ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7

Posted By: Jenny100

ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/13/16 06:14 AM

I was listening to this week's Security Now podcast and heard this:

From the transcript at https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-559.htm

Quote:

ASUS motherboards for a long time have enabled Windows Secure Boot, or just generic... UEFI Secure Boot, by default. Secure Boot support was introduced with Vista, so it's always been built into Vista and successor OSes from Microsoft, thus Windows 7. Consequently, when Windows 7 systems have been installed on ASUS motherboards, which had Secure Boot enabled, those Windows 7 OSes were configured by the setup system with Secure Boot, which the OS supported by default.

Then, like a week and a half ago, for reasons still not explained, Microsoft reclassified a previously optional Windows Update, which is KB3133977. They reclassified it from optional to recommended. What that of course did was install itself on Windows 7 machines. What does 3133977 do? It removes from Windows 7 its support for Secure Boot because it's no longer "supported," in quotes. So everybody who had Windows 7 installed on ASUS motherboards, last week, when they rebooted their systems after this recommended update had installed itself and removed Secure Boot, was greeted with a big red warning from the BIOS with the title "Secure Boot Violation. The system found unauthorized changes on the firmware, operating system, or UEFI drivers."

"Press OK to run the next boot device" - meaning give up on booting your hard drive because of course you can't - "or enter directly to BIOS Setup if there are no other boot devices installed." And then it says, "Go to BIOS Setup > Advanced > Boot and change the current boot device into other secured boot devices."

The story has also been reported here
***Windows 7 Update KB3133977 Bricks PCs ASUS motherboards***
and here
***Windows Update KB3133977 is Deadly***.
and you can find more articles if you Google KB3133977.

Anyway, if you have Windows 7 and an Asus motherboard, be sure to turn off automatic updates and do your Windows updates manually, so you can make sure this nasty "update" doesn't download. If you see KB3133977 in the "Recommended" updates list, right-click it and "hide" it so it doesn't install.

Posted By: Draclvr

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/13/16 03:22 PM

Oh, good grief. And there are LOTS of ASUS motherboards out there. I use Gigabyte motherboards, thank heavens.

Thank you for the heads up. I'm thinking I might have one ASUS board out there running Windows 7 from eCollegePC. I'll have to check.

Posted By: Winfrey

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/13/16 03:28 PM

Thanks for the heads up Jenny, Carol is running win 7.. I checked to make sure she does not have an Asus motherboard, thanks again.... Microsoft is running wild!!!

Posted By: Jenny100

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/13/16 04:23 PM

Originally Posted By: Winfrey

Microsoft is running wild!!!

No kidding.
Most people would have no idea what to do if this happened to them.
Some would think they had to buy a new computer.

It's hard to believe Microsoft wants all this bad press.

Posted By: oldbroad

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/13/16 06:15 PM

Thank you Jenny for watching out for all of us. Thankfully, I have a Gigabyte motherboard on this computer although I think I have ASUS on my Dell which hasn't worked for a while now, and while I meant to have it fixed, I haven't found any place to take it yet. Too easy to let it go when I have this one but my intention was to have 2 working Win 7 computers.

I see this in my installed updates on 4/13/16.

Posted By: Draclvr

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/13/16 06:29 PM

Someone at Microsoft needs to have their head surgically removed from their posterior.

Posted By: Jenny100

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/13/16 07:24 PM

It's like Microsoft wants to see how much they can get away with.
They think because Windows is still the most used operating system in the world that people will continue to put up with this.

Like Steve Gibson suggested in the podcast, Microsoft has become hostile to their customers.

Microsoft is also not honoring their agreement to support Windows 7 until 2020 if they're removing features. It makes me wonder if they intend to gradually cripple Windows 7 in successive updates (which are actually downgrades).

Posted By: maryjo

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/13/16 08:03 PM

Found that file waiting to be downloaded. Thanks for that info + the file number.
I don't really know to much about computers. I would have been stumped if something happened.
Thanks again maryjo

Posted By: Collector

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/15/16 03:31 AM

Originally Posted By: Draclvr

Just remember that not all Asus boards have UEFI instead of a BIOS.

Posted By: Draclvr

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/15/16 03:38 AM

True, but it's been around for quite awhile - like maybe about 5 or 6 years if I remember correctly. And I've been trying to find out why it only effects ASUS motherboards. Many other brands also use UEFI... my current Gigabyte motherboard is a UEFI board.

Posted By: Collector

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/15/16 03:58 AM

Since this is only a Win7 update and Win8 was released in late 2012 there only a couple of years that new PCs would he been shipped with exclusively Win7 and UEFI. Even then that year or two not all Asus boards shipped with UEFI. I have a couple about that old that have a BIOS and remember being disappointed that they were not UEFI. This is not to minimize the problem, just that owners of Asus boards and Win7 don't need to freak out because chances are good that they might have a BIOS.

Posted By: Jenny100

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/15/16 06:01 AM

Originally Posted By: Draclvr

I've been trying to find out why it only effects ASUS motherboards. Many other brands also use UEFI... my current Gigabyte motherboard is a UEFI board.

What I read was that ASUS motherboards have Secure Boot turned on by default while other motherboards usually have it turned off by default.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface

From what's posted at Wikipedia, it looks like a motherboard would need UEFI version 2.3.1 (or higher) in order to have the Secure Boot feature. My motherboard (not an ASUS) is from around 2012 and has UEFI, but no Secure Boot. At least there is no indication of turning Secure Boot on or off in the Setup, while there is an option for UEFI or Legacy (UEFI is selected).

Posted By: Draclvr

Re: ASUS motherboard + KB KB3133977 --> goodbye Windows 7 - 05/15/16 06:37 AM

I "think" that's the way my Gigabyte motherboard is too.