Posted on 08/11/2016 8:04:39 AM PDT by dayglored
Redmond races to revoke Secure Boot policy
Microsoft leaked the golden keys that unlock Windows-powered tablets, phones and other devices sealed by Secure Boot – and is now scrambling to undo the blunder.
These skeleton keys can be used to install non-Redmond operating systems on locked-down computers. In other words, on devices that do not allow you to disable Secure Boot even if you have administrator rights – such as ARM-based Windows RT tablets – it is now possible to sidestep this block and run, say, GNU/Linux or Android.
What's more, it is believed it will be impossible for Microsoft to fully revoke the leaked keys.
And perhaps most importantly: it is a reminder that demands by politicians and crimefighters for special keys, which can be used by investigators to unlock devices in criminal cases, will inevitably jeopardize the security of everyone.
Microsoft's misstep was uncovered by two researchers, MY123 and Slipstream, who documented their findings here in a demoscene-themed writeup published on Tuesday. Slip believes Microsoft will find it impossible to undo its leak.
...
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
I imagine this is of interest to your Tech/Linux pingees...
Hope you're doing better every day.
Linux needs to have a reverse update command.
Yeah, but it is also a nice perk for people that want to steal peoples tablets and wipe them.
Windows 8 assassinated the PC
once Pandora’s box is opened...
If Microsoft uses it, one of the following is appropriate:
1. Someone else did it correctly, Gates bought them out, and turned it into crap.
2. Microsoft developed it in house. It was crap from birth.
Nope, Apple is not an innocent, but at least they had a creative developer and they hire competent programmers (well, sometimes anyway).
“leaked”... intentionally?
Pretty much / sadly.
And windows 10 wasn't any good for it either -- especially when you consider the upgrade-nag stuff. (That burnt a lot of goodwill from the customers.)
I think even I would be able to steer MS in a better direction than they seem intent on going... and I have no formal business training.
The bloom is off these guys...
fyi:
Tech firms had once been prodigious employers of American workers. But now, many depend on either workers abroad of imported under H-1B visa program. These are essentially indentured servants whom they can hire for cheap and prevent from switching jobs. Tens of thousands of jobs in Silicon Valley, and many corporate IT departments elsewhere, rent these “technocoolies,” often replacing longstanding U.S. workers.
Expanding H-1Bs, not surprisingly, has become a priority issue for oligarchs such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and a host of tech firms, including Yahoo, Cisco Systems, NetApp, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel, firms that in some cases have been laying off thousands of American workers. Most of the bought-and-paid-for GOP presidential contenders, as well as the money-grubbing Hillary Clinton, embrace the program, with some advocating expansion. The only opposition came from two candidates disdained by the oligarchs, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.
Wow, huge screw up on someone’s part. Heads will roll.
People are always tinkering trying to get a little more out of their devices. Typically, the biggest challenge trying to run an operating system that was not intended on most devices is trying to find drivers that will enable all the built in features.
I bought a little Windows 10 bargain tablet/laptop for $99. It mostly does what I was hoping it would... it allows me to use much of the same software that I run on my Windows 7 laptop in a very compact device. It even came with a free portable version of Office. But it has lots of tinkering possibilities. That is what we are really talking about here. There is no compelling reason to waste lots of time messing around with a $99 device. There are Linux builds available for it, but no one has got everything to work yet.
thanks for posting this; more evidence Microsoft is in utter chaos, helping to explain why they FORCE buggy W10 updates (like anniversary update) down people’s throats that brick hundreds of thousands of PCs each and every time, thereby permanently driving off another large group of formerly loyal customers with each corrupt update.
I just can’t fathom MS’s current strategy, unless they secretly WANT everyone to abandon their operating system. I stand in amazement at their strategy - it strikes me as insane. They seem to be doing everything in their power to alienate their users short of having the start-up screen for Windows say: “FU@K YOU, Windows User: Switch to Mac or Linux, you Moron!” I’m just wondering what new anti-customer strategy they will adopt next.
Windows 10 is such a hot mess, with so many ridiculous and new problems that keep accumulating version after major version that, as an independent PC support company, it’s not worth our time and effort to keep up on how to fix all of the dozens of problems that accumulate with each release or update. We now just tell people to either buy a W7/W8.x x64 Pro PC or go elsewhere to fix their problems. (I just turned down a new client yesterday who’s Surface 4 blue-screened most likely because of the Anniversary update.)
At least W8.x hasn’t made the full transition to a cell phone operating system under the hood, and with Classic Shell and a few other tweaks, can mostly be made to behave and function like W7.
I’m old enough and financially secure enough, that by the time the last W8.x systems have been retired, I’ll be pretty much retired from the PC support biz myself, so Microsoft can go F themselves.
Oh darn. Forgot to use search. My bad.
Hey, maybe this means someone will port Android or Linux to my Surface RT !!!
Hope you’re feeling better.
Hey, my friend... I hope all is going well on your side of the pond.. Hang in there and stay safe ;^)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.