Lenovo Preinstalls Malware on Laptops

11 years ago

On the Yahoo News Tech page today, February 19, 2015, there are several articles saying that Lenovo preinstalls malware on several models of laptops it sells. I'm posting this to alert others. Lists of the affected laptops can be found in the articles. In my case, a brand new Lenovo Flex 14 was infected and made web browsing problematic (I posted about this under installing Adobe). I called Lenovo this morning and the Tech claimed they know nothing about this. I told him to read the online articles and tell their upper management they should all be fired for ripping off customers...You can guess I won't be buying another Lenovo product anytime soon...

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Comments (10)

PKponder TX Z7B
11 years ago
Will you please post a link to the article? I don't follow Yahoo News and I think something may be amiss.
PKponder TX Z7B
11 years ago
I found it, nevermind.
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jean_mi_z5
11 years ago
Yahoo article Lenova Malware
mikie_gw
11 years ago
Its not just Lenovo laptops we need to worry about.. that's small peas.

http://www.techspot.com/category/security/

Sim cards, hard drives, TV's.. etc Listen to your bedrooms, watch on the webcams .. crazy world to be.
PRO
kbarb - San Francisco - Z10a
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
It's adware essentially, but also opened a major security vulnerability in so doing.

An incredibly bad decision by Lenovo, especially in that they're now a Chinese owned company. It will take quite some time to earn trust back after that - there are already four or five articles about it on ArsTechnica. What were they thinking, messing around with one of the best brands of business laptops in the world.

Lenovo PCs ship with man-in-the-middle adware that breaks HTTPS connections - ArsTechnica

The Yahoo article isn't quite right though. You don't necessarily have to buy another copy of Windows and reinstall it. There are ways to capture the install OEM credentials, etc and reinstall with the install keys you already have, although for the average user that might be a bit of a challenge.
mikie_gw
11 years ago
Lenovo has instructions how to uninstall the program from programs and features and how to remove the certificate. “Superfish Inc. Visual Discovery”. Its a picture search engine. Search a picture of a flower and it tell you something about that flower I guess. And where to buy that flower from.
haldd
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
On my Lenovo flex 14, the malware put little banners and pictures over everything on a webpage. For example, if you were on a shopping site it would put little banners and photos on top of photos of things you were shopping for, so that you had to click and close each one to see the items underneath you had selected. It also seems to have prevented installing Adobe reader and flash. Many web pages were weirdly partly blank. I tried uninstalling the malware and it had little effect. I think the articles are right in that you need a special tool to remove it. Lenovo a said it was releasing a special removal tool sometime today.
Most importantly, the Lenovo Flex 14 and the Yoga 2 Pro were both intentionally infected by Lenovo. Why should anyone have to spend hours removing malware on a new laptop that you just unboxed and turned on for the first time? The kicker was when I called Lenovo tech they claimed they knew nothing about this and refused to help. It was a Lenovo conspiracy to defraud the public. I hope one of the fed departments fines them a huge amount for every laptop they sold with malware. I hope billions. Lenovo defrauded me out of over $1500. They shouldn't get away with it.
haldd
Original Author
11 years ago
Affected machines

According to Lenovo, the affected models are as follows:

G Series: G410, G510, G710, G40-70, G50-70, G40-30, G50-30, G40-45, G50-45

U Series: U330P, U430P, U330Touch, U430Touch, U530Touch

Y Series: Y430P, Y40-70, Y50-70

Z Series: Z40-75, Z50-75, Z40-70, Z50-70

S Series: S310, S410, S40-70, S415, S415Touch, S20-30, S20-30Touch

Flex Series: Flex2 14D, Flex2 15D, Flex2 14, Flex2 15, Flex2 14(BTM), Flex2 15(BTM), Flex 10

MIIX Series: MIIX2-8, MIIX2-10, MIIX2-11

YOGA Series: YOGA2Pro-13, YOGA2-13, YOGA2-11BTM, YOGA2-11HSW

E Series: E10-30

Here is a link to an article where I found the list:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/20/lenovo-apologises-adware-removal-instructions

The article says even if you follow Lenovo's removal instructions the malware is still not completely removed...
mike_kaiser_gw
11 years ago
The audacity of these companies is amazing but should it really come as a surprise after the U.S. and British governments have been accused of hacking into Gemalto's computers to steal SIM card encryption keys?

US and UK accused of hacking Sim card firm to steal codes

There is a way to completely remove the Superfish spyware:

Superfish removal guide

I'm sure that Lenovo made millions off the deal with Superfish. Lenovo also recently purchased Motorola Mobility (the part of Motorola that makes cell phones) from Google.
mikie_gw
11 years ago
As soon as you remove the superfish certificates .. its a done deal. Takes some efforts to actually look in each browser for a double check that you have no certificate.

Superfish Vulnerability - info and removal at lenovo support

Lenovo Preinstalls Malware on Laptops

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Lenovo Preinstalls Malware on Laptops

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