[markomalley]

I put this in the "news" forum rather than the "general" forum, as putting root certificates on computers is likely related to government efforts to ban anonymous speech over the Internet.

For example, see this from CNET back in 2012: What's behind the NY bills to ban anonymous online comments. Or, from 2013, Illinois Politician Seeks To Outlaw Anonymous Comments. Or this from Slate in 2014. Or this ditty from Psychology Today in 2015.

[wally_bert]

So much for me buying a new Dell laptop.

[butlerweave]

Lenovo also got caught putting nasty stuff on their computers and they’re paying the price ,no one wants the stuff

[Rebelbase]

*Dude, you*re catch hell!*

[kiryandil]

“Dude! You’re gettin’ a Smell!”

[Qiviut]

The certificate introduced an unintended vulnerability, so Dell is now providing customers with removal instructions and will not add it to new devices going forward, the company said.

This had better be true.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Ping!

[Campion]

This doesn’t exactly make sense. A cert isn’t trusted unless your system recognizes it as signed by a known certificate authority. Do they mean that Dell accidentally “leaked” a CA cert, and put the cert and the private key on every system? Or is it cert+key signed by a known CA (and therefore not “self-signed”) which is flagged to be able to sign other keys and thus create trusted certs?

[dayglored]

Markomalley: Yes, this is News.

ShadowAce: for your ping list, if you wish.

[G Larry]

I’ve been done with Dell for awhile anyway.

[G Larry]

Don’t tell Bambi!!!

He’ll sign an XO making them mandatory!!!

[dayglored]

Dell security error widens as researchers dig deeper (Earlier problem is worse than was thought)

Duo Security researchers found a second weak digital certificate on a new Dell Inspiron laptop

The fallout from a serious security mistake made by Dell is widening, as security experts find more issues of concern.

Followup thread on the expanded problem:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3364271/posts

[maine-iac7]

fl

[ImNotLying]

bfl

[ShadowAce]

[TomGuy]

FYI

Majorgeeks.com has an eDellRoot Certificate Fix, apparently released by Dell:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/edellroot_certificate_fix.html