LVFS Has Supplied More Than 100 Million Firmware Updates To Linux Users

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

I wonder if manufacturers will migrate to live Linux USB images to let Windows-only users perform firmware updates.
Or have compatible clients for Windows. That would be more likely actually...

Actually. Let there be a universal firmware upgrade image, with an exFAT partition for offline files. That way it wouldn't need Internet connection at all.

Dell does something similar to this for their server hardware. I have some Dell T630 tower servers and the firmware update ISO just boots a Linux kernel and automatically checks what hardware is installed and applies all possible firmware updates offline.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

It's really annoying that Dell (and others) don't seem to release their firmware updates through LVFS - why don't they all just use LVFS as default and, if they have a Windows piece of software (PoS) then they can just grab the image from LVFS (or vice-versa - LVFS could be a pointer to the company-hosted firmware).

https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devices/#dell

The general thing with Dell / HP / Lenovo is that you need to buy the business class machines if you want LVFS support today.

[NotMine999]

Yet another tool that can use UEFI for purposes other than booting the computer, according to this page:

https://fwupd.org/lvfs/docs/vendors

But UEFI does not appear to be secure when this can be done with it:

https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/12/just-about-every-windows-and-linux-device-vulnerable-to-new-logofail-firmware-attack/

Ya gotta luv UEFI for being the Swiss Army knife that boots, updates, and hacks ... all in the same application!


So thanks but no thanks. Sometimes the "old school methods", while a hassle they may be, simply appear to be a bit more secure to me.

[cj.wijtmans]

ah yes the automatic updating of proprietary firmware full of spyware and backdoors on linux boxes. Payed forby microsoft. What a victory for all of linux users...

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

ah yes the automatic updating of proprietary firmware full of spyware and backdoors on linux boxes. Payed forby microsoft. What a victory for all of linux users...

(－‸ლ)

[Old Grouch]

It would be nice if someone could come up with a FLOSS UEFI executable* for updating firmware. I realise it would be a huge and difficult job as a result of all the different hardware approaches used by motherboard manufacturers, but it would be really good if one could simply download (signed) firmware and run a (signed) UEFI executable to update the PC.


*UEFI executables are regular PE32 / PE32+ (Windows x32 / x64) images, with a specific subsystem. Every UEFI application is basically a windows EXE (or DLL) without symbol tables. See OsDev.org: UEFI

[catpig]

ah yes the automatic updating of proprietary firmware full of spyware and backdoors on linux boxes. Payed forby microsoft. What a victory for all of linux users...

Your statement implies that the updates are more likely to have spyware and backdoors than the shipped version. On what are you basing this?

[cj.wijtmans]

Your statement implies that the updates are more likely to have spyware and backdoors than the shipped version. On what are you basing this?

imagine a telemetry backend changes DNS/IP, authentication or encryption. Updates with bug fixing is not only useful for the end user but also the party spying on you and/or adding backdoors for governments. Sometimes those backdoors get found out and reported as "bugs" and get fixe through software so they need to be able to update their firmware.