Re: Before Dimdows 10 Goes EOL, I'm Testing Linux To Save My Laptop From The Landfill

On Thu, 7/3/2025 7:27 PM, Hank Rogers wrote:

T wrote on 7/3/2025 5:52 PM:

I find out "after" the damage has been done and the
customer wants things put back together.   I will
not reuse a previously infected windows machine
without doing a dd /dev/zero on the drive and
reinstalling from scratch.  Anti viruses are
not perfect.

 
Sounds reasonable, but wouldn't it be best to physically destroy the drive
and use a new, pristine replacement going forward?   In fact, shouldn't any
component capable of storing data be replaced?
 

Your response should be evidence-based.

I consider dd /dev/zero treatment to be reasonable for
an exploited machine. I've done this on more than one
occasion, when dealing with "weirdness" in the room.
The WinXP machine is dead, and... so is the weirdness.

I don't think any of my machines have HPA capability any more.

I'm more worried about the properties of the UEFI on my
machines, than anything else. That's the weak point.
The BIOS chip is 32MB in size, leaving lots of room
for the storing of pests. And we don't know whether a flash
operation, re-defines all of it, either. When you flash a
BIOS, it uses a routine which is *already on the chip*.
An exploit which rewrites the flash support routine,
can "own" your machine and prevent you from flashing it.
Details, matter.

Two of my machines, the UEFI is patched to the latest CVE,
The third machine the motherboard is out of support, so
I am missing a patch.

   Paul