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Some HP laptops are hiding a deactivated keylogger[^]

11-Dec-17 12:11

Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

Re: Some HP laptops are hiding a deactivated keylogger

VISWESWARAN199811-Dec-17 18:23

VISWESWARAN1998

11-Dec-17 18:23

Sir, Here is another one found in audio driver: Keylogger Found in Audio Driver of HP Laptops[^]

are these pre-installed keyloggers accidental?? Is buying HP safe, cause I planned to buy one?

Re: Some HP laptops are hiding a deactivated keylogger

Cornelius Henning12-Dec-17 3:06

Re: Some HP laptops are hiding a deactivated keylogger

12-Dec-17 3:06

I cannot give you advice regarding HP machines. I only buy Dell.

Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

dandy7212-Dec-17 4:32

dandy72

12-Dec-17 4:32

VISWESWARAN1998 wrote:
are these pre-installed keyloggers accidental?? Is buying HP safe, cause I planned to buy one?

Blow the OS away. Reinstall from a clean MSDN ISO (as a developer, you do have an MSDN subscription, right?)

Then go to hp.com for the one or two drivers for the hardware that Device Manager doesn't recognize out of the box.

Re: Some HP laptops are hiding a deactivated keylogger

Cornelius Henning12-Dec-17 4:39

Re: Some HP laptops are hiding a deactivated keylogger

12-Dec-17 4:39

Quote:
as a developer, you do have an MSDN subscription, right?

In the case of Windows 10, once your new machine reports that Windows is activated, you can download a Windows 10 Install Tool to replace the OS. No need to have a MSDN subscription. I have done this several times.

Once the new OS is up and running, it should report that it is activated.

Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

dandy7212-Dec-17 5:11

dandy72

12-Dec-17 5:11

True - my point was that getting an ISO from Microsoft, rather than an OEM's, is about the most reliable way of ensuring you're not getting unexpected third-party crapware.

As an MSDN subscriber, I'll go to those images first, when this is for my own machines. For anyone else--yeah, I've used their general download page...it's about time that Windows can re-fetch the key from MS, once it's been registered on a given machine.

Re: Some HP laptops are hiding a deactivated keylogger

the goat in your machine11-Dec-17 20:32

the goat in your machine

11-Dec-17 20:32

Probably jus some lazy programmer included it in his standard library.

Re: Some HP laptops are hiding a deactivated keylogger

W∴ Balboos, GHB12-Dec-17 0:46

W∴ Balboos, GHB

12-Dec-17 0:46

Or maybe a side effect of "Made In China" ? ? ?

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Re: Some HP laptops are hiding a deactivated keylogger

#realJSOP12-Dec-17 1:40

#realJSOP

12-Dec-17 1:40

When I buy a pre-built machine or laptop, I ALWAYS install a different copy of Windows on it as opposed to leaving their crapware-filled OS on the box. Then I let Windows update take care of the drivers.

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Re: Some HP laptops are hiding a deactivated keylogger

Cornelius Henning12-Dec-17 3:02

Stupid compilers face palm

12-Dec-17 3:02

Quote:
I ALWAYS install a different copy of Windows

Ditto for me! Smile | :)

Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

charlieg11-Dec-17 9:51

11-Dec-17 9:51

So, I'm testing some ftp s/w on Windows. Standard code, details deliberately dropped:

handle myHandle = FtpFindFirstFile();


if (NULL != myHandle)
{
    do
    {
    } while (InternetFindNextFile());
}

I'm in the debugger, I just want to see the values in some data structures. Code keeps dropping right out of the do loop. Code steps in, loop exits, I know there are more files matching than just the first... wth is going on?

duh, compiler be too smart - nothing in the do loop, why bother? Add a variable increment in the loop, all works. Sniff | :^)

so much time lost

Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...

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CPallini11-Dec-17 10:05

CPallini

11-Dec-17 10:05

Welcome to optimization. Big Grin | :-D

Rick York11-Dec-17 10:05

Rick York

11-Dec-17 10:05

I have never seen the compiler "optimize" code away in debug mode. That is very curious.

-edit-

That's because optimization is usually disabled in debug builds. I would verify that it is, in fact, disabled.

modified 11-Dec-17 17:54pm.

charlieg11-Dec-17 14:39

11-Dec-17 14:39

optimization is off....

Marc Clifton11-Dec-17 10:31

Marc Clifton

11-Dec-17 10:31

charlieg wrote:
Add a variable increment in the loop, all works.

Sooo, why shouldn't the compiler optimize it out? You're not doing anything with the next file, and the compiler shouldn't have to know that there is some side-effect effect. To be honest, I'd look at that code and go WTF? myself.

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Peter_in_278011-Dec-17 13:04

Peter_in_2780

11-Dec-17 13:04

Marc Clifton wrote:
Sooo, why shouldn't the compiler optimize it out? You're not doing anything with the next file, and the compiler shouldn't have to know that there is some side-effect effect.

Optimising compilers must be aware of side effects; it's one of the factors that makes optimising REALLY difficult (NP-complete or worse). Optimisation involve producing a semantically equivalent program while minimising or maximising some aspect - run time, memory size, power usage, ...

Cheers,
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charlieg11-Dec-17 14:43

11-Dec-17 14:43

I don't really have an argument with the compiler - with the exception that optimizations are not enabled for the debug target. Since I'm sitting in the debugger, I would have expected the do nothing loop to loop as expected.

I'm making a function call ffs in the control statement. If an optimized build, sure. But I was just knocking around some proof of concept code to understand how all things worked.

PIEBALDconsult11-Dec-17 11:18

PIEBALDconsult

11-Dec-17 11:18

I've seen that many many times. Be sure optimizations are turned off.

charlieg11-Dec-17 14:45

11-Dec-17 14:45

see above. it's a non-optimized debug target.

I'm sure there is some esoteric reason why the C++ compiler is not in error.

CodeWraith11-Dec-17 20:18

CodeWraith

11-Dec-17 20:18

Then your assumption that InternetFindNextFile() works as expected must be wrong. Step into it and see what it does.

I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.

Marco Bertschi11-Dec-17 21:40

Marco Bertschi

11-Dec-17 21:40

From a distant point of view, it might as well be a debugger bug (oh, how ironic)...
Or a compiler bug, where turning of optimization doens't turn off optizing away your bit there.
Have you reported the behavior?

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