FAIL: Windows 10 pwns itself thanks to Nvidia driver update clash

library
crime | hacking | security

Windows 10’s automatic software update feature has already thrown up a nasty problem just days before the operating system officially launches on Friday.

Early adopters are experiencing glitches (particularly in multi-monitor setups) and in some cases crashes tied to the automatic update of an Nvidia graphic cards driver on Windows 10.

The misfiring Windows Update software push has sparked howls of protests from users through Nvidia forums and elsewhere.

The issue stems from a push-me-pull-you conflict between Windows Update and Nvidia’s own driver and software management tool, Nvidia GeForce Experience.

Forbes reports that the