Lenovo To Support Configuring ThinkPad BIOS From Within Linux

[Tuxee]

Fantastic read. So much conspiracy crap in one thread - great. My personal favorite: Qaridarium. Just awesome.

[Sonadow]

Then how would you update the BIOS?

Besides most OS ignores most of the BIOS anyway once the OS is bootstrapped.

Not in Linux.

Linux is the only known system I am aware of that mounts the efivars as a rw directory in /sys, and continues to do so even today with the current kernels.

Remember how there was a year of hoo-ha early on that resulted in bricked Samsung and Lenovo laptops because the kernel was happily writing stuff into the mounted efivars folders? Although for some strange reason it only affected Samsung and Lenovo laptops.

Out of paranoia, the first thing I do on every x64 UEFI system I own, be it servers, desktops or laptops, is to umount this directory immediately after installation and set up a cron job to always do so on boot.

[carewolf]

Well, other than the fact that modern BIOSes/UEFIs can be updated from a menu entry inside them, I will presume your question revolves around the idea of setting them read only. It's quite easy: you would manually adjust the jumper to permit writing to the BIOS when you want to update it, update it, and set the jumper back to read only. Actual settings could either be stored in a very small writable area (not ideal, but easier) or settings would be adjusted when the BIOS was writable. This means that people who want to have easy access to flashing their BIOS or changing settings can do so - while those who dislike the idea of potentially having a next-to-impossible-to-detect-or-remove virus getting in can be more circumspect.

And you think making an security update hard to impossible for casual users (especially of laptops), that would lead to FEWER computers with BIOS infections?

Let me just say: I disagree.

[Paradigm Shifter]

He probably means flashing it into a newer version. And even then, there are lots of methods available then and now.

<snip>

Agreed. I didn't want to wind the clock back too far, however.

I still don't really trust online flashing, even though I hope they manufacturer has enough sense to do a validation pre-flash.

And you think making an security update hard to impossible for casual users (especially of laptops), that would lead to FEWER computers with BIOS infections?

Let me just say: I disagree.

As is your prerogative as an individual.

I've never met a "casual" PC user yet who has said they have updated their BIOS. The question is usually met with blank looks or the adamant exclamation that they always keep their PC up to date (when you log in to the virus-infested Windows, it turns out it hasn't had an update in three years because they disabled Windows Update because the notifications were annoying) so while my experiences are obviously entirely my own limited ones... most people don't even realise there is anything "underneath" the OS in the first place.

Making BIOSes harder to change without the user being explicitly aware would make "casual" users more secure. Making it easier to happen without notice? Not so much.

[Sonadow]

I still don't really trust online flashing, even though I hope they manufacturer has enough sense to do a validation pre-flash.

It never worked for me. Tried to online upgrade my Asrock H110M-ITX through the UEFI menu, got a download error about no files available. Mind you, I bought this board as soon as Skylake was released in early 2016.

Visited the Asrock site...wait why the hell are there so many firmware upgrade packages available.

[andre30correia]

chinese, us, uk, russia, portugal, australia whats the difference? All spy each others

[uid313]

BIOS is a misnomer, BIOS isn't used anymore on modern computers. Modern computers use UEFI which replaced the legacy BIOS.

[blackiwid]

I remember when my dad bought one of my siblings a Huawei phone. If you covered the camera it would show you an annoying popup message telling you to uncover the camera.

Taking a feature that detects people from covering the camera as proof for spying shows how grounded the opinion is in facts...

[board]

Taking a feature that detects people from covering the camera as proof for spying shows how grounded the opinion is in facts...

I think you are straw-manning what I said. I never said that it was evidence of anything, but that it was creepy. Not only does it not seem to fulfill any particular function, it is also something unusual that you do not find in other smartphone brands. One could say that it's a red flag that may act as grounds for further investigation. If one has enough suspicions about a device, it could motivate someone who is capable and willing to take the time to do some reverse-engineering that might lead to us discovering facts.

EDIT: A reference for Huawei's espionage: https://share.america.gov/u-s-furthe...uawei-and-zte/ There is a lot of evidence out there to suspect Huawei, and countries like the UK have been pulling Huawei out from its 5G infrastructure for this reason. So there are good reasons to suspect smartphones from the same company.

[blackiwid]

I think you are straw-manning what I said. I never said that it was evidence of anything, but that it was creepy. Not only does it not seem to fulfill any particular function, it is also something unusual that you do not find in other smartphone brands. One could say that it's a red flag that may act as grounds for further investigation. If one has enough suspicions about a device, it could motivate someone who is capable and willing to take the time to do some reverse-engineering that might lead to us discovering facts.

Here the full quote:

I remember when my dad bought one of my siblings a Huawei phone. If you covered the camera it would show you an annoying popup message telling you to uncover the camera. So yeah, Chinese computer products are f'in creepy. What should we expect from the world's most a Orwellian surveillance state that wants to spy on everything its citizens do. Thankfully, my sibling uses iPhone now, not perfect, but better than the Chinese bug.

You claim that it's a chinese bug, so you mention that chinese devices are syping bugs and you mention the fact randomly that this phone has this feature, without any connection to your claim that chinese phones are bugs?

That's like me saying "ohh I hate rapists.... I think this board guy is creepy" why would you mention the 2 things in one comment together if they are unrelated and you would not want to heavily imply that the person you name is a rapist?