My laptop may have been compromised - at least there was a short take-over and it flashed that new ‘updates’ were installed. I shut it down, then ran several virus programs - deep scans - they reported they didn’t find anything. BUT, since I do my banking on this computer, I want to reset everything and start over. I have backups from before this incident. Reset Bios? How? Do the ‘restore windows’ - will that wipe the drive and remove any virus?
Safest route to take? Thanks
I haven’t read anything that would lead me to believe you have a virus. Sometimes windows reboots for an update and there isn’t to much you can do to stop it at a certain point.
Can you give us more details on what you mean by “take-over” and the update message?
In the past I thought I had a virus because the fans would ramp up, and stop once I would open up the task manager. I was thinking some crypto miner was hiding from me. But after some investigation it turned out to be One Drive syncing files. And it stopped when opening the task manager because it saw the opening as increased CPU usage as me using the computer and it shouldn’t run in the background anymore. I uninstalled it, and never noticed it happen again.
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Seems there is no way to update your BIOS without an OS (as of 3.19), and there is no standalone installer for the current BIOS, even on a live CD, so you may have to downgrade (if framework even lets you) before you can reinstall to the current version. Framework Laptop BIOS and Driver Releases (11th Gen Intel® Core™)
So that’s super annoying. Seems like this might only be 11th gen, unfortunately I have to go, will update tomorrow.
Here’s a way to completely wipe and reinstall if you’re worried about boot sectors/ BIOS being compromised.
IF ANY SECURITY PROFESSIONALS HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS METHOD PLEASE @ME AND I WILL CHANGE THIS.
11th gen
INTEL ONLY INTEL ONLY INTEL ONLY INTEL ONLY INTEL ONLY INTEL ONLY INTEL ONLY INTEL ONLY INTEL ONLY INTEL ONLY INTEL ONLY
Step 1: Remove SSD from laptop
Step 2: Install SSD into another computer as a non boot drive
Step 3: Boot live linux live CD
Step 4: Backup files you want
Step 5: Wipe SSD
Step 6: Install BIOS (3.17) via instructions in Framework Laptop BIOS and Driver Releases (11th Gen Intel® Core™) (Linux/Other/UEFI Shell update)
Step 7: Install SSD back into laptop
Step 8: Install OS
Step 9: Install current BIOS (3.19) via Framework Laptop BIOS and Driver Releases (11th Gen Intel® Core™)
step 10: Profit
AMD ONLY AMD ONLY AMD ONLY AMD ONLY AMD ONLY AMD ONLY AMD ONLY AMD ONLY AMD ONLY
Step 1: Remove SSD from laptop
Step 2: Install SSD into another computer as a non boot drive
Step 3: Boot live linux live CD
Step 4: Backup files you want
Step 5: Wipe SSD
Step 6: Install current BIOS (3.03) via instructions in Framework Laptop BIOS and Driver Releases (AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series) (Linux/Other/UEFI Shell update)
Step 7: Install SSD back into laptop
Step 8: Install OS
Step 9: Profit
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