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“Something has gone seriously wrong,” dual-boot systems warn after Microsoft update

Last Tuesday, loads of Linux users—many running packages released as early as this year—started reporting their devices were failing to boot. Instead, they received a cryptic error message that included the phrase: “Something has gone seriously wrong.”

The cause: an update Microsoft issued as part of its monthly patch release. It was intended to close a 2-year-old vulnerability in GRUB, an open source boot loader used to start up many Linux devices. The vulnerability, with a severity rating of 8.6 out of 10, made it possible for hackers to bypass secure boot, the industry standard for ensuring that devices running Windows or other operating systems don’t load malicious firmware or software during the bootup process. CVE-2022-2601 was discovered in 2022, but for unclear reasons, Microsoft patched it only last Tuesday.

…

The reports indicate that multiple distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Zorin OS, Puppy Linux, are all affected. Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the error publicly, explain how it wasn’t detected during testing, or provide technical guidance to those affected. Company representatives didn’t respond to an email seeking answers.

doctortofu ,
@doctortofu@reddthat.com avatar

So, no booting into Windows until this is fixed then? Fine by me. Hell, might actually make me uninstall it completely and free some disk space…

BaalInvoker ,

Well… It’s the opposite… People affected by this issue could not boot Linux…

doctortofu ,
@doctortofu@reddthat.com avatar

Right, but you have to boot into Windows first to even get the update on the first place…

BaalInvoker ,

But if you don’t boot Windows first you’ll not be affected by this issue. So my statement is correct

RootBeerGuy ,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

That’s… What the person you replied to said in the first place.

Boxscape ,
@Boxscape@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

That’s… What the person you replied to said in the first place.

https://y.yarn.co/0b01fdd2-755f-466a-856b-129c0e1178e6_text.gif

https://y.yarn.co/85154e2c-d440-4e08-8933-306a9fc1a610_text.gif

RootBeerGuy ,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Nice meme, bro!

Goun ,

No, they’re literally saying the same thing

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

Ahem

doctortofu ,
@doctortofu@reddthat.com avatar

Oh cool! I’ll need to look into that, thanks! Wonder if there’s a way to convert an existing Windows into this somehow, installed software and all, because that would be perfect…

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

Not that I know of, though imaging a physical Windows install to a VM is very possible. I just kinda like the docker solution because it’s fairly lightweight, but if you want a more robust solution, a VM is the way to go. There’s still limitations on both solutions like gaming not really being a thing unless you get deep in the weeds with things like VFIO and Looking Glass.

uranibaba ,

There is also the option to use two GPUs (or one and not use it for Linux). github.com/mr2527/pop_OS-win10-KVM-setup

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

Yah, that’s the VFIO method I was referring to.

RootBeerGuy ,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Woah, interesting. Is that like a legal option because it looks like it doesn’t ask you to provide an image or whatever? Not that I mind either way, just curious if this is prone to be deleted soon or not.

What’s the upside of having it in a VM?

Edit: nevermind the legality, found a disclaimer at the bottom of the page.

nehal3m ,

The upside is you can treat it as just another program with a big flat file that serves as it’s hard disk. You can move a VM between computers, they’re universal. Hell you can move it to a data center and hardly notice a difference. You can make a snapshot, try something out, and if it borks, roll it back to a previous snapshot. You can copy the VM any number of times.

Basically it decouples operating systems from hardware so you can treat a computer like software.

rockSlayer ,

CVE-2022-2601 was discovered in 2022, but for unclear reasons, Microsoft patched it only last Tuesday.

I respect their journalistic integrity for not speculating, but it was definitely because the NSA was exploiting it.

porous_grey_matter ,

Ehhh that’s likely enough, but Microsoft is also just shit at fixing things

helix ,

That’s what they want you to believe.

porous_grey_matter ,

No, they really are. No doubt they do plenty of stuff at the behest of the NSA, but they are also a deeply disfunctional company with conflicts between departments and bare minimum funding for security, since it’s seen as a cost centre

Goun ,

So all afected people were potential targets?

LowleeKun ,

Potential targets? Sir, thats everybody.

oiloligarch ,
@oiloligarch@lemmy.ml avatar

No, intelligence exploits will sometimes affect the majority of computers on a continent

lily33 ,

I’m confused - why is Microsoft trying to - or expected to, by the article authors - parch a vulnerability in GRUB?

Peffse ,

It was supposed to patch Secure Boot, not demolish GRUB.

