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HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

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141–150 of 184 posts

Re: HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It amazes me that Microsoft haven't replaced the Registry how does this amaze anyone? how do people think backwards compatibility works? Microsoft, supporting Windows, promises to make every effort to maintain backwards compatibility wherever possible so that programs compiled for, say, Windows 95 will run unmodified on Windows 10. Not every program from 20+ years ago runs, but a lot do! That's a very hard thing to…

>how does this amaze anyone? how do people think backwards compatibility works? That doesn't have anything with backwards compatibility. Nothing forces MS to stick to old ad-hoc memory dump format. Neither there is anything that would suggest registry is deprecated, new Windows components keep using it and adding piles of junk into it.

not everyone uses the APIs to interact with the registry. some manipulate the file itself. it's not supposed to be possible, but it is, and people do it. you have to keep the registry itself to keep backwards compatibility.

if everyone used the API, then yes you're correct. in my opinion, Microsoft should do what you stated, but they don't want to, out of fear of breaking backwards compatibility for people who do the wrong thing. their needs are just as valid as yours or mine.

Re: HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

#142
post #23

I am legitimately not sure if this is a bug or a feature. I'll take all the side-channels I can get though. These "exploits" are really useful for regaining control over my own PC. Just yesterday I learned how to Run-As TrustedInstaller, and that let me remove a lot of unwanted bullshit on my windows 10 install.

>" for regaining control over my own PC. Just yesterday I learned how to Run-As TrustedInstaller, and that let me remove a lot of unwanted bullshit on my windows 10 install." I understand Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, Magic-Pony-OS is not everyone's cup of tea or they might not be in a position to choose their OS (Work etc) But DAMN that quote above is really showing me how bad it is out there ! Sure it can/does happen on oth…

> Magic-Pony-OS

and there I was thinking you were joking, but there's actually a PonyOS!

https://www.ponyos.org/

Re: HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

#143
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm betting Windows is the leader in "my-pc-is-not-my-pc-anymore" :/ There are PCs out there running ChromeOS and Android. Not to mention smartphones and game consoles. Windows is not good in this regard, but it's by far not the worst (though the UX for administrative actions is really not great, IMO).

(Nearly?) All ChromeOS devices use CoreBoot. You really can't get much more open than that. Android is open source and if you don't buy a locked down device from a carrier, the bootloader is unlockable and the system easily rootable. Your two examples of something more 'not my pc anymore' than Windows aren't exactly good ones. Now, if you were to mention MacOS and iOS... then you definitely would have had a point.

> Android is open source and if you don't buy a locked down device from a carrier, the bootloader is unlockable and the system easily rootable.

Yes but it's a subpar experience compared to the closed Android.

I use GrapheneOS since about a year, and I can't do much with my phone anymore. I stay on it for the same reason I have Kubuntu on my PC: it's a relief to know it's not Microsoft's / Google's all seeing eye.

Re: HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

#144
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it was the only way to remove defender. Then I used debloaters and shutup10 to remove all other "features". Windows didn't like it and returned ALL of them on update. Now I disabled update, and are totally motivated to go back to linux. Luckily all the tools I use on Windows are x-platform and with PowerShell, vscode, sql server etc. on linux and games working nothing holds me any more. I will probably miss Aut…

>Yeah, it was the only way to remove defender Why not just disable it using group policy?

For one thing, setting that policy merits a malware detection in defender itself!

https://twitter.com/Karunamon/status/1413280394439397376

Re: HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

#145
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Implementing the registry APIs, but backed by a regular filesystem (as Wine does) would be the sensible thing for Windows to do. (I looked at the source of Wine just now and I'm fairly sure nowhere does it process hive files.)

PowerShell exposes the hives as a directory structure, and has for a decade or more. just type "HKLM:" or whatever hive you want and start using "cd" and "dir" all you want. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/sample...

Sure, but it's still converting to and from the weird hive format.

Re: HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>" for regaining control over my own PC. Just yesterday I learned how to Run-As TrustedInstaller, and that let me remove a lot of unwanted bullshit on my windows 10 install." I understand Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, Magic-Pony-OS is not everyone's cup of tea or they might not be in a position to choose their OS (Work etc) But DAMN that quote above is really showing me how bad it is out there ! Sure it can/does happen on oth…

I've been spending the last 48 hours strongly pondering Linux as a daily driver. If it wasn't for my crippling visual studio addiction, I'd probably be able to swap all my PCs over, with the exception of the one bastard stepchild win10 that I will keep in the closet for when BF2042 is released. Virtualization is another option that I am investigating actively now. I could even see the path for getting our product off…

> visual studio addiction

For me, rider is quickly replacing visual studio as my daily driver for programming.

Re: HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been spending the last 48 hours strongly pondering Linux as a daily driver. If it wasn't for my crippling visual studio addiction, I'd probably be able to swap all my PCs over, with the exception of the one bastard stepchild win10 that I will keep in the closet for when BF2042 is released. Virtualization is another option that I am investigating actively now. I could even see the path for getting our product off…

>Microsoft should consider a "hacker" build of windows that starts as a bare-ass powershell prompt WinPE? Server Core?

WinPE is not designed for that. See limitations. Basically it forgets anything on restart and its even worst then that.

Core has other problems and it doesn't use PowerShell by default, it can't run x32 apps too.

So no, there is nothing available right now.

Re: HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>" for regaining control over my own PC. Just yesterday I learned how to Run-As TrustedInstaller, and that let me remove a lot of unwanted bullshit on my windows 10 install." I understand Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, Magic-Pony-OS is not everyone's cup of tea or they might not be in a position to choose their OS (Work etc) But DAMN that quote above is really showing me how bad it is out there ! Sure it can/does happen on oth…

I've been spending the last 48 hours strongly pondering Linux as a daily driver. If it wasn't for my crippling visual studio addiction, I'd probably be able to swap all my PCs over, with the exception of the one bastard stepchild win10 that I will keep in the closet for when BF2042 is released. Virtualization is another option that I am investigating actively now. I could even see the path for getting our product off…

> Microsoft, are you out there? Charge me $1000. I swear I'll pay it if you promise to not shove updates, telemetry, defender or cortana down my throat ever again.

Count me in too. Give me minimal install then shut up and take my money.

Re: HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been spending the last 48 hours strongly pondering Linux as a daily driver. If it wasn't for my crippling visual studio addiction, I'd probably be able to swap all my PCs over, with the exception of the one bastard stepchild win10 that I will keep in the closet for when BF2042 is released. Virtualization is another option that I am investigating actively now. I could even see the path for getting our product off…

> visual studio addiction For me, rider is quickly replacing visual studio as my daily driver for programming.

My entire team uses VS and I have no problems loading the same projects in vscode and being equally productive (or better). Had to fix few quirks here and there before solution would load but nothing too complicated.

Re: HiveNightmare a.k.a. SeriousSAM – anybody can read the registry in Windows 10

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been spending the last 48 hours strongly pondering Linux as a daily driver. If it wasn't for my crippling visual studio addiction, I'd probably be able to swap all my PCs over, with the exception of the one bastard stepchild win10 that I will keep in the closet for when BF2042 is released. Virtualization is another option that I am investigating actively now. I could even see the path for getting our product off…

I've found VSCode and dotnet 5/core be amazingly liberating from the the slow bloated mess that is Visual Studio and the old .NET Framework. This is the way it should have always been, but I'm happy we finally got here.

This.

No more need for VS really or any other proprietary bloatware.

First thing I do on new machine is `choco install vscode` then it synces my extensions and I am ready to roll. As extra benefit `code` is usable ASAP in CLI and I can pipe anything to it.

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