Category Archives: Things that are bad

Android, Internet crime, Malware, Mobile, Privacy, Security, Things that are bad

Pegasus spyware

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Pegasus is spyware that can be installed on Apple and Android mobile systems. It’s difficult to detect, and difficult to remove. Pegasus is developed by NSO Group, who deny that the software is being used for anything nefarious, or that if it is, that use has nothing to do with NSO Group.

The methods used to install Pegasus on mobile devices have changed over the years. It can be installed directly, with physical access to the target device, which is presumably how it ends up on devices legitimately. Pegasus can also be installed more surreptitiously. Previously, that involved inviting the user to click a link in an email or SMS message. More recently, it’s being installed using app and O/S exploits that require no interaction from the user, including a very nasty exploit for WhatsApp.

Pegasus is not a virus. It does not spread on its own. Further, it’s important to distinguish between Pegasus and the methods used to install it. Pegasus does not typically arrive on a device at random. Devices are specifically targeted, and those targets are often used by journalists, suspected terrorists, and other people whose activities are tracked by government agencies and criminal organizations.

The main problem here is not Pegasus, but the way security vulnerabilities are discovered and — more importantly — how information about vulnerabilities is disseminated. Unfortunately, some organizations perform this research not for the public good, but for themselves and their partners, legitimate and otherwise. In an ideal world, when a vulnerability is discovered, the vendor is informed privately and then proceeds to develop and release a fix. In reality, vulnerabilities and exploits are often hoarded.

Advice to anyone who operates a mobile device and wants to reduce the likelihood of Pegasus or other unwanted software being installed without their knowledge: stay informed regarding security vulnerabilities in your device’s O/S and any apps you run. When you learn about a zero-click exploit, immediately install a fix if one is available, or uninstall the affected app. If it’s an unpatched O/S vulnerability, all you can do is hope that you’re not being targeted.

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Internet, Things that are bad

Deceptive design patterns

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There’s an informative post over on the Mozilla Explains blog, about deceptive design patterns. From the article:

Deceptive design patterns are tricks used by websites and apps to get you to do things you might not otherwise do, like buy things, sign up for services or switch your settings.

The post goes on to list some common examples. I’m sure you’ll recognize at least some of these.

Unfortunately, this kind of deception is not limited to the online world, and most of us don’t even raise an eyebrow when we encounter shady sales practices in the ‘real’ world. But the online world is already much more confusing for many people, so recognizing deception can be difficult.

It’s an interesting read, and it may help you to understand some of what you see online, and on your connected devices.

Malware, Security, Things that are bad

Flagging software as dangerous for the wrong reasons is idiotic

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There’s a disturbing trend in the world of malware detection: falsely labeling software as malware.

For example, there’s an entire category of software that’s being mislabeled as malware by an increasing number of anti-malware providers: torrent software.

Torrent software is widely used by people trying to get access to cultural material that is otherwise locked away by the gatekeepers of big media (by way of prohibitive pricing, overlapping services, poor or unavailable service, geo-locking, release windows, and other big media fuckery).

Torrent software is used all over the world to legally share media in an extremely efficient, and Internet-friendly way.

But big media doesn’t care about any of that, because torrent software is also used for piracy.

Currently, there are efforts underway by media organizations to discredit and cripple torrent software in any way possible. Apparently they are now leaning on anti-malware software and service providers.

Why would an otherwise reputable anti-malware organization erroneously flag software as malicious? There are a number of possibilities:

  • They are being fed false information
  • Industry/corporate threats
  • Financial incentives

Why is this a problem?

  • It’s an extremely annoying inconvenience for users. Unable to install the falsely-labeled software, or exclude it from malware scans, some users will resort to uninstalling their anti-malware software.
  • It’s increasingly difficult for users to distinguish between actual threats and bullshit.
  • If an actually malicious version of one of these programs comes along, there’s no way to distinguish it from other versions that are erroneously flagged as malicious.
  • A general loss of trust in anti-malware providers and their services.

Big media will keep playing this idiotic game of whac-a-mole in any way their lawyers dream up. Media piracy continues, despite these efforts, and the only people affected are innocent users.

