Anyone who owns an LG smart TV must inform all guests and family members that they are being monitored – this is required by LG’s current terms of use. Meanwhile, LG monitors install potential malware and surveillance software on a connected Windows computer.
I didn’t watch the video, but maybe they said how this done.
If it installed silently, it must be getting pulled in via Windows update right? Where Microsoft just sees this a regular old driver for a device I would imagine?
I have an LG monitor, maybe about 5 years or older. But I don’t have windows so I assume it knows nothing.
EDIT: Nevermind. I went and watched the section at the beginning, and yep that is exactly how it is done. Does windows not even vet what a vendor hands them as a driver? Perhaps they don’t care, but this seems like an easily exploitable route.
I suspect the thoroughness of the vetting is inversely proportional to the size of the kickback to Microsoft.
Got me curious. Quick search and I found three windows drivers that had keyloggers hidden in them. Go figure it was HP!
HP Notebook Keyboard Drivers: Keylogging code was discovered in the SynTP.sys file, which was part of the Synaptics Touchpad driver shipped with certain HP notebook models.
HP Audio Drivers: Researchers found keylogging features within the Conexant HD Audio Driver (specifically version 1.0.0.46 and earlier) used in various HP laptops and other Windows systems.