When I checked where Windows Defender had actually detected the threat, it was in the Fan Control app I use to intelligently cool my PC. Windows Defender had broken it, and that’s why my fans were running amok. For others, the threat was detected in Razer Synapse, SteelSeries Engine, OpenRGB, Libre Hardware Monitor, CapFrameX, MSI Afterburner, OmenMon, FanCtrl, ZenTimings, and Panorama9, among many others.
“As of now, all third-party/open-source hardware monitoring softwares are screwed,” Fan Control developer Rémi Mercier tells me.
↫ Sean Hollister at The Verge
Anyone reading OSNews can probably solve this puzzle. Many fan control and hardware monitoring applications for Windows make use of the same open source driver: WinRing0. Uniquely, this kernel-level driver is signed, since it’s from back in the days when developers could self-sign these sorts of drivers, but the signed version has a known vulnerability that’s quite dangerous considering it’s a kernel-level driver. The vulnerability has been fixed, but signing this new version – and keeping it signed – is a big ordeal and quite expensive, since these days, drivers have to be signed by Microsoft.
And it just so happens that Windows Defender has started marking this driver, and thus any tool that uses it, as dangerous, sending it to quarantine. The result is failing hardware monitoring and fan control applications for quite a few Windows users. Some companies have invested in developing their own closed-source alternatives, but they’re not sharing them. Luckily, Windows OEM iBuyPower says it’s trying to get the patched version of WinRing0 signed, and if that happens, they will share it back with the community. Classy.
For now, though, hardware monitoring and fan control on Windows might be a bit of an ordeal.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why Apple made the right call when they decided to only support a small number of hardware for their MacOS OS. This allows them to support all that hardware on a first-party basis. This means they If a piece of hardware came with the Mac laptop/desktop, it’s supported by a given version of MacOS.
And of course, Desktop Linux does what it knows to do best: Follow WIndows’ sinking ship.
kurkosdr,
The problem with apple’s approach is that customers are stuck on hardware that apple blesses. The most obvious case is probably GPUs – when you go apple, there’s no upgrade path. If you like macos but want to do GPGPU work, apple are really holding customers back here. I think the reason apple does this has much less to do with what’s best for customers and more to do with apple wanting a cut of everything their customers buy.
Not that I’m trying to sell you on linux and I acknowledge it’s imperfections, but I find it ironic to be critical of linux when it supports a lot more hardware than macos does.
Hell even upgrading m.2 drives is a problem for mac users these days. I don’t feel apple deserves praise here.
GPUs are the only “peripheral” I can see the reason for OEM drivers. But for everything else, nope. We already know how computer peripherals should do (at least the basic functionality, extra functionality -like a fan having a mini-oled display on it- can require proprietary drivers, who cares). And if you have an innovative idea of a new peripheral, just expose it as a really fast serial port and write a userland application to control it, you don’t need drivers unless selling the same hardware again in the future (with updated drivers to work on the newer version of the OS) is the real goal.
Minor correction: Desktop Linux supports a lot more hardware than MacOS does… poorly. This is something the Desktop Linux will never grasp: MacOS has the narrowest hardware support of the big 3 desktop OSes and yet people are willing to pay a hefty premium for it. Why? Because that hardware it does support, it does it well.
kurkosdr,
Having standards is great, nothing really to argue there. However standards take time and don’t always cover everyone’s needs. For example a lot of printers have functionality that is not in the standard. Conceivably 3d printers might benefit from special OS drivers. I’ve also needed to install special raid drivers. Niche cameras might require special drivers. Scientific applications might warrant special drivers, and so on. I fully acknowledge that most people don’t need these and that’s fine, but you are wrong to trivialize everyone’s needs with a blanket “nope”.
Maybe you can make the case that macs only support the basics and nothing more, however this makes the implied concession that macs would not be a good platform for niche applications and 3rd party innovation. If you’re ok with this concession then so be it, I can respect that opinion given that it covers your needs. But it comes across as really crude when you go criticize other platforms for being more welcoming to niche applications and innovation.
Again, I usually only care about the basic too, but it’s a good thing that we have operating systems that aren’t restricted to the basics and can do more. Yes sometimes you want more than just a serial port. It’s fine if you don’t need/want operating systems that do more than the basics: use what you like! Nobody knows your needs better than you. However the flip side of that coin is that it’s wrong to preach the needs of others. You’ve got no business telling linux users what features and capabilities we need just because you don’t need them.
Sometimes that’s true, but a lot of times linux supports the hardware quite well right out of the box. In any case if you need vendor support then you can buy from supported linux vendors and expect good hardware support with them.