Advice to anti-malware purveryors: stop doing this. It’s short-sighted, dangerous, and stupid.

Edge, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Things that are bad, Windows

Don’t bother trying to uninstall Microsoft Edge

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If you’re old enough to remember the browser wars of the 1990s, you probably remember that Microsoft got into trouble for pushing their web browser, Internet Explorer, using tactics tied to the dominance of Windows.

Competitors were less than thrilled with Microsoft’s tactics. In 1998, an anti-trust suit was launched by the US Department of Justice against Microsoft, alleging that Microsoft was using unfair tactics, in particular by embedding Internet Explorer into Windows, making it difficult to remove.

Microsoft argued that Internet Explorer was a core part of the operating system, and could not be easily excised from Windows. This didn’t help their case much, as you can imagine.

The court agreed with the DOJ, recommending that Microsoft be broken into two organizations, one for Windows and the other for applications like Internet Explorer. After appeals, the final settlement required Microsoft to share its API (Application Programming Interface) documentation with third party companies. The idea was to remove any head start Microsoft would have in developing changes to its web browser based on technology advancements.

The DOJ did not require Microsoft to change any of its code or prevent Microsoft from tying other software with Windows in the future.

Microsoft’s tactics this time around

Fast forward to today, and Microsoft is again using questionable tactics in its fight for web browser dominance. This time around, with Internet Explorer soon to be discontinued, the browser in question is Edge (the newer, Chromium-based version).

Microsoft recently published a small support article about the new version of Edge, presumably in response to user questions. In part, it states: “The new version of Microsoft Edge is included in a Windows system update, so the option to uninstall it or use the legacy version of Microsoft Edge will no longer be available.”

So, once again, Microsoft is apparently trying to use its dominance in the desktop operating system market to push its web browser on people.

It’s hard to predict whether this tactic will actually help Edge, or whether anyone will care enough to claim antitrust activity again. I like to think people are generally somewhat better informed, and recognize that there are other, better web browsers than Edge.

UPDATE 2020Sep12: Microsoft has revised the wording of the support article about this, but the new version sounds like more of the same weak arguments they used in the 1990s:

Because Windows supports applications that rely on the web platform, our default web browser is an essential component of our operating system and can’t be uninstalled.

Windows users can download and install other browsers and change their default browser at any time.

Giant corporations trying to sound innocent when caught in their shenanigans is just embarassing.

Hacking, Internet crime, Privacy, Security, Things that are bad

Canada Revenue Agency hacked; shuts down online services

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Canadians: if you’ve tried to access your CRA accounts recently, you probably noticed that you can no longer log in. That’s because normal access has been disabled while the CRA works to undo the damage caused by two recent attacks on their services.

The CRA systems were penetrated by persons unknown over the past two weeks. According to the CRA, the breaches have been contained, but the My Account, My Business Account and Represent a Client services have been disabled as a precaution.

Several thousand user accounts have been compromised. Starting in early August, unusual and unauthorized access to accounts was noticed by the account holders and reported to the CRA. In some cases, email, banking, and other account details were changed by the attackers. Fraudulent CERB payments were also issued.

Access to the compromised accounts was apparently gained via ‘credential stuffing’, which is based on the sadly-still-true fact that many people continue to use specific passwords on multiple systems. To be clear: if nobody ever did that, this type of attack would never be successful.

“Of the roughly 12 million active GCKey accounts in Canada, the passwords and usernames of 9,041 users were acquired fraudulently and used to try and access government services, a third of which accessed such services and are being further examined for suspicious activity,” according to a statement from the CRA.

The CRA is in the process of alerting people whose accounts were compromised.

Microsoft, Patches and updates, Things that are bad, Windows 10

Windows 10 update problems continue

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With Windows 10, Microsoft shifted a lot of their testing to users, through the Windows Insider program. Anyone can join the Insider program, and what you get is early access to new versions of Windows 10.

In return, you are expected to provide feedback to Microsoft when you encounter problems, primarily via the Windows 10 Feedback Hub app. I’ve used the Feedback Hub, and Microsoft does indeed seem to look at — and act on — user feedback.

While I do appreciate having the option of contributing to the quality of Windows 10, it seems clear that relying on users for testing is woefully inadequate, and hardly a substitute for systematic, formal software testing. Each new set of Windows 10 updates, and especially new versions, seem to cause more problems than they solve.

Windows 10 version 2004, released on May 27, is no exception. Microsoft has identified at least ten separate problems with the new version, mostly related to device drivers. Users unlucky enough to have the affected devices are reporting application crashes and good old Blue Screens of Death (BSODs). In some cases the new version renders affected computers unusable.

At least updates can now be delayed. Earlier versions of Windows 10 forced new updates on all computers. Without the ability to to put off updates, these unwanted and problematic changes would cause worldwide carnage at least every Patch Tuesday.

Hey, Microsoft. Thanks for giving us the option to help out with Windows testing. But please go back to doing more formal testing. Nobody needs these headaches. We’ve got enough problems without you piling on.

Update 2020Jun02: Microsoft has put a ‘compatibility hold’ on the recent problematic updates. If Microsoft decides that your device may have problems with an update, it won’t get installed until the hold is released. Of course that doesn’t help people who installed those updates before they were held.

Internet crime, Spam and scams, Things that are bad

COVID-19 scams are everywhere

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Major events are viewed as opportunities by scammers worldwide. Same as it ever was. These days, the scammer’s tools of choice involve computers, because the potential victim pool is far beyond any alternative.

In keeping with this sad reality, COVID-19 scams are showing up everywhere on the web, and in our email inboxes.

Please exercise caution when you receive email or visit web sites that advertise cures, or entice you to click links or open attachments claiming to provide COVID-19/Coronavirus help.

If you’re looking for legitimate information about COVID-19, visit the web sites of major health organizations and local governments.

In Canada, visit the federal government’s COVID-19 page.

In the USA, try the web site for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For a global overview of the spread of COVID-19, see the frequently updated map of Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

Ars Technica has more information about this.

Internet, Microsoft, Security, Things that are bad, Windows

Microsoft news: all bad today

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The hits just keep on coming for Microsoft. I suppose it’s inevitable that a company as large as Microsoft will make mistakes, but when their products reach into our lives as thoroughly as Microsoft’s, those mistakes can lead to major disasters.

Global Windows 10 search failures

A huge proportion of Windows 10 users worldwide lost the ability to search their own computers recently. According to Microsoft, the problem stemmed from a glitch on a Microsoft server. Exactly why local search should be affected by some mysterious remote Microsoft server is yet to be explained.

In reality, search in Windows has been variously broken since Vista. I discovered a particularly horrible search bug in that garbage dump of an O/S soon after it was released, and was eventually able to convince Microsoft that it was a real problem; a fix soon followed. But even that didn’t fix all of Windows search’s problems; getting it to find all your files in all their locations was — and continues to be — a never-ending, and ultimately ineffective, exercise.

That’s why most people who need a search function that’s actually useful have long since switched to third party software, such as the excellent, fast, accurate, and free Fileseek. There’s also the blazingly fast (and also free) Everything. Both of these work perfectly out of the box, requiring no special setup to be useful, unlike Windows’ built-in search.

Still, many people assume that the Windows search feature is adequate, and never switch to anything else. Those people discovered the recent problem the hard way, when the already basically worthless search stopped working completely. Those people are understandably angry.

Implicit trust of driver software is a gaping security hole in Windows

Malicious folks have discovered yet another way to fool Windows into executing code that it shouldn’t. The new technique takes advantage of the fact that Windows implicitly trusts drivers. A driver is a small piece of software that connects Windows with hardware, allowing that hardware to be used by the O/S.

In this case, a specific driver that contains a serious security vulnerability — but is neverthless trusted by Windows — was used by hackers to deploy ransomware to affected systems.

There’s no word from Microsoft on how they intend to deal with this glaring hole in Windows security.

A treasure trove of illicit data awaits the buyer of corp.com, thanks to Microsoft

Decisions made by Microsoft years ago are poised to create massive problems for many business and educational customers worldwide. When the person who owns the generic corp.com domain sells it, the new owner will be able to gather credentials and other supposedly private data from Windows computers that assume they are communicating with internal systems.

