Latest additions

Entries are in reverse chronological order, based on the dates of publication of linked articles. The five latest additions of the Malware section are listed in the main page.

• 2025-07

  HP has recently started pushing a spyware program called HPMediaNetwork.exe into users' computers exploiting a Windows universal back door via Windows Update. The software, which is designed to serve personalized pop-up advertisements on the user's screen, runs in the background to collect device and users' data that HP sells to advertising companies. The malfeature is implemented at both hardware and software levels, and opting out does not block ads entirely.

  Users can avoid this and other kinds of mistreatment by choosing hardware that comes with free specifications and designs, and by installing only free software in their computers.

• 2023-05

  HP delivers printers with a universal back door, and recently used it to sabotage them by remotely installing malware. The malware makes the printer refuse to function with non-HP ink cartrides, and even with old HP cartridges which HP now declares to have “expired.” HP calls the back door “dynamic security,” and has the gall to claim that this “security” protects users from malware.

  If you own an HP printer that can still use non-HP cartridges, we urge you to disconnect it from the internet. This will ensure that HP doesn't sabotage it by “updating” its software.

  Note how the author of the Guardian article credulously repeats HP's assertion that the “dynamic security” feature protects users against malware, not recognizing that the article demonstrates it does the opposite.

• 2020-11

  HP tricked users into installing a mischievous update in their printers that made the devices reject all third-party ink cartridges.

• 2019-02

  The HP “ink subscription” cartridges have DRM that constantly communicates with HP servers to make sure the user is still paying for the subscription, and hasn't printed more pages than were paid for.

  Even though the ink subscription program may be cheaper in some specific cases, it spies on users, and involves totally unacceptable restrictions in the use of ink cartridges that would otherwise be in working order.

• 2018-10

  Printer manufacturers are very innovative—at blocking the use of independent replacement ink cartridges. Their “security upgrades” occasionally impose new forms of cartridge DRM. HP and Epson have done this.

• 2017-12

  HP's proprietary operating system includes a proprietary keyboard driver with a key logger in it.

• 2017-05

  Conexant HD Audio Driver Package (version 1.0.0.46 and earlier) pre-installed on 28 models of HP laptops logged the user's keystroke to a file in the filesystem. Any process with access to the filesystem or the MapViewOfFile API could gain access to the log. Furthermore, according to modzero the “information-leak via Covert Storage Channel enables malware authors to capture keystrokes without taking the risk of being classified as malicious task by AV heuristics”.

• 2016-09

  HP's firmware downgrade imposed DRM on some printers, which now refuse to function with third-party ink cartridges.

• 2013-07

  HP “storage appliances” that use the proprietary “Left Hand” operating system have back doors that give HP remote login access to them. HP claims that this does not give HP access to the customer's data, but if the back door allows installation of software changes, a change could be installed that would give access to the customer's data.