Ineffective Laptop Recovery Software + Whitelisted Persistent BIOS Rootkit = Fail!

Following up their bleeding edge research on bios resident malware at CanSecWest the ultra-smart guys (Alfredo and Sacco) from CoreSecurity have disclosed a significant issue with the laptop recovery software LoJack.

I have debated the effectiveness of laptop recovery software many times arguing that its cost does not justify the recovery of the hard asset (how much is laptop hardware worth vs the cost of recovery).

But now this is even worse - by having this BIOS resident software installed (or pre-installed in an estimated 60% of new laptops - Lenovo, HD, Gateway, Dell, Toshiba) there is a significant exposure to having the LoJack software modified by someone malicious. Compounding this issue is the fact that the software is already white-listed by virus vendors meaning there would be no way to prevent or detect it from occurring.

Its a bit ironic when security software exposes its paying users to much more risk that it addresses. "Get it. And get it back - twice as bad."

Comments

Laptop Recovery said…

Wonderful information ... thank you for sharing it with us!

3 August 2009 at 03:50

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