The problem stems from an ill-considered decision to use corp.com as a default setting and in documentation provided by Microsoft. Server administrators who didn’t change that default are now faced with a huge task that involves bringing down entire networks and possibly creating new problems.

Microsoft has known about this problem for years, and their advice to customers is basically “you shouldn’t have used the defaults”. Thanks for nothing, Microsoft.

Chrome, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Things that are bad, Things that make me happy, Windows 10

Microsoft news: the good, the bad, and the spiteful

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The Good

Windows 7 support ended earlier this month, and with it any hope of fixing newly-discovered security vulnerabilities. Or did it? Microsoft recently discovered a problem with an update, released in Novemeber 2019, that is causing problems with desktop wallpaper on Windows 7 computers. This isn’t a security issue, but it probably affects thousands of users, and Microsoft has now released a special update that fixes the wallpaper problem. You can get the update via Windows Update on Windows 7 computers.

The Bad

Microsoft’s plans for expanding advertising in Windows 10 continue, albeit very slowly. The latest change is in Windows 10’s default rich text editor, Wordpad. When you run Wordpad, you’ll see an advertisement for Microsoft Office. It’s not much, and many users will never see it, but I’m reminded of the proverbial frog in steadily-warming water.

The Spiteful

Microsoft’s shenanigans with Google show no signs of slowing down. Both companies have engaged in questionable behaviour in trying to promote their software and services. The latest shot from Microsoft is particularly annoying: when Office 365 updates itself — a process that is both frequent and difficult to control — it will look for an installation of Google’s Chrome web browser, and change its default search engine to Bing.

Microsoft has a history of inappropriately reverting settings during updates, which is annoying enough, but this is excessive and downright spiteful, in my opinion. Microsoft, please play out your differences with Google in a way that doesn’t annoy millions of users.

Update 2020Feb11: Microsoft relented, and won’t be switching Windows 10 searches to use Bing during Office 365 updates. I guess they realized that they didn’t need yet another public relations disaster.

Internet crime, Privacy, Things that are bad

LifeLabs hacked; patient data compromised

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Some security breaches are worse than others. If your bank suffers a breach, the potential for damage is enormous, because banks necessarily store a lot of critical information about you and your money.

Almost as bad are breaches of health-related services, because those systems may store extremely private information about you and your medical history.

Which makes the recently-announced breach of Canada’s LifeLabs (PDF) very disturbing.

The Ars Technica story about this provides a helpful summary of what happened, although it starts out by saying that LifeLabs “paid hackers an undisclosed amount for the return of personal data they stole”. Data can be copied, and when someone copies data to which they have no legal access, it’s a crime. But the idea that data can be ‘returned’ is bizarre.

It’s more likely that LifeLabs was the victim of a ransomware attack, in which data is encrypted by attackers, rendering the data useless until a ransom is paid and the data decrypted by the attackers.

However, it’s also possible that the attackers copied the data to their own systems before encrypting it, with the aim of selling that extremely valuable data, containing names, addresses, email addresses, customer login IDs and passwords, health card numbers, and lab tests. So far, there’s no evidence that the data has made its way to any of the usual dark web markets for such data, but there’s no way to be sure that won’t happen.

Charles Brown, President and CEO of LifeLabs, posted An Open Letter to LifeLabs Customers on December 17, in which he discloses the breach and apologizes to customers. While it’s good to see the company take responsibility, an apology is hardly sufficient. Even the offer of “one free year of protection that includes dark web monitoring and identity theft insurance” seems unlikely to satisfy affected customers. There’s at least one petition in the works, “calling on Parliament’s Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) to investigate LifeLabs, and put forward recommendations to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

In British Columbia, users access their LifeLabs test results online using a service called eHealth. It’s not clear whether LifeLabs’ relationship with eHealth is in any way related to this breach. At this point it appears that it makes no difference whether you signed up to access your test results using eHealth. In other words, changing your eHealth password, while advisable, seems unlikely to mitigate the potential damage.

However, as usual in the case of any breach, you should review your passwords, and if you’ve used your LifeLabs or eHealth password for any other site or service, change those passwords to something unique. Do it now.