If Linux and Windows are sinking ships, why is the PC market still growing at a faster rate than Apple’s desktop and laptop offerings? What OS are people running on these PCs that clearly aren’t sinking?
They don’t own a PC in the first place.
You’re saying Apples decision to couple it’s hardware and OS has benefits? Sure, but I don’t see how that relates to the article. And “support” from Apple isn’t as clear cut as you seem to say.
Microsoft’s stance of not providing precise hardware specs to OEMs is a disaster of epic proportions. If I don’t need drivers to use a USB stick or an HDA sound chip (vendor-specific HDA drivers are optional if you want more functionality, but not required), I shouldn’t need drivers to manage the speed of some frickin’ fans. Microsoft should do more work to standardize the PC ecosystem.
Support for Apple is clear cut btw: A given Mac laptop or desktop either runs a given version of MacOS or it doesn’t. You don’t have to worry what’s inside the laptop or desktop.
kurkosdr,
I agree this needs to be standardized better.
I think ACPI technically does expose some of this in a standard way, but it’s really elementary and the industry should come up with modern standards that everyone supports.
This idea of only buying supported hardware was never unique to apple though. Obviously most manufacturers officially support windows, but now days there are even vendors that provide proper linux support too BTW. Your criticism seems to be more about users who’ve opted not to buy through supported vendors, but that’s their own choice.
My point is, the OS vendor should decide what is “supported” by the OS, not random third-party OEMs (who don’t really like software in the first place). The OEMs are there to implement hardware (like they do with USB sticks and HDA sound chips for example) not define hardware interfaces or write drivers I can see why GPUs are an exception but not anything else.
kurkosdr,
I have no choice but disagree and I’d even go as far as to say that apple are a prime example of why we don’t want all powerful vendors monopolizing markets. Not only do they use their control the limit what customers can do, but it’s made even worse because of how anticompetitive apple are notoriously using the control to extort customer on every purchase/upgrade/repair.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLtE2kMTVOQ
It’s one thing to prefer macos over other platforms, I get that, but apple’s control is so overreaching that it’s quite a big con to be in apple’s shackles.
Like I said in my earlier comment, I’m all in favor of pushing standards that everyone supports, including apple. That’s something we can all benefit from. But unfortunately that’s not what apple are about, if anything apple pushes for the exact opposite of that.
Yes, if Microsoft pushed more for standardization, fewer people would be tempted to move to Apple’s monopoly. But Microsoft doesn’t do that. You might hate Apple, but inside their closed ecosystem, there is standardization of hardware – no need for crappy third-party drivers to control the speed of fans for example.
kurkosdr,
For the record, many of us are not tempted by apple shackles at all. Also it’s disingenuous call apple’s proprietary hardware a standard if they don’t allow others to use it. They couldn’t even standardize connectors in their own ecosystem until the EU mandated them to.
I’m all for standards, but the unilateral claim that the standard interfaces will always be enough for everybody is naive at best and dishonest at worst. I for one am glad to have alternative options when I need them. Just this past week I needed to interface to a TTL serial device with inverted logic. I’ve got a bunch of usb CH340 and FTDI serial devices that typically just work when I plug them in. However the FTDI have an additional non standard feature-set to allow, among other things, logic level inversion. Obviously most people will never need that in a million years – it doesn’t need to be part of the standard, but let’s not be so ignorant as to paint everyone’s needs with the exact same brush.
I try to respect other opinions because I know that we all have different preferences and needs, but it’s really aggravating when other people don’t respect the fact that I have different needs and preferences than them. It’s fine that you don’t like linux and I for one am happy that you have alternative choices. But don’t subjugate my needs and preferences.
This WinRing0 is OpenSSL issue all over again. Yes a lot of motherboard makers with the provided tools for their hardware depend on WinRing0. Yet they have put zero money into funding the open source WinRing0 they depend on. Yes 1 part time developer could have been getting WinRing0 signed by Microsoft and doing required security work.
Fan control interfaces under Linux do have paid developer to take care of them but they run into the problem that hardware makers not releasing the information required.
USB host controller has common hardware specification xHCI, thank you to Intel for writing the specification.
Microsoft should write a hardware specification xFCI (extensible fan controller interface) and then Windows has built in drivers for the xFCI fans. Linux would also be able to write a driver.
If Microsoft was interested in increasing the quality of the hardware that runs it’s operating system, it would strongly encourage hardware makers to follow generic standards such as xHCI, USB HID, Universal Printer Driver etc. Hardware manufacturers get benefit that they don’t have to worry about writing drivers.
I see all these stupid little drivers as a Microsoft failure.