• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

 | 

Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

 | 

Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

 | 

Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

 | 

Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

 | 

Mitel patches critical MiVoice MX-ONE Auth bypass flaw

 | 

Coyote malware is first-ever malware abusing Windows UI Automation

 | 

SonicWall fixed critical flaw in SMA 100 devices exploited in Overstep malware attacks

 | 

DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033

 | 

Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder

 | 

U.S. CISA adds CrushFTP, Google Chromium, and SysAid flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

U.S. CISA urges FCEB agencies to fix two Microsoft SharePoint flaws immediately and added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Sophos fixed two critical Sophos Firewall vulnerabilities

 | 

French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

 | 

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 

CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

 | 

Hardcoded credentials found in HPE Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi devices

 | 

MuddyWater deploys new DCHSpy variants amid Iran-Israel conflict

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Security
  • Millions computers running Computrace agent can be remotely hijacked

Millions computers running Computrace agent can be remotely hijacked

Pierluigi Paganini February 13, 2014

Experts at Kaspersky confirm hidden threat in BIOSes of Popular Laptops and warns that Absolute Computrace Anti-Theft agent can be remotely hijacked

Researchers at Kaspersky Lab have demonstrated that a feature in the legitimate software produced by Absolute Software firm can be abused to turn a defensive utility into a powerful utility for cyberattack.

Kaspersky Lab’s security experts published a report to demonstrate how a weak implementation of anti-theft software can cause serious security problems giving the attackers full access to millions of users’ PCs.

The experts discovered that the legitimate Computrace agent running on several private computers of Kaspersky Lab’s researchers without prior authorization, it is an agent that resides in the firmware, or PC ROM BIOS.

Many users reported to have found the legitimate agent already installed on their machines and the bad news is that Computrace is designed to survive professional system cleanup and even hard disk replacement.

Kaspersky team estimated that approximately 150,000 systems are running the Computrace agent and total number of users with the activated Computrace agent may exceed 2 million, the majority of such computers are located in the US and Russia.

Computrace computers

Computrace implements persistence using many tricks usually adopted by malicious software, including anti-debugging and anti-reverse engineering techniques, injection into memory of other processes, establishment of secret communications, patching system files on disk, keeping configuration files encrypted, and dropping a Windows executable right from the BIOS/firmware.

“Powerful actors with the ability to tap fiber optics can potentially hijack computers running Absolute Computrace. This software can be used to deploy spyware implants,” “Our estimate is that millions of computers are running Absolute Computrace software and a large number of the users might be unaware that this software is activated and running. Who had a reason to activate Computrace on all those computers? Are they being monitored by an unknown actor? That is a mystery which needs to be solved.” warns Vitaly Kamluk, Principal Security Researcher, Global Research and Analysis team at Kaspersky Lab. 

Despite there isn’t proof that Absolute Computrace is being used as a platform for attacks,  an hacker could exploit basic features for remote code execution in the network protocol implemented by Computrace Small Agent. The features lack of authentication and communication with the remote server is not protected with encryption.

The anomalous behavior of Computrace Agent is known by security experts for a long time, in 2009 researchers from Core Security Technologies produced a similar study on the debated agent.

Even some reports in the past revealed that Computrace was detected by Microsoft as a malware (VirTool:Win32/BeeInject).

“Such a powerful tool as Absolute Computrace software must use authentication and encryption mechanisms to continue serving the greater good. It’s clear that if there are a lot of computers with Computrace agents running, it is the responsibility of the manufacturer (in this case Absolute Software) to notify users and explain how the software can be deactivated and disabled,” “Otherwise, these orphaned agents will keep on running unnoticed and provide a possibility for remote exploitation.” is reported in   the post from Kaspersky. 

FAQ on Absolute Computrace case – Security Vulnerability Claims

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  Kaspersky, Computrace)


facebook linkedin twitter

Anti-Theft authentication Bios Computrace encryption Kaspersky security

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 25, 2025
Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

    Cyber Crime / July 26, 2025

    Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

    Intelligence / July 26, 2025

    Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

    Intelligence / July 25, 2025

    Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

    Security / July 25, 2025

    Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

    Malware / July 25, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT