The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Acer 'preloads vulns' onto notebooks

Ripe for exploitation

Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery

Acer has been called out for pre-loading a vulnerability on its notebooks.

A library file, called LunchApp.ocx, on the devices is set up to turn on the "safe for scripting" feature that means users are more vulnerable to ActiveX exploits. The "feature," designed to make it easier to browser Acer's site means systems can download potentially malicious Active X controls, without warning, if they happen to stray onto websites controlled by hackers.

This reduction in security defences was uncovered by security researchers at anti-virus firm F-Secure during testing of the LunchApp.ocx library, as explained here.

Acer is yet to respond to our requests for comment. ®

Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

More from The Register

 breaking news
Number of cops abusing Police National Computer access on the rise
Only a telegram from the Queen can get you off it
 breaking news
NSA PRISM snoop-gate: Won't someone think of the children, wails Apple
10,000 things probed, mostly about missing kids, Alzheimer patients, we're told
Flash flaw potentially makes every webcam or laptop a PEEPHOLE
But it's a Google problem - Chrome only, insists Adobe
 breaking news
NSA PRISM-gate: Relax, GCHQ spooks 'keep us safe', says Cameron
Whatever they are up to, it's all above board, we're told
 breaking news
Yahoo! joins! rivals! in! PRISM! data! request! admission!
Keep calm and carry on using American tech firms, folks
PRISM snitch claims NSA hacked Chinese targets since 2009
Snowden suddenly looks safer in Hong Kong after revelations
 breaking news
US chief spook: Look, we only want to spy on 6.66 BEELLLION of you
Americans assured they are not in the NSA's sights
Speech-to-text drives motorists to distraction
Will talking to you mean I crash into that car up ahead, Siri?
DHS warns of vulns in hospital medical equipment
Has your doctor's anasthesia machine been hacked?
 breaking news
'BadNews is malware' says outfit that found it
Google says code harmless but Lookout says code base is evolving