bugtraq - Re: Insufficient Authentication vulnerability in Asus notebook

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Message-ID: <4A0C27DA.1000207@pacbell.net>
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 07:16:58 -0700
From: Susan Bradley <sbradcpa@...bell.net>
To: MustLive <mustlive@...security.com.ua>, bugtraq@...urityfocus.com
Subject: Re: Insufficient Authentication vulnerability in Asus notebook

I don't mean to be rude but you do realize that all XP OEMs ship in this 
manner?  So rather than asking everyone to help you investigate, just 
list all OEM vendors that still ship XP builds and it might be more 
efficient for you.

Which is why in Vista and Windows 7 as you set up the OEM build it 
strongly suggests you set up a password.

With all due respect this is

1.  Not new
2.  Physical access trumps all
3.  For XPs it's kinda handy to have a blank admin password when you 
sometimes come in on a network and need to get to that particular 
machine and you didn't set it up, otherwise you have to use the Admin 
password boot disk trick and reset the password to blank.

There's an easy fix for this.  Wait a few months for Asus to ship 
systems with Windows 7.

Otherwise this is very much not anything different then when someone 
else years and years ago said that IBM laptops or Dell computers were 
shipped in this manner and a basic law of computer security. 

Show me a OEM build of a XP and this is how they ship.  With all due 
respect, if you want me to click on your web site, how about coming up 
with a "vulnerability" that wasn't discussed on this very list in 2004?  
http://marc.info/?l=vulndiscuss&m=109568970316652&w=2

I think we can come up with different vulnerabilities in five years.  :-)

MustLive wrote:
> Hello SecurityFocus!
>
> I want to warn you about Insufficient Authentication vulnerability in 
> Asus notebook.
>
> After publication of information about Insufficient Authentication 
> vulnerability in Acer notebooks 
> (http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/503398/30/0/), I decided to 
> investigate all notebooks of my friends. Particularly I checked two 
> Asus notebooks: at one with Windows XP Professional there is no such 
> vulnerability, at another with Windows XP Home Edition there is such 
> vulnerability.
>
> In Windows XP Home in default administrator's account “Administrator” 
> there
> is empty password. And it does not set equal to password of first admin,
> when admin account is creating during first start of notebook (as it 
> happens
> during installation of Windows XP). So with physical access to notebook,
> anybody can enter into the system with administrator's rights.
>
> Vulnerable models of notebooks: Asus А6500R and potentially other models.
>
> I mentioned about these vulnerability at my site 
> (http://websecurity.com.ua/3139/).
>
> Now I'm continue to investigate this situation. If you'll find such 
> case in your notebook or in desktop PC, then inform me on email.
>
> Best wishes & regards,
> MustLive
> Administrator of Websecurity web site
> http://websecurity.com.ua
>