Bonum Certa Men Certa

Another Reason to Boycott UEFI and Proprietary Software From Microsoft: Insecurity

Summary: Some blobs like Microsoft's Windows patches and the binary-level UEFI 'validation' do not and cannot provide real security, only insecurity in disguise

THE 'PROMISE' of UEFI 'secure' boot is as ludicrous as Microsoft's claims that it pursues security. UEFI does nothing real for security; in fact, it once again does the very opposite. Quoting the news:



A pair of security researchers have found a buffer overflow vulnerability within the implementation of the unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) within the EDK1 project used in firmware development.

Bromium researcher Rafal Wojtczuk and MITRE Corp's Corey Kallenberg said the bug in the FSVariable.c source file was linked to a variable used to reclaim empty space on SPI flash chips.


According to other news, as told (spun) by a Microsoft booster.,"Microsoft's advance security notification service no longer publicly available". The booster says that "Microsoft is taking its Advance Notification Service private, claiming the change is due to changes in the way users want their advance security notifications." Microsoft sure tells the NSA about ways to hijack/wiretap Microsoft software, so it's a matter of privilege, not some company-wide policy.

How does the above serve users? It doesn't. This is about Microsoft, not users. Users will be left even more vulnerable. As Pogson correctly points out, "There are no Patch Tuesdays with Debian GNU/Linux so the bad guys are no further ahead. We can all get Debian’s patches as soon as they generate them and we can usually install the updates on running systems with no adverse consequences, like a re-re-reboot."

Moreover, in large corporations in particular, patching code internally is possible or even relying on third parties. Don't ever trust security at binary level, such as large blobs being sent that are supposedly 'patched' or some opaque board giving 'approval' before the running of a binary blob, mostly likely based on some cryptic signature approved by unknown people for unknown reasons (usually employees of companies that work with the NSA). Real security emanates from transparency, which breeds trust and provides to ability for one to study and patch one's own programs (or rely on others to do so using their specialised skills).

"Anyone wonder why the Microsoft SQL server is called the sequel server? Is that because no matter what version it's at there's always going to be a sequel needed to fix the major bugs and security flaws in the last version?"

--Unknown

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October