MUST READ: Congress demands answers from Google over Glass privacy concerns

Topic: Security

Malware found in Lenovo software package

Summary: Computer maker Lenovo is shipping a malware-infected software package to Windows XP users, according to warning from anti-virus researchers at Microsoft.The malicious file was identified by Microsoft as Win32/Meredrop, a Trojan dropper that is used to install and execute multiple malicious executables on an infected computer.

Ryan Naraine

By for Zero Day |

Malware found in Lenovo ThinkCenter driverComputer maker Lenovo is shipping a malware-infected software package to Windows XP users, according to warning from anti-virus researchers at Microsoft.

The malicious file was identified by Microsoft as Win32/Meredrop, a Trojan dropper that is used to install and execute multiple malicious executables on an infected computer. Other anti-virus vendors are detecting the threat as a 'hooligan' virus or a porn dialer. It was found the Lenovo Trust Key software for Windows XP, a digitally signed driver package available to Windows XP SP2 users.

The infected software is used to install the Lenovo Security Logon and the Lenovo Private folder applications for use with the Lenovo Trust Key (also known as Lenovo Insider Key).

[ SEE: Malware-infected USB drives distributed at security conference ] My sources tell me the Lenovo package contains lots of files, including the one with the embedded malware.  At first glance, the malicious file contains functional, but buggy code and attemps to infect files, spread across the network and USB drives.

Lenovo has been notified and is investigating the issue.

UPDATE: Lenovo has removed the compromised download from its Web site.

Topics: Security, CXO, Lenovo, Malware, Microsoft, Operating Systems, Software, IT Employment, Windows

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

80 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • Just one more reason not to buy Lenovo.

    I have way too many of their computers in my shop, bought by my predecessor, and they are mostly junk. They are a far cry from the quality of IBM.
    IT_Guy_z
    Reply Vote

    • But...

      so many companies swear by outsourcing to China.

      It is shameful that an icon of American computer technology like IBM sold it's desktop and notebook operations to the same people that put lead paint on our children's toys and feed their own people cardboard while using our money to fund a totalitarian communist regime.

      I refuse to acknowledge Lenevo as an option to any consumer or business, and avoid IBM if possible.

      It's hard to do, but I try to aviod products made in China. Until they actually decide to take responsibility and tighten their quality control, there is no reason to continue fueling their demand to build cheap crap that fills our selves.

      Now that Gateway owns E-Machines and Accer owns Gateway, even E-Machines are of higher quality then Lenevo. At least they use the better MB's built by Intel instead of outsourcing to some crap China factory.

      Dell is second on that list. Dell has become some of the worst junk I have had to work on. MB failures by the dozens.

      Sigh... oh well, not like I can change it though. As long as people want cheap computers, we have to put up with crap manufacturers.
      ShadowGIATL
      Reply Vote

      • I hate to tell you this but the USA makes 1%

        of all electronic products(maybe). Since the 70/80's very little of any electronic products are made in the USA. Corperations ant the most they can get for their money and other countries can make it less than e can.
        Mike
        Michael L Hereid Sr
        Reply Vote

        • (NT) Would you like some melamine with that? :o)

          :o)
          Jack-Booted EULA
          Reply Vote

          • Now see...

            here is someone that knows where I'm coming from.
            ShadowGIATL
            Reply Vote

        • Make something in America!

          This is why everyone is out of work. Everything is made in China. They are getting stronger while we are getting weaker. Wake up corporate America, stop giving yourself bonuses with all the money your saving by getting it done in China and laying off American workers. You can't even by a fruit cup that was made in America (with all the starving farmers)they are made in China also.
          newsletters@...
          Reply Vote

          • RE: Make something in America

            You said: [i]Wake up corporate America, stop giving yourself bonuses with all the money your saving by getting it done in China and laying off American workers.[/i]

            <sarcasm mode="extreme">

            [b]Now why should they???[/b]

            They do not give a rats @$$ about American workers. Don't you realize that in [b]Corporate America[/b] workers are [b]a cost to be CUT!![/b]

            What kind of fool are you, to [b]Corporate types[/b] [u]size (of your bonus check) does matter!!![/u]
            fatman65535
            Reply Vote

          • Americans are addicted to cheap products...

            Be honest with yourself -- if you had the choice of two identical products -- one made in America at two or three times the price of the one made in China -- if you were taking that money out of your own pocket you'd buy the cheaper one.

