Now here’s something that people with HP and Compaq computers should think about; HP’s software update system is susceptible to an exploit that will ‘brick’ your computer.  Don’t know what bricking is?  Well, let me put it this way: when a computer (or anything digitally-oriented) is ‘bricked’, that means it can only be used as a paper-weight, for you will not be able to turn it on or use it for any functional purpose whatsoever.  So yeah, now because of this vulnerability in the software update scripting on HP and Compaq computers, virtually anyone using any of their computer product lines are susceptible to this.  This could lead to a very big mess on HP’s shoulders…

The hacker who posted an exploit last week that threatened a large swath of Hewlett-Packard Co.’s laptop lineup followed up Wednesday with new attack code that can “brick” nearly every HP laptop.

In a post to the milw0rm.com Web site Wednesday, a Polish security researcher who used the alias “porkythepig” spelled out a pair of vulnerabilities in an ActiveX control used by HP’s Software Update, the patch management program bundled with virtually every HP- and Compaq-branded laptop.

According porkythepig’s post, the Software Update bugs let an attacker corrupt Windows’ kernel files, making the laptop unbootable, or with a little more effort, allow hacks that would result in a PC hijack or malware infection. In either case, a drive-by attack could be conducted by feeding users an e-mail message with a link to a malicious Web site.[more]

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