RE: Insufficient Authentication vulnerability in Asus notebook

[Mike Wilson <mwilson () amedisys com>]

Agreed, it is an oversimplification (or a surrender) to say that good security practice is useless on a laptop or 
tablet because it is not a case of if you will not have complete control, but rather when and for how long.  Indeed, a 
comprehensive security plan becomes that much more important.  Look at every laptop as if you will never see it again 
and ensure that your data remains yours, to the best of your ability.

Of course, having XP home may be considered a vulnerability in and of itself, but that is another matter.

What we as a community have to realize is that we have new blood coming in all the time and issues like this being 
brought back up are good to ensure that something as simple as this is not missed because it is assumed that we all 
know it.

Thanks,
_________________________
Mike Wilson


-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Fiero [mailto:i.am () mentalfloss net]
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:12 AM
To: bugtraq () securityfocus com
Subject: Re: Insufficient Authentication vulnerability in Asus notebook

> You get the idea.  This is non issue.

I disagree. You are involved in intense business negotiations. During lunch you leave your notebook unattended assuming 
it is safe with a password protected
userID. Your competitor goes in to the conference room and logs in with
Administrator and installs something like eBlaster to log everything
you do and email it to him.

Far fetched, but not a non-issue.

  _____
From: Mike Vasquez [mailto:mike.vasquez () gmail com]
To: Jeremy Brown [mailto:0xjbrown41 () gmail com]
Cc: MustLive [mailto:mustlive () websecurity com ua], bugtraq () securityfocus com [mailto:bugtraq () securityfocus com]
Sent: Thu, 14 May 2009 11:02:38 -0400
Subject: Re: Insufficient Authentication vulnerability in Asus notebook

Once someone has physical access all bets are off, there's a lot the
can do.

1) steal it
2) boot off cd and reset/enable admin acct
3) boot off cd and grab all hashes
4) pour a perfectly good frappucino on the keyboard
5) cover it with smiley face stickers


You get the idea.  This is non issue.

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