Comment by CaptDust@sh.itjust.works on Asus bombards Windows 11 with christmas.exe malware-like Christmas wreath banner

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.

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).

This is how cheats are installed on LAN competitions

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…

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.

What does it do with Linux?

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.

Make a read only file/folder with the same name and the script should fail. But that is horseshit.

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

It’s almost as if the PC doesn’t belong to you anymore

This is why I boycott Logitech

You should boycott Microsoft instead. As you say, they’re the ones permitting it.

im guessing you use arch btw

I would if I could, but I work with Windows and if I migrate to Linux at home, my skills in Windows would dimminish

Wouldn’t your skills be kept sharp by using it at work?

It doesn’t work like that for me I am afraid.

“skills in windows” is a hilarious thing to type. Merry Christmas.

Work a help desk shift supporting windows users and see if you still say that.

Sigh, why, why do you do feel the need to put other’s down over something as irrelevant as an operating system?

But since Windows require zero skills, then even you may stand a chance to solve the following tasks that I have had to deal with within Windows.

List all users in the local admin group of all workstations, if a group is part of the local admin group, expand it and list individual users, oh and some users/groups are still on an old domain.
Whitelist a new USB device in GPO.
Make a report of all computers in the organization, get the current system model number, memory, storage space, free storage space, check weather or not the computer is ready for Windows 11, sort the list by department and primary user.

These weirdos have Linux as their entire identity and it’s become all consuming for some of them.

I just block anyone who is shilling Linux too much as it gets boring quickly, and I use Linux myself as of recently but it isn’t all that amazing and it requires a good amount of configuration, contrary to what people on here will tell you.

I’m in IT too. My experience is that if you use Linux at home and Windows at work you just end up skilled at both. At one point I was even using a Macbook at work (wouldn’t have even been a consideration if WSL was just a little better), using a Windows jump server or a VM for my Windows-y ops, and I became skilled at all 3 OS’s.

All of that is to say that your skill won’t decrease if Windows is still being used, especially if you’re using it in a professional context.

How likely are any of those at home?

I get this request sometimes on my work machine. Guess what? I don’t even have the rights to install it. Insanity

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.

https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/hp-bricks-probook-laptops-with-bad-bios-many-users-face-black-screen-after-windows-includes-firmware-in-automatic-updates

I’m not trying to protect lenovo. I think they are a shit company now, and I should have some my research better before buying my computer, but they aren’t the only ones doing this. Anyone who’s done BIOS updates knows that shouldn’t be done automatically, but manufacturers and Microsoft seem to think it’s a good idea to push it through automatic updates.

Especially when there’s a chance that the bios update resets the tpm and if the user has enabled bitlocker (automatically done in background without user consent on windows 11 if using a Microsoft account) then they need to type the decryption key to boot again.

Happened twice on my laptop

Never said HP are saints either. Just my anectode of it not happening (yet).

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

Yeah, I have neither the mentioned files in sys32 or the entry in dev mgr. This might be discontinued?

It sucks because I’ve always liked Logitech hardware. Though I suppose you don’t need to run the software suite (or if you’re on Linux it isn’t an option anyway).

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.

I try not to be too Linux fanboish these days, but what in the ever loving fuck is that about? Windows sounds like it’s reverted to 90s/early 2000s novelty crap and browser toolbars.

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Asus bombards Windows 11 with christmas.exe malware-like Christmas wreath banner(www.windowslatest.com)

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