That’s why it’s a problem.

Reddfugee42 ,

It was a Windows vulnerability that allowed an exploit box GRUB

scorp ,

it was a vulnerability in Grub tho, i understand the Microsoft hate but not to the extant of lying.

ReversalHatchery ,

I was interested too. It seems Microsoft has released a patch that blacklists vulnerable grub versions from being able to be secure booted even if they are signed properly:

msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/…/CVE-2022-2601

The link was at the top of the article.

Maybe this update somehow affects your UEFI firmware, and it installs a list in there?

Kongar ,

I just tried installing this patch tonight on my windows drive - not because I use windows, just to… you know… keep it updated and secure I guess.

It literally won’t even install. It just fails out every time. Whatever. Microsoft releases so many bad patches lately. WTH are they even doing over there? Windows used to be king and they’ve been screwing it up since 8 came out.

floofloof , (edited )

Microsoft fired its entire QA team 10 years ago, and shifted the responsibility for testing onto developers. They also got rid of their dedicated hardware lab where software would be tested on many different hardware combinations.

I have worked in two companies that made the same move of firing QA, and in both the quality of the released software took a marked dive. (In neither company did senior management admit that what everyone warned them would be a mistake was a mistake. Instead they blamed developers.)

These days Microsoft’s testing team is whichever users receive each update first. They rely on users and telemetry to do what should be the job of dedicated testers.

suburban_hillbilly ,

This is hardly a new thing for MS. One of the first emails I remember getting when I got to college back in 2003 was from campus IT begging people not to install the latest XP update because it reenabled a vulnerability to existing malware.

Zoop ,

Microsoft fired its entire QA team 10 years ago, and shifted the responsibility for testing onto developers. They also got rid of their dedicated hardware lab where software would be tested on many different hardware combinations.

That…makes SO much sense and explains a lot! Thanks for mentioning it.

mortimer , (edited )
@mortimer@lemmy.world avatar

So glad I recently removed Windows from my former dual boot system completely. Was sick of getting errors during Linux boot up after running Windows for that one piece of software I couldn’t get to work in Wine or Bottles. The culprit I assumed was Windows updates, which I attempted to disable through the registry on several occasions. It would work for a short period and then Microsoft, in all their wisdom, would just reenable updates because clearly they know better than I what I want my system to do. The last time it happened was the final straw for me when I wanted to boot into Windows briefly only to be left waiting half an hour for Windows to apply updates on shutdown. Pissed me off so much I killed the power mid-update, booted up a live partition tool and wiped Windows off my system completely (updating the grub to remove dual boot). That’s when I discovered that not properly shutting down Windows would mark my other drives dirty and make them read only. To fix this I ended up having to insert Windows installation media and pretend like I wanted to reinstall Windows 10 again. Once it got to the stage when it was about to write to the drive I cancelled the installation and rebooted back into Linux. Voilà! Could write to my drives again. To hell with Windows. I’d rather live without that one piece of software and have my system do what I want it to do rather than it second guess me and disregard my instructions. This whole automatic update thing really boiled my piss. At least with Linux I can choose to apply updates when it’s convenient for me to do so.

uranibaba ,

I have two pieces of software I cannot live without, to the point that I would rewrite them for Linux if it came to that. Running Windows as a VM using Virtual Box has been a nice experience so far. (Given that both software are not CPU nor GPU heavy and could run on a tree if need be.)

Psuedocoder ,

I installed windows 11 in kvm based vm and gave it 80GB of space on ssd. I have booted into it abot 5 to 6 times in last year or so. I hate that I have to keep it, but its nice to have when some shitty websites demand that they work only on windows. (I mean wtf, its a f*ing website)

rem26_art ,
@rem26_art@fedia.io avatar

Maybe its finally time to get rid of my dual boot. I haven't used the windows side in like half a year...

henfredemars ,

I was shocked how little I need Windows. I went dual boot install but just… never booted Windows again. My games work. I’m happy. Why should I boot Windows?

Really I should just remove Windows but I’m lazy.

thingsiplay ,

And each time you want to use Windows, you have to go through hoops and updates of Windows and then updates of the applications (and possibly games) to just do the work you intended to boot into. I had Windows for a few years in dual mode too and know the problems of a Windows system that is not used often.

