Lenovo laptops ship with adware that hijacks HTTPS connectio
Feb 19, 2015 14:20:01 GMT -5
Post by quietman7 on Feb 19, 2015 14:20:01 GMT -5
Lenovo laptops ship with adware that hijacks HTTPS connections
How Lenovo's Superfish 'Malware' Works And What You Can Do To Kill It
To find out if you’re affected, locate Windows’ list of trusted certificates by opening up the Control Panel and searching for “certificates”. This will bring up Administrative Tools and a “manage computer certificates” option. Click on the “Trusted Root Certification Authorities” option and then “Certificates”. This will bring up a list of certificates. If you see one with Superfish Inc attached to it, you may be vulnerable.
Even users who do find it, uninstalling the program does not get rid of the problem, as that will not remove the certificate. So for anyone concerned that Superfish is still swimming around their computer, the best option might be to back everything up on their systems and install a new operating system. It might be a good excuse to upgrade to a more secure OS anyway.
How to paint yourself into a corner (Lenovo edition)
Superfish CA test
Superfish removal guide
How Lenovo's Superfish 'Malware' Works And What You Can Do To Kill It
To find out if you’re affected, locate Windows’ list of trusted certificates by opening up the Control Panel and searching for “certificates”. This will bring up Administrative Tools and a “manage computer certificates” option. Click on the “Trusted Root Certification Authorities” option and then “Certificates”. This will bring up a list of certificates. If you see one with Superfish Inc attached to it, you may be vulnerable.
Even users who do find it, uninstalling the program does not get rid of the problem, as that will not remove the certificate. So for anyone concerned that Superfish is still swimming around their computer, the best option might be to back everything up on their systems and install a new operating system. It might be a good excuse to upgrade to a more secure OS anyway.
How to paint yourself into a corner (Lenovo edition)
The problem here is not just that this is a lousy idea. It’s that Lenovo used the same certificate on every single Laptop it shipped with Superfish. And since the proxy software also requires the corresponding private key to decrypt and modify your web sessions, that private key was also shipped on every laptop. It took all of a day for a number of researchers to find that key and turn themselves into Lenovo-eating interception proxies. This sucks for Lenovo users.
Superfish CA test
Superfish removal guide