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Security China Privacy Technology

Huawei Laptop 'Backdoor' Flaw Raises Concerns (bbc.com) 95

Posted by msmash from the security-woes dept.
A flaw in Huawei Matebook laptops, found by Microsoft researchers, could have been used to take control of machines. From a report: The "sophisticated flaw" had probably been introduced at the manufacturing stage, one expert told BBC News. Huawei is under increasing scrutiny around the world over how closely it is tied to the Chinese government. The company, which denies any collusion with Beijing, corrected the flaw after it was notified about it in January. Prof Alan Woodward, a computer security expert based at Surrey University, told BBC News the flaw had the hallmarks of a "backdoor" created by the US's National Security Agency to spy on the computers of targets. That tool was leaked online and has been used by a wide variety of hackers, including those who are state-sponsored and criminal gangs. "It was introduced at the manufacture stage but the path by which it came to be there is unknown and the fact that it looks like an exploit that is linked to the NSA doesn't mean anything," Prof Woodward said.
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Huawei Laptop 'Backdoor' Flaw Raises Concerns More

Huawei Laptop 'Backdoor' Flaw Raises Concerns

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  • Why is anyone buying anything from this company? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Wednesday April 03, 2019 @06:32PM (#58381092) Journal
    Seriously, WHY? Seems clear as day to me that everything they're producing is compromised in one way or another.

    • Re:Why is anyone buying anything from this company (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ZorinLynx ( 31751 ) on Wednesday April 03, 2019 @06:35PM (#58381104) Homepage

      We should probably consider ANY hardware manufactured in a country with an uber-authoritarian, paranoid government to be suspect.

      How closely does Apple scrutinize iPhones coming out of Foxconn, I wonder?

      • Re:Why is anyone buying anything from this company (Score:5, Insightful)

        by WankerWeasel ( 875277 ) on Wednesday April 03, 2019 @06:52PM (#58381170)
        Curious why you single out Apple when Samsung, Nokia, Dell, Sharp, Google, Amazon, Sony, and everyone else have their stuff made by Foxconn too. All of these companies go over their devices thoroughly as they know any security issue could have HUGE negative repercussions for them.

        • Curious why you single out Apple when Samsung, Nokia, Dell, Sharp, Google, Amazon, Sony, and everyone else have their stuff made by Foxconn too. All of these companies go over their devices thoroughly as they know any security issue could have HUGE negative repercussions for them.

          Nothing to be curious about. When Slashdotters hate Apple, anything is fodder for for their angst and anger. The fact that other companies use FoxConn is irrelevant.

          • Also, lots of slashdotters hate Apple.

            We've done so for a long, long time.

            It isn't angst or anger, btw. It's an understanding of what kind of company Apple has been for a long time.

            • Also, lots of slashdotters hate Apple.

              We've done so for a long, long time.

              It isn't angst or anger, btw. It's an understanding of what kind of company Apple has been for a long time.

              Sure it is. I've used Apples and Windows and before that MS-DOS for a long time. Your idea that you have some understanding of Apple's special evil merely shows you don't have an understanding of everyone elses.

              • If you've used MS DOS, then you should be able to remember when Slashdot was for Linux enthusiasts. Then you should also remember that MS was the root of all evil in those days. Then you should also know that Apple and Google are today's Microsoft, in Slashdot world.

                • If you've used MS DOS, then you should be able to remember when Slashdot was for Linux enthusiasts. Then you should also remember that MS was the root of all evil in those days. Then you should also know that Apple and Google are today's Microsoft, in Slashdot world.

                  Well, I wasn't on Slashdot until some time in the early Y2K's. By that time Applehate was well established.

              • Sure it is. I've used Apples and Windows and before that MS-DOS for a long time. Your idea that you have some understanding of Apple's special evil merely shows you don't have an understanding of everyone elses.

                I have a special place in my heart just for hating Apple. For you see they basically hate developers and are determined to make lives miserable for everyone who actually wants to do things professionally.

                They won't let you compile on other machines and they won't sell decent servers.

                There's a special

                • I have a special place in my heart just for hating Apple. For you see they basically hate developers and are determined to make lives miserable for everyone who actually wants to do things professionally.

                  I've written a tiny little bit for iOS. Just different rules. But if you wanna hate, by all means have at it.

                  • I've written a tiny little bit for iOS. Just different rules.

                    A tiny bit, quite. Try developing an actual product. It's really hard to do CI remotely well when you can't get anything approaching decent servers. For android it's trivial: just spin up a bunch of VMs on your cloud or local platform of choice running any of the usual systems.

                    For apple: fuck you.

        • Samsung {...} Sony, and everyone else have their stuff made by Foxconn too.