If you really need some applications, then consider using a VM (however doesn’t solve the updates and usability issue of Windows). Off course some games won’t work, but if its not a game then maybe you can finally get rid of your dual boot.

rem26_art ,
@rem26_art@fedia.io avatar

At this point, the only thing keeping me back is I have a bunch of files made in Clip Studio Paint that I can't open in linux, but I think I might be able to run CSP in a VM, if needs be. Not really anything gaming related.

Now just to find time to do it lol

thingsiplay ,

That’s actually not bad, if this is the only thing (hold on, after looking into a bit it could be a show stopper still). An idea is, if its not too many files, would be to save them from this application in a more universal usable format and not use it anymore. But that comes with ton compatibility issues on itself, so who knows.

It seems like WINE (the tool that is used as main part of Proton in Steam) can run Clip Studio Paint, but not great (Silver rating): appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=applica… And then the question is if it will even work well with Wacom devices this way. Also I’m a bit worried if it will work well in a VM too.

darkmogool ,

booting into windows?

it’s been 84 years…

thingsiplay ,

CVE-2022-2601 was discovered in 2022, but for unclear reasons, Microsoft patched it only last Tuesday.

dharmacurious ,

Y’all, help a dummy out. I dual boot windows and Fedora. I only keep windows around for a very few college classes that require for screenwriting software. I have not booted into windows in months. I have a screenwriting class coming up in a week.

How worried should I be? I am not great with computers, I run fedora mostly because I support the philosophy of Linux, less for the techy stuff. Please advice, Linux people. I’m scurred.

nehal3m ,

Does that screenwriting software require a lot of performance? You might opt to install Windows into a virtual machine, as described here: windowscentral.com/how-setup-windows-10-virtual-m…

Essentially you’re using some software to emulate a computer inside your computer that can run any operating system you want. It doesn’t need to touch your actual operating system installation, you can treat it as just another program. For your use case that sounds appropriate; you occasionally need to run specific software that has low system requirements. This way you can do that without risking Microsoft borking your Linux machine any time it feels like it.

dharmacurious ,

I’d imagine it requires about as much as a word processor, since that’s basically what it is. A word processor with a specialized template and some nifty autofill options. Again, dummy here. If I’m running a virtual machine, can I create a file in it that is saved to my actual machine, or would I need to, like, email it to myself using the virtual windows os?

nehal3m , (edited )

The latter thing you mentioned would work, but you can set up some shared storage between the VM and your machine. Here is some more info: makeuseof.com/how-to-create-virtualbox-shared-fol…

This describes a Windows host and a Linux VM, I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out the other way around. :)

ReversalHatchery ,

However bad that sounds, you’re probably best off disabling all updates in windows. O&O shutup10 has a setting for that. Download it to a pendrive with Linux, and boot windows with network unplugged.

dharmacurious ,

I will do this. Thank you!

addie ,
@addie@feddit.uk avatar

When I was still dual-booting Windows and Linux, I found that “raw disk” mode virtual machines worked wonders. I used VirtualBox, so you’d want a guide somewhat like this: superuser.com/…/use-physical-harddisk-in-virtual-… - other VM solutions are available, which don’t require you to accept an agreement with Oracle.

Essentially, rather than setting aside a file on disk as your VM’s disk, you can set aside a whole existing disk. That can be a disk that already has Windows installed on it, it doesn’t erase what you have. Then you can start Windows in a VM and let it do its updates - since it can’t see the bootloader from within the VM, it can’t fuck it up. You can run any software that doesn’t have particularly high graphics requirement, too.

I was also able to just “restart in Windows” if I wanted full performance for a game or something like that, but since Linux has gotten very good indeed at running games, that became less and less necessary until one day I just erased my Windows partition to recover the space.

dharmacurious ,

I’ve never run a virtual machine, because I’ve always had, frankly, really shitty laptops. Like… Cheapest of the cheap without being a Chromebook. Only decent computer I’ve ever bought got broken within a month. :(

Can I run VMs on really low end specs? The screenwriting software is the only thing I need it for, and I’m assuming it’s pretty much the same as running a word processor.

nehal3m ,

Provided your CPU has virtualization features (described here) then the performance overhead for virtualization is negligible. So very probably you’ll be fine.

Iapar ,

What do you use? Maybe there is a Linux alternative to that so you don’t have to bother with a VM.

Mwa , (edited )
@Mwa@thelemmy.club avatar

I use refined with cachyos dual booting windows 11 and secure boot enabled should I worry

PlutoniumAcid ,
@PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world avatar

You should worry about your writing skills. Try some punctuation, for starters.

jbk ,

yet another reason to use sd-boot?

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