When you turn on your PC and notice that there’s a huge Christmas banner on your desktop, do not panic – your device is not compromised.
Hah, well a vendor just pushed unapproved executable to the device and ran it without consent. Under any definition or other context it’s definitely compromised.
This is why I boycott Logitech, they started pushing the Logitech Download Assistant through Windows Update as soon as you connect a Logitech mouse/keyboard.
It autoruns not only when it is first installed but on every startup.
It is rather annoying to try and uninstall it, I don’t get why there has been so little backlash against this…
Microsoft permitting this is devaluing Windows Update, the driver (.inf) should be installed automatically, any executable file that WU wants to download and run on your computer should just bring up a small Windows notification saying something like this:
The device you just installed requests to download and run the following program from Windows Update:
Logitech Download Assistant
Will you approve or reject this request? Approve/Reject
It is just terrible that this is permitted
I never knew about this (using Linux) but when I plugged my mouse onto a friend’s laptop and suddenly a big banner animated onscreen, my heart sank lol. No idea how this works but it was pretty unexpected.
This is why I boycott Logitech
You should boycott Microsoft instead. As you say, they’re the ones permitting it.
I would if I could, but I work with Windows and if I migrate to Linux at home, my skills in Windows would dimminish
Cannot confirm, I have a g903, paired mouse pad, and their brio webcam. I only have the G Hub, which I installed manually. Maybe they stopped this behavior?
It won’t be listed under programs and features, here you have more info:
https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/147661-how-remove-logitech-download-assistant.html
I had windows update try to brick the BIOS on my Lenovo workstation recently. I can’t believe Microsoft and manufacturers do this kind of shit. Luckily my workstation had dual BIOS so I could recover it. Between that and the fact that lenovo manufacturer locks their processors I would have waited until I could afford a supermicro had I known.
That shits on Lenovo because I never had an issue with Microsoft updating the UEFI of HP machines of our clients.
Welp, seems ASUS motherboards also push this by default: https://www.techpowerup.com/248827/asus-z390-motherboards-automatically-push-software-into-your-windows-installation
During testing for our Intel Core i9-9900K review we found out that new ASUS Z390 motherboards automatically install software and drivers to your Windows 10 System, without the need for network access, and without any user knowledge or confirmation. This process happens in complete network-isolation (i.e. the machine has no Internet or LAN access).
The ASUS UEFI firmware exposes an ACPI table to Windows 10, called “WPBT” or “Windows Platform Binary Table”. WPBT is used in the pre-built OEM industry, and is referred to as “the Vendor’s Rootkit.” Put simply, it is a script that makes Windows copy data from the BIOS to the System32 folder on the machine and execute it during Windows startup - every single time the system is booted.
So, sounds like a Windows-specific vulnerability feature.
Holy shit. I got Logitech peripherals, and an ASUS motherboard. I’m glad I’m on Linux. I still have Windows installed, and booted into it around 2 weeks ago, after it having lied dormant for four months. I didn’t notice anything being installed, but maybe I had to reboot first.
Quite possibly, my peripherals and motherboard are all too old to have this anti-feature. Do you know if there is a list of which of their hardware this is the case for?
Damnit, I always preferred Logitech mice. I guess I might have bought my last one.
Similarly (above), I can’t confirm this either, on two different Asus boards, still in support/updates. I’m assuming this requires their software to be installed, which there’s no point to, so I didn’t bother… Maybe it’s part of their armory crate system, which can (should) be disabled in the bios…
If it’s unwanted, disruptive, and (allegedly) impacts performance, that’s not “malware-like”. It’s malware.
I did not reply because it was obvious I made a mistake (as a partially blind person does when reading small text. And you took a widely accepted community name and format and gave it your own twist, then sent a PM that was obviously looking for drama. Which is further obvious here.
I think the title indicates that it’s like the malware known as “Christmas.exe”.
Edit: I have too much faith in humanity…
The title is pushing the narrative that “real companies” doing hostile bullshit isn’t “real malware”.
When companies ship malware, it should be called malware.
Most malware is corporate shitware.
Compared to the wealth of pop-ups, ads and tracker cookies ubiquitous in every website that are burning down forests so they can run black box algorithms to optimize dark patterns for extracting as much revenue as possible while working the sweatshop poor to the bone - worming their way into everything without the condom of extensions - a cryptostealer disguised as ChatGPT_NFT_money_explosion.exe made by some teenager in albania feels… benign.