          Not every single company manufactures its stuff exclusively in China.
          For example, Sony [androidauthority.com] still manufactures [zdnet.com] in Japan [reference.com].
          (And Samsung obviously manufactures a lot in South Korea)

          Those non-China-made products include their smartphones (and other high-tech, hi-priced gadgets), they'll prefer outsourcing less sensitive accessories (wall wart charger).

          disclaimer: both of my latest two smartphones are Japan-made Sony Xperias. Though I still flashed an entirely different OS [jolla.com] (not Android) on them.
          So it's not *China*'s s

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          What's the point of inspecting your products when they arrive from the Chinese factory when your own government just intercepts them during shipment to customers/vendors and installs malware? The US was caught red handed doing that, and pretty much nothing has been done about it.

          Also security issues have no repercussions for any of these big tech companies. Dozens of celebrities' private photos were stolen from Apple's servers, didn't touch their stock price. Sony deliberately installed malware on people's

          • Dozens of celebrities' private photos were stolen from Apple's servers, didn't touch their stock price.

            That's because it wasn't Apple's fault. Those celebrities were using bad passwords.

            Sony deliberately installed malware on people's computers, and hardly anyone even heard of it at the time.

            That was a bit more puzzling. I feel like a lot of nerds didn't do their job on that one, and make their non-nerd friends understand the repercussions.

        • Actually I'm an Apple user and enjoy their products.

          I used them as an example because they're one of the largest companies with extremely popular products that most people trust, yet are made in China.

      • I would hope they load all their own firmware all the way down to bare metal and not let any 3rd-party company have anything to do with it.

      • We should probably consider ANY hardware manufactured in a country with an uber-authoritarian, paranoid government to be suspect.

        Given how we actively know the NSA has sought exactly these kinds of back doors you can just remove all adjectives and say:

        "We should probably consider ANY hardware manufactured in a country with a government to be suspect."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by XXongo ( 3986865 )

        We should probably consider ANY hardware manufactured in a country with an uber-authoritarian, paranoid government to be suspect.

        If you credit Wired, the problem isn't that Huwei is compromised by the Chinese government (although it probably is. Their government holds very tight control over everything.).

        The problem is that their software QC is slipshod.

        From https://www.wired.com/story/huawei-threat-isnt-backdoors-its-bugs/ [wired.com]:
        "Though the geopolitical discourse has gotten heated, the report concluded that the flaws in Huawei's code are related to "basic engineering competence and cyber security hygiene" and could be exploited by any

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Narcocide ( 102829 )

      This is a weird thing to me, because at first actually it seemed like it was much ado about nothing, which was actually more suspicious than this highly predictable revelation. However, I still don't know if there's any way to tell who is backdooring these devices, only that it is now clear Huawei can't protect their supply chain any better than anyone else.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Probably just a garden variety fuck-up. Like when Apple accidentally published the private signing key for their battery firmware, allowing anyone to create a malicious update that permanently backdoored the machine and could not be removed without tearing the laptop apart. Or the infamous GOTO FAIL bug.

        Or how about Intel's Management Engine flaws, which similarly allow an attacker to permanently pwn the machine?

        Maybe they were all NSA implants into the codebase. The GOTO FAIL one looks particularly suspici

    • Price? Looks just like an offering from another computer company named after fruit, but costs much less.

      At least that is my guess.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Free trade.
      The US and Uk "have" to accept equal and tech trade products from China.
      Thats how its getting in to the USA and EU.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Megol ( 3135005 )

      Normally I'd expect such an opinion to be based on facts and not fear-mongering produced without proof. Here we are served an article without technical data, without any actual information at all but the speculation of some unknown person (to me at least) in combination with scary words from an obviously nontechnical writer. No links, no description of the exploit, no reason to actually believe the unknown person.

    • and which company is producing anything that is not compromised in some way? this is the reality of the highly complex integrated world we live in. Consumers won't pay the price that would be required for true verification and security that would guarantee no compromises.
    • Did you notice the part in the summary that states that this flaw looks like an NSA backdoor?

  • If the company was really sophisticated, why would they name a product the "Matebook".

    Talk about something that's never likely to be used by anyone serious...

  • Seriously, them and the Chinese government are so in-bed, that the government is putting increasing pressure on Canada with imaginary claim like Canola being infested with pest and retrial a Canadian just to give him the death penalty right after the whole thing with Huawei's CFO started by request of the US. Among other things.

  • Just your reminder: (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    As a PSA, please remember that Trump overrode the various national intelligence agencies' concerns and removed sanctions on Huawei.

  • Let me guess (Score:5, Funny)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Wednesday April 03, 2019 @08:17PM (#58381442) Homepage Journal

    A flaw in Huawei Matebook laptops, found by Microsoft researchers, could have been used to take control of machines.

    Windows 10?

  • Gee, what a surprise...
  • Would you please quit playing around? We've got work to do.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 04, 2019 @09:28AM (#58383142)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

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