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Superfish pre-installed on Lenovo machines .. security issue

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Superfish pre-installed on Lenovo machines .. security issue

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Old Feb 19, 2015, 5:23 am
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Superfish pre-installed on Lenovo machines .. security issue

3rd party man in the middle attacks via 3rd party ad-ware pre-installed on lenovo machines. They install their own root certificate, intercept all your encoded TLS/HTTPS traffic and masquerade as the other end of the connection, all while using the same encryption key given out to everybody else. wow.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015...onnections/#p3
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Old Feb 20, 2015, 2:42 am
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This has caught my attention as I just bought a new Lenovo PC for a family member. I'll set it up next week but first I need to find out how to remove Snapfish before I connect the PC to the Internet!
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Old Feb 20, 2015, 3:19 am
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Sorry, it's Superfish, not snapfish.

I think you have to look for and remove the software (standard installer) and also, most importantly, remove the Superfish trusted root certificate which was preinstalled on laptops sold by Lenovo in the 4th quarter of 2014 (some of which may still be in stock).

anyway there's more at Ars today ... Lenovo and Superfish comments ...

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015...https-spyware/
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Old Feb 20, 2015, 3:25 am
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removal instructions (mashable)

http://mashable.com/2015/02/19/lenov...ish-explainer/

That article includes a list of machine/models that shipped with it.
And links to ways to check for it and detect it.

-David
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Old Feb 20, 2015, 3:38 am
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Thanks for the link. I bought an E50-00 tower which isn't on the list. But I will double check anyway!
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Old Feb 20, 2015, 12:50 pm
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More on what Superfish-like vulnerabilities might be on your computer

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbr...uperfish-ddos/
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Old Feb 20, 2015, 9:11 pm
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This is definitely disturbing, given that our company has standardized on Lenovo laptops, and just about everyone here uses one.
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Old Feb 20, 2015, 11:17 pm
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Got an email from Lenovo about this and assuring me that Thinkpads never had it installed!
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Old Feb 21, 2015, 8:06 am
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Check for the Superfish root CA and for the program in the control panel.
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Old Feb 21, 2015, 6:26 pm
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Originally Posted by gfunkdave
Check for the Superfish root CA and for the program in the control panel.
Some third party programs have their own root certificate stores, firefox and thunderbird for example. You need to check those too.

-David
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Old Feb 21, 2015, 7:17 pm
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Bought a laptop for a family member and need to verify model number - what were they thinking?!
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Old Feb 21, 2015, 8:00 pm
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Originally Posted by unmesh
Got an email from Lenovo about this and assuring me that Thinkpads never had it installed!
Disturbing. Used to be a big advocate of ThinkPads before switching over to rMBP for the Retina screen.
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Old Feb 22, 2015, 4:32 am
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Here's a test to see if you have Superfish installed...

https://filippo.io/Badfish/
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Old Feb 22, 2015, 5:03 am
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Originally Posted by stimpy
Here's a test to see if you have Superfish installed...

https://filippo.io/Badfish/
If only one browser out of three comes up as vulnerable, and that's one that you barely use, do you still need to take quick action? Asking as someone without much technical experience.
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Old Feb 22, 2015, 6:33 am
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Originally Posted by JR14
If only one browser out of three comes up as vulnerable, and that's one that you barely use, do you still need to take quick action? Asking as someone without much technical experience.
From what I've read, it's not that you would use Superfish, but that other programs could use it. So yes, if it shows up on any browser you should take immediate action such as the removal instructions above.
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