From the article:
Even worse, the malware-looking Christmas wreath is linked to a process called “Christmas.exe.”
So the process was actually called that. It popped up on my machine this morning and I immediately started scanning the whole system for malware and searching to see if anyone else had this problem.
It also automatically reinstalls itself through a BIOS feature. That’s advanced level malware.
Who green lit this? I really hope that person gets fired immediately.
The lack of any visual link to ASUS isn’t even the biggest problem for me; it’s that ASUS rolls out a program that (presumably) puts itself in autostart by default and just pops up without prompt at all.
Edit: There’s a fucking setting in the BIOS to auto-install ASUS’ bullshit software? And it’s enabled by default… jesus fucking christ
Most computers firmware can store a Windows executable. Microsoft pushed for an addition to the ACPI tables called WPBT. That stores a Windows exectuable in the firmware. It is of course totally used for the intended purpose…
I’m always dismayed but not surprised by how many people don’t know about Windows Platform Binary Table, which has existed since Windows 8. It’s not exactly the type of feature that Microsoft or the board vendors would want to publicize, seeing as it gives them persistent rootkit capabilities on the same level as UEFI rootkits.
Most normal people’s model of Windows security is “if something goes wrong then I wipe the disk and reinstall Windows,” and WPBT completely breaks that model, and has been doing so for 12 years.
Thankfully there are ways to disable it:
There has been for years now. Disabling it is part of my first-time setup for a new board.
Curious, what do you run? Gigabyte is still meh, ASRock I’ve heard is questionable, MSI is blacklisted garbage for me after a failed bios update and failed flashback restore…
I’ve only heard good things about Aorus (which is basically Gigabyte), though
It is a part of the ASUS Armoury Crate software that is pre-installed on some ASUS PCs.
Always flash new OS if you buy a computer.
That won’t get rid of it unless you also manually go into the BIOS and disable the install ASUS Armoury Crate setting as explained in the article.
If you don’t do this it will automatically reinstall even on a fresh install of Windows. Some of these bloatware programs will even install without an internet connection! This absolutely ludicrously stupid feature is called WPBT and is used by lots of manufacturers. Luckily it doesn’t work on Linux (at least for now…).
It’s for the more novice users who can assemble a PC but don’t ever think go download / install drivers afterwards.
Most of the motherboard OEMs do this. I get a lot fewer tickets where the root cause of the issue can be boiled down to “never installed drivers afterwards installing Windows”, which is also helped by the fact that many drivers are also served through Windows Update.
According to this article: https://www.techpowerup.com/248827/asus-z390-motherboards-automatically-push-software-into-your-windows-installation it has already installed services on your computer that persist restarts by the time you are prompted to install Armoury Crate. In my opinion that is not acceptable at all.
That’s in the bios, it’s a pcie device that windows allows to inject root level code into your environement, you have to turn it off and hope nothing ever spoofs that pcie id because that’s a permanent hardware rootkit into your pc like EFI
That’s in the bios, it’s a pcie device that windows allows to inject root level code into your environement
What. The. Fuck. Are they the only one to install their crap so deep?
Universal Blue is my go-to. Their OSs feel like the future. They are so easy to use and low maintenance. The upgrades happen in the background and apply automatically when you restart your computer.
There are three flavors: Bazzite for gaming Bluefin and Aurora for basic workstations and developers
I went with Aurora for myself because I like the developer focused stuff. But I also do a lot of gaming. Even though it’s not gaming focused, it’s still great for gaming.
My wife uses it on her laptop, too. She doesn’t give a shit what her OS is as long as it works and she can use the browser.
EndeavourOS
Even for beginners it’s got a fantastic starting layout and default packages, but it’s still basically “just Arch Linux” where it counts so you get the best of both worlds.
Hi there. I just installed Kubuntu on a spare machine, but I ran into a problem with the snaps. How would one “de-snap” it? Can you point me in the right direction?
I’d love to know if this was just some guy who went ‘let’s ship it to all our customers!’ or if this was a C-level 300 hours of meetings type of thing which concluded that spreading christmas malware cheer was the right move.
this was downloaded and ‘installed’ by asus armory crate, which came from malware baked right into the bios of new and ‘newish’ asus motherboards (how to disable)
Remember when Lenovo did this?
