Reports of Samsung 850 Pro Firmware update issues

[musicman691]

I mentioned this before but I wonder if this has anything to do with the stuff Kaspersky found about maliciously reprogramming hard drive firmware via the hacker group The Equation Group? It might not be Magician after all but something else.

http://www.kaspersky.com/about/news/...yber-espionage
and
http://blog.kaspersky.com/equation-hdd-malware/

[Darryl Ramm]

No let's adjust our tinfoil hats and stop worring about silly conspiracy theories.



This is simply a bug in Samsung Firmware, which was never actually automatically installed anywhere.



The firmware exploits being discussed were never distributed by a vendor... And it would be very surprising if a competent vendor would ever distribute something like that (intended or unintended). The known (Windows only so far) injection paths are well understood, and infected computers were high-value targets well chosen.... presumably to avoid wide detection/countermeasure.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

No let's adjust our tinfoil hats and stop worring about silly conspiracy theories.

This is simply a bug in Samsung Firmware, which was never actually automatically installed anywhere.

The firmware exploits being discussed were never distributed by a vendor... And it would be very surprising if a competent vendor would ever distribute something like that (intended or unintended). The known (Windows only so far) injection paths are well understood, and infected computers were high-value targets well chosen.... presumably to avoid wide detection/countermeasure.

It's not a conspiracy theory Darryl (if it was then Kaspersky wouldn't be writing about it). And it doesn't have to be distributed by a vendor, just someone that is masquerading as one. Viruses and Trojans are more insidious than you think. And tell me exactly how you know it was never automatically installed anywhere? Just because you don't know about it doesn't mean it didn't happen. These machines of ours can be easily fooled by someone who knows what they're doing. Hell GM's Onstar has been hacked.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by musicman691

It's not a conspiracy theory Darryl (if it was then Kaspersky wouldn't be writing about it). And it doesn't have to be distributed by a vendor, just someone that is masquerading as one. Viruses and Trojans are more insidious than you think. And tell me exactly how you know it was never automatically installed anywhere? Just because you don't know about it doesn't mean it didn't happen. These machines of ours can be easily fooled by someone who knows what they're doing. Hell GM's Onstar has been hacked.

Samsung firmware updates are *not* automatically installed, that is what this thread is about.... an attempt to warn folks that installing the 850 Pro firmware update from Samsung might brick their drive. That is all.

Neither Kaspersky or any other security company/researcher is dreaming up that the problem that folks have with downloading and installing the recent standard Samsung firmware fix from Samsung has anything to do with the NSA or CIA teams or little green men trying to get into your hard drive. Please, adjust your tinfoil hat and give it a rest.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Samsung firmware updates are *not* automatically installed, that is what this thread is about.... an attempt to warn folks that installing the 850 Pro firmware update from Samsung might brick their drive. That is all.

Neither Kaspersky or any other security company/researcher is dreaming up that the problem that folks have with downloading and installing the recent standard Samsung firmware fix from Samsung has anything to do with the NSA or CIA teams or little green men trying to get into your hard drive. Please, adjust your tinfoil hat and give it a rest.

Whatever dude, whatever. I tend not to look at things through rose-colored glasses and trust that something can't be done. Just because someone says it's not done doesn't mean it can't be done - that's all I'm saying. Believe it or not there's backdoors into just about every modern piece of equipment that has a processor in it.