The same security research firm published a paper in 2015 entitled “Dude, You Got Dell\u2019d – Publishing Your Privates<\/a>” which\u00a0led to the discovery of potential man-in-the-middle attacks against Dell laptop computers shipped with insecure security certificates. For example, in\u00a0a real world scenario, if a user was using their Dell Inspiron 14<\/strong> laptop at a coffee shop, an attacker sitting in\u00a0the shop and utilizing the same Wi-Fi network could potentially intercept all <\/strong>of the\u00a0user’s\u00a0encrypted traffic<\/strong>, including sensitive data like bank passwords, emails, etc.<\/p>\n This time, they took it a step further and tested OEM updaters for preinstalled software on 10 different laptop systems shipped with an out-of-box configuration, after any pending updates were applied. They also published the basic features from some of the updaters:<\/p>\n While focusing on potential man-in-the-middle attacks<\/a>, which are considered to be the simplest and most common cyber attack methods, it was concluded that every vendor shipped with a vulnerable preinstalled updater<\/strong> that could allow for a complete compromise of the affected machine. High severity security holes were identified in preinstalled software shipped with laptops from the following manufacturers: Acer, Asus, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo.<\/p>\n The most distressing of all have been the vulnerabilities discovered in Lenovo’s UpdateAgent, which “provides no security features whatsoever,”\u00a0according to researchers at Duo Labs. The Application Programmable Interface (API) calls made by Lenovo’s UpdateAgent can be intercepted and modified in order to obtain the necessary conditions for remote code execution by an attacker with local network access.<\/p>\n Exploitation of this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to take control of an affected system. As a result, it is recommended that users uninstall Lenovo UpdateAgent from more than 110 notebook and desktop models<\/strong> running Windows 10 OS. For a complete list of the affected Lenovo notebooks and desktops, please read the security advisory<\/a>. According to Lenovo, the vulnerable Accelerator Application was never installed on ThinkPad or ThinkStation devices.<\/p>\n 100\/100s\/110 50050C\/50100E\/50550A\/50600I Found Lenovo bloatware on a laptop or desktop model not listed in the security advisory? Open a support ticket<\/a> with our support team and we will be glad to assist you in determining if you should remove it or not.<\/p>\n Based on the Lenovo Security Advisory: LEN-6718, there are three official ways to uninstall Lenovo Accelerator Application, as described here:<\/p>\n As was recently concluded in our own research “Software Uninstaller Comparison<\/a> – How to fully remove QuickTime from Windows,” popular software does not always fully uninstall itself using its own uninstaller. After using the software’s\u00a0own uninstaller to remove the vulnerable QuickTime software, we have concluded that there were plenty of QuickTime software traces (more than 1500 different file system and registry elements<\/strong>) left behind in our test system.<\/p>\n In some cases,\u00a0removing QuickTime using its own uninstaller left behind its registry entries as well as its executables<\/strong>. Most likely this leaves the computer vulnerable to the security issues identified in the software. Luckily, jv16 PowerTools is known for its improved ability to detect software leftovers.<\/p>\n We recommend everyone to follow these steps to ensure the safety of their computer due to the possible security issues related with Lenovo bloatware:<\/p>\n![\"lenovo](\"https:\/\/jv16powertools.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/lenovo-bloatware-out-of-box-exploitation.jpg\")
<\/h2>\nLenovo bloatware vulnerability: High severity<\/h2>\n
Notebook systems shipped with vulnerable Lenovo bloatware:<\/h3>\n
\n305
\n700
\n300\/300S
\n310
\n500\/500S
\n700S
\nB40-30\/B40-45\/B40-45\/B40-80
\nB41-30\/B41-35\/B41-80
\nB50-10\/B50-30\/B50-30 Touch\/B50-45\/B50-50\/B50-80\/B51-30\/B51-35\/B51-80\/B70-80\/B71-80
\nE31-70\/E31-80\/E40-30\/E40-80\/E41-10\/E41-15\/E41-80\/E50-30\/E50-80\/E51-80
\nEdge 15
\nEdge 2-1580
\nErazer N40-30\/Erazer N40-45
\nErazer N50-45\/Erazer N50-45
\nErazer Z41-70
\nErazer Z51-70
\nFLEX 2 Pro
\nFLEX 3
\nFLEX 4
\nG40-45\/G40-80\/G40-80m
\nG41-35
\nG50\/G50-45\/G50-80\/G50-80m\/G50-80Touch
\nG51-35
\nG70-35\/G70-80
\nG50
\nK20-80
\nK21-80
\nK41-70\/K41-80
\nM41-70
\nM51-80
\nMIIX 3
\nMIIX 300\/MIIX310
\nMIIX 700
\nN22 Winbook
\nN41-35
\nN51-35
\nS21e-20
\nS41-35\/S41-70\/S41-75
\nTianYi 300
\nU31-70
\nU41-70
\nV4000
\nXiaoXin 700
\nXiaoXin Air 12
\nY50-70\/Y50-70 Touch
\nY50c
\nY700\/Y700 Touch
\nY70-70 Touch
\nY900
\nYoga 2
\nYOGA 3 14
\nYoga 3 Pro
\nYoga 300
\nYOGA 500\/YOGA 510
\nYOGA 700\/YOGA 710\/YOGA 900\/YOGA 900S
\nZ40-70\/Z40-75
\nZ50-70\/Z50-75
\nZ41-70
\nZ51-70
\nZ70-80<\/p>\nDesktop systems shipped with vulnerable Lenovo bloatware:<\/h3>\n
\nA3300
\nA7300
\nA8150
\nB40
\nC20
\nC40
\nC50
\nC560
\nD3000
\nD5010\/ D5050\/ D5055
\nF5005\/ F5050\/ F5055
\nG5005\/ G5010\/ G5050\/ G5055
\nH3005
\nH30-50
\nH5005\/ H5055
\nH50-50
\nIdeaCentre 200
\nIdeaCentre 300\/300S
\nIdeaCentre 510\/510S
\nIdeaCentre 700
\nM7300z
\nM8300z\/M8350z
\nM9550z
\nYoga Home 500<\/p>\nWhat you should do to protect yourself<\/h2>\n
\n
Better bloatware-free than sorry<\/h2>\n
![\"lenovo](\"https:\/\/jv16powertools.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/lenovo-bloatware-quickoptimizer-info.png\")
<\/p>\n