HP Omen Hub Exposes Millions of Gamers to Cyberattack

MrGuvernment

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HP Omen Hub Exposes Millions of Gamers to Cyberattack
https://threatpost.com/hp-omen-hub-gamers-cyberattack/169739/

Vulnerable HP OMEN Versions:

  • HP OMEN Gaming Hub prior to version 11.6.3.0
  • HP OMEN Gaming Hub SDK Package prior to version 1.0.44
Metadata showed the researchers the HP OMEN Gaming Hub re-used code for its driver that is vulnerable unauthorized privilege escalation.

“Unfortunately, issues with the WinRing0.sys driver are well-known,” the SentinelLabs report said. “This driver enables user-mode applications to perform various privileged kernel-mode operations via (input/output controls) IOCTLs interface.”

The HP driver potentially offers access through IOCTLs using model specific registers (MSRs) to access or alter CPU data, researchers added.

“This high-severity flaw, if exploited, could allow any user on the computer, even without privileges, to escalate privileges and run code in kernel mode,” the report added. “Among the obvious abuses of such vulnerabilities are that they could be used to bypass security products.”

Once inside, attackers could gain lateral access to wider networks, Sentinel Labs reported.

Back in Oct. 2019, SafeBreach published their findings on the same driver vulnerability in the HP Touchpoint Analytics Software, which could have clued threat actors into looking at similar vulnerabilities across other HP products.

HP put out a fix on Sept. 14, adding that the company will both push out automatic updates as well as offer manual options for patching.

“To reduce the attack surface provided by device drivers with exposed IOCTLs handlers, developers should enforce strong ACLs on device objects, verify user input and not expose a generic interface to kernel-mode operations,” the report advised.
 
Yes but you forget the sheer size of the, “will buy a prebuilt and leave the bloatware installed but fuck Microsoft I’m not using their store” crowd.
yeah- but i don't think you can fault HP for that. based on the two articles, HP responded when approached, worked with the security teams, and patched it.

End users are pretty stupid. Wonder if there is a way to push it via Windows Update?

EDIT: and HP pushes new features for Omen over Windows Store. Want new features? Gotta take the update. That carrot may be enough to push people over the edge.
 
Most people buying prebuilts probably do not turn off automatic updates.
Windows store items aren’t included in the auto updates unless you go into windows update advanced options and select receive updates for other Microsoft Products when you update Windows. And even then it’s contingent on the program having the correct tags. I mean windows update isn’t going to update my copy of Sea of Thieves, or Halo, but it will update Calculator.
 
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Windows store items aren’t included in the auto updates unless you go into windows update advanced options and select receive updates for other Microsoft Products when you update Windows. And even then it’s contingent on the program having the correct tags. I mean windows update isn’t going to update my copy of Sea of Thieves, or Halo, but it will update Calculator.

Not to be a stereotypical Linux fan, but that right there is IMHO the biggest benfit of Linux.

Most exploits on Windows are not actually in windows itself, but in installed unupdated software. Old versions of Adobe stuff have been particularly notorious for this over the years.

Having ALL of your installed software managed by the same package manager that keeps the entire environment and all installed software up to date is HUGE.

It saddens me that they are trying to ruin this by introducing 3rd party binary Linux distribution systems like Snaps, AppImage and FlatPak. As soon as you take a way all distribution from the one unified package manager (at least per distribution), you lose one of the biggest security benefits of working with Linux.

Microsoft would be well advised to do something similar.

They just need to tread lightly. If they force everyone to use the Microsoft store, they will likely get sued like Apple did.

If - however - they have some sort of Microsoft update service which costs nothing, and all software vendors are required to use, or the software won't install (without the user disregarding lots of really nasty warning screens, or something like that) it could go a long way to keeping Windows a more secure platform.
 
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And yeah,

I don't understand why everyone insists of having a bazillion little widgets always running in the background.

I understand we have more cores now (heck, my desktop has 24c/48T), and don't have to obsess as much about closing all background tasks for the best game performance, like we used to in the good old uniprocessor days, but still, old habits die hard. I make sure as little as absolutely possible runs in the background on any of my machines.

Besides, you have to wonder why they all want to run in the background all the time. Harvesting data maybe? It is healthy to be suspicious.

My Logitech mouse came with a mouse app. I don't understand why it is really needed, but it is there. I launched it once, set the settings the way I liked them, and then killed it, and refuse to let it launch on boot anymore. I do something similar with everything.

There should be no reason a service ever needs to run in the background or launch at boot. If it does, it is probably not for your benefit, but for someone elese's.
 
Not to be a stereo typical Linux fan, but that right there is IMHO the biggest benfit of Linux.

Most exploits on Windows are not actually in windows itself, but in installed unupdated software. Old versions of Adobe stuff have been particularly notorious for this over the years.

Having ALL of your installed software managed by the same package manager that keeps the entire environment and all installed software up to date is HUGE.

It saddens me that they are trying to ruin this by introducing 3rd party binary Linux distribution systems like Snaps, AppImage and FlatPak. As soon as you take a way all distribution from the one unified package manager (at least per distribution), you lose one of the biggest security benefits of working with Linux.

Microsoft would be well advised to do something similar.

They just need to tread lightly. If they force everyone to use the Microsoft store, they will likely get sued like Apple did.

If - however - they have some sort of Microsoft update service which costs nothing, and all software vendors are required to use, or the software won't install (without the user disregarding lots of really nasty warning screens, or something like that) it could go a long way to keeping Windows a more secure platform.
Much of that can be done via Power Shell, but that is Microsoft slowly pulling their Linux stuff into Windows. And we’ll beyond the normal user, but yes a centralized package manager would be awesome, and dependency management and blah blah blah. If Microsoft could somehow blend their Linux and Windows features that would be awesome.
 
In retrospect I think Microsoft needs to sit down with all the major software players, Adobe, HP, Dell, Valve, EPYC, EA, etc, and work on a version of Github but for closed source software. If they got it fully encrypted and completely segregated and all that jazz there is no real risk of any code being leaked but it would allow for updates to be performed via a centralized source such as Windows Updates. The hard part would be getting enough companies to sign onto the idea to make it viable. But if you no longer had to check Dell for your Bios updates, and HP for your printer updates, and all the other sites for the individual updates it would simplify a lot of things for a good number of people. That or make auto-update a required or at least highly recommended feature for all windows software and applications and have an API call in windows that would let those individual programs register to an internal database of sorts so when you checked windows updates it automatically triggered each program's auto-update functions.

But Microsoft needs to find a way to emulate Linux's package manager but doing it in a way that doesn't break compatibility, or look like a power grab or a huge security risk.
 
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