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posted by janrinok on Thursday June 25 2015, @09:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the "because-the-updates-might-not-work" dept.

Security researcher Patrick Barker has caught Samsung deliberately disabling Windows Update on Samsung PCs in favor of its own bloatware service:

The problem was spotted by independent security researcher Patrick Barker after a Windows user complained that the Windows Update function, which automatically downloads patches and security fixes from Microsoft, was being randomly disabled.

The culprit turned out to be a piece of code called SWUpdate, which Samsung bundles on its machines to handle driver updates for its hardware. SWUpdate, in turn, runs an executable called Disable_Windowsupdate.exe as part of its standard operations. Guess what that does.

At first, the researchers were concerned that the software might be malware, although it did appear to be signed by Samsung itself. A call to Samsung technical support yielded the following response:

When you enable Windows updates, it will install the Default Drivers for all the hardware [on the] laptop which may or may not work. For example if there is USB 3.0 on laptop, the ports may not work with the installation of updates. So to prevent this, SW Update tool will prevent the Windows updates.

Samsung has not replied to The Reg's request for comment but a Microsoft spokesperson emailed us the following statement:

Windows Update remains a critical component of our security commitment to our customers. We do not recommend disabling or modifying Windows Update in any way as this could expose a customer to increased security risks. We are in contact with Samsung to address this issue.


Original Submission and Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2015, @07:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2015, @07:38AM (#201421)

    the tool changes update setting from "always download and apply" to "inform me about updates, so I can manually select what I want" (same as when changing these settings yourself in windows update)

    That is exactly what the story says, so how is that debunking anything?

    And I can assure you that if my parents PC is set to manual install anything, the only time anything will be installed is when I or my brother does so. Not everybody has technical support in the family. For those who don't, this is very much disabling Windows Update.

    - And even if you do, if the tech person is not the one who has set it to manual, he won't be expecting it, and thus won't start their PC to check for updates whenever he comes over. So it will only be noticed when something breas - probably caused by malware that could have been prevented by updating Windows. The malware will get the blame for turning off Windows update, Windows update re-enabled, and the computer returned. After which the Samsung software disables it again. Two months later, the PC is infected again, with the same result.