Microsoft admits Windows 11 has a GDID tracker with no off switch, first documented publicly in an FBI hacker complaint
cross-posted from: tardigram.com/m/windows11@lemm…
GDID is the persistent Windows ID that helped FBI trace a Scattered Spider hacker despite VPNs. Here's how it works and how to limit it.
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Florencia (she/her)
in reply to leogeee777 • • •Damn, perhaps competent prosecutors & FBI agents wouldn't have allowed this information to leak.
Losing an incredible privacy leak to own a 19 year old who posted his crimes on snapchat.
Gork
in reply to leogeee777 • • •Default Username
in reply to Gork • • •I'd bet every proprietary OS and firmware (or open source base OS with deeply integrated proprietary software, such as anything Google makes) has something similar.
For things like phones, an IMEI is already a permenantly attached unique ID tied to the modem. There is also a hardcoded serial number in most electronic devices.
sompreno
in reply to Default Username • • •ms.lane
in reply to Gork • • •en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_…
27 years ago...
line of desktop and mobile microprocessors produced by Intel
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Ghoelian
in reply to ms.lane • • •Most CPUs don't allow you to read the serial number anymore (from userspace at least, I'm sure there are ways of extracting it).
Except Raspberry Pi for some reason, and for some other reason my coworker decided to use that as a device identifier for one of our services (devices we build and control, we're not just tracking random people). So now I guess we're stuck with raspberry pis for the near future. On any other device it just returns "ERR00000“.
mufkin
in reply to leogeee777 • • •IEatDaFeesh
in reply to mufkin • • •EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted
in reply to IEatDaFeesh • • •