Dell hasn't (AFAIK) actively bundled very evil malware with their computers makes them far from the worst offender.
This is exactly why you should remove any bundled software from vendors and try to start afresh when picking up a new machine.
Lenovo pulled a stunt before where they loaded their "extra software" inside UEFI to be installed by Windows after a fresh install.
That’s astounding. Suddenly my “zero the entire storage, including partition table” methodology which I always somewhat regarded as overkill appears to be reasonable and/or necessary.
General sanity aside, the whole exploit hinges on the fact that they used string parsing to check for the prefix "http". This wouldn't have been exploitable if they used a proper URL library.
Lenovo pulled a stunt before where they loaded their "extra software" inside UEFI to be installed by Windows after a fresh install.
That caused so much of a backlash that they released a new BIOS version without that stuff. As was absolutely fair. Abusing Windows' ability to obtain HW-drivers though UEFI (something which can be used for good) to bundle shit-ware is just absolutely rotten.
Microsoft should prevent this. It's not in their interest to allow OEMs to circumvent the normal software installation methods for Windows. It should be prohibited in whatever agreement OEMs make with Microsoft, and maybe Windows should prevent execution of such code if it's possible to tell it apart from drivers.