            Even your 'made in the USA' products are stuffed full of components made everywhere else.

            Simple economics.
            Marty R. Milette
            Reply Vote

          • No so . . . You pay for what you get.

            I prefer to buy quality over price. My rule of thumb dictates Buy American first, then if not American at least Canadian or Mexican, all with the intent of keeping our money at home or at least nearby and then the third choice is Central American after that South American as a last resort!! Stuff from China and elsewhere is crap. waste of money, won't last and breaks down, so I do spend a lot of time searching out based on 'Made In USA' and the items are fewer and fewer, but when I do find them, and I do, I know the money stays here to support our economy and not some other economy that don't give a tinkers dam about us and poisons and taint's the products sent here.
            ZenWarp
            Reply Vote

      • I hate to tell you this but the USA makes 1%

        of all electronic products(maybe). Since the 70/80's very little of any electronic products are made in the USA. Corperations want the most they can get for their money and other countries can make it less than we can.
        Mike
        Michael L Hereid Sr
        Reply Vote

        • China

          They might be able to make it for less in China and other overseas locations but they do not pass the savings to the consumer. We need to bring all of our manufacturing back to USA. I think people would be glad to work for less to have a job. With everyone out of work we won't be able to buy this stuff anyway.
          EKRULL8@...
          Reply Vote

          • more China

            I don't understand. The government keeps saying we don't support commuist countries but here we are supporting the largest one there is, China. We don't have a choice to buy anything thats not from China, we could go without. But not enough people will do that anymore. We need our protesters from the 60's
            EKRULL8@...
            Reply Vote

          • china is a capitalist country

            China is a capitalist country with one party rule unlike the two party rule system in the US that provides the illusion of choice for the masses.

            China abandoned socialism in the early 80's and embraced capitalism, ironically while the US has pursued more socializm and more government control.

            The economy of China has grown tremendously and the US has stagnated and begun to collapse.

            Malware is everywhere, of greater concern is the ability of chinese hacker/spies to access key information from US databases at will.
            jeyost@...
            Reply Vote

          • China is NOT a CAPITALIST country

            To be a free capitalist country you must first have a
            free political system. Mainland China does not but Taiwan does. There is no separation of the economic from the political. To have a free market you must first have free people, free thought, freedom of choice, association, opinion and the right to choose who will represent you as your national leader. You get what you pay for, America pays for dictatorships globally. The only reason that global terrorist, dictators of communist or fascist nature exist is because America and the rest of the democracies of the West (India and Pakistan included) enables them funding the purchase of the very weapons and bullets that are used to kill us. It is Chinese practice to send the invoice to the family for the cost of the bullet used to assassinate political dissenters. It is not just business it is politics the desire for power and global world domination. Do not fund dictatorships once you stop that war becomes impossible, impossible.
            Homer111
            Reply 1 Vote

      • You're dreaming...

        Finding a computer out there without [b]some[/b] Chinese-made components is like finding the Atlantic ocean without fish.

        Some might be a little worse than others but they're all bad...
        hasta la Vista, bah-bie
        Reply Vote

        • How amusing.

          Last year my company bought a Lenovo pc ... builder in Mexico.
          magallanes
          Reply Vote

          • Built or assembled

            Were all of its components designed and developed in Mexico, or was it just assembled there?
            aeriform
            Reply Vote

          • I guarantee

            That it was only assembled there, the components were not made there.
            zdnet@...
            Reply Vote

          • And it contains *some* Chinese parts... (NT)

            -
            hasta la Vista, bah-bie
            Reply Vote

        • The way we are destorying the world...

          At the rate we are overfishing the world oceans we may have no fish also.
          The problem here is the profit motive of all of these companies. I don't see too many products I buy, good or bad, are made in the US because of the greater profit from making it overseas. Even Dell or any other electronic device will have some Chinese or oversea content no matter how you try to minimize it.
          I was recently repairing a electronic interface device for one of our microscopes and just being curious if I can find any electronics parts made in the USA, no matter what the cost, to see if there was such a thing anymore and unfortunately no. When I was going to college a long time ago (stop laughing) I had many choices between US and foreign made (not just re-marketed) part. Now all of those manufactures have merged, gone or have factories overseas so that option of US content is really gone.
          Good luck for finding any electronic device without any Chinese parts.
          phatkat
          Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close