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We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled
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Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled
#12Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled
#13The story here is not the fact of the malware - it is the purpose of the malware: industrial espionage. China is well-known in industry for its sheer volume and brazenness of industrial espionage. A pick-and-place machine is especially well placed for this since it will, by necessity, have access to PCB designs and BOMs.
Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled
#14Hug of death probably so I cannot read the article.
Anyway that's the reason why I don't buy Chinese crap anymore. I'm not saying that I don't buy anything made in China, almost everything is made in China, but everyone should avoid Chinese crapware.
If something doesn't match the description send it back, if you find random executables that you cannot identify send it back, if you are asked to register on some weird Chinese website send it back, if you are asked to download a sketchy application with a Chinese readme send it back, etc...
After a while you'll notice you are sending everything back.
And it is not only Aliexpress or other Chinese marketplaces or websites, Amazon is full of Chinese crapware just the same.
edit: read the article from archive, well it just confirms to me what I wrote earlier.
Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled
#15Given that Windows 7 _Ultimate_ was installed on what is essentially an OEM machine, it's very likely that it's a pirated copy with a "home brewed" license key.
I think the most reasonable explanation is that either the OS was sourced already infected, or the crack tool they used was infected.
Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled
#16I do wonder if this really was sabotage or if someone building these machines accidentally got their installer USB infected with some unrelated malware. If this was a targeted attack, I'd expect the manufacturer to ship the infection in the zip file with the replacement program as well.
The old components and the lack of modern drivers is a problem many industrial tools seem to suffer from. It's crap like the bad capture card that keeps Windows XP and 7 around. I don't expect there ever to be any modern drivers for an outdated capture platform unless a hobbyist writes their own open source version, so unless a compatible enough alternative card with modern drivers can be installed, I assume this machine is doomed to run Windows 7 for years to come.
Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled
#17> Presumably it would be a way to steal company information such as designs, accounts, and so on.
Does it collect user metrics like a lot of software does or does it actually steal designs? The report is absolutely not clear about this. I have not read many reports like this but are they all like the one they link to? Is that what a malware analysis looks like?
I'm completely behind the idea of calling every single software that collects user data and sends it off to a server malware but this is just not the case. We don't say Windows comes with malware, we in the West call it telemetry data to improve the user experience.
Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled
#18Is this anything new? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...
I'm a little bothered by the article title because it implies it's related to the manufacturer being from China, despite ample evidence that pretend-reputable software vendors like Google, Amazon and Microsoft all bundle universal backdoors with their systems.
Google infamously pushed settings changes on their phone lines without user consent via the Google Play Services backdoor. Amazon removed the (bought) book 1984 from all Kindles. Microsoft proudly bragged about their remote app "kill switch".
Let's not even talk about about CPU vendors embedding "anti-theft" solutions which are nothing more than RCE-as-a-service on a hardware/firmware level. Or hardware vendors bundling rootkits like Lenovo on some laptop series, and most phone manufacturers on all their devices.
Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled
#19If I have a choice I generally try to limit my purchases from “non free” countries.
It’s not always easy, the line is hardly easy to see, but it is a choice I will go out of my way to make.
Re: We purchased a machine from China and it came with malware preinstalled
#20> Presumably it would be a way to steal company information such as designs, accounts, and so on. Does it collect user metrics like a lot of software does or does it actually steal designs? The report is absolutely not clear about this. I have not read many reports like this but are they all like the one they link to? Is that what a malware analysis looks like? I'm completely behind the idea of calling every single s…
malware is any software that hides its existence from user.
The windows telemetry is on edge of being malwere, even if its of no consequence to you. You cant say it will always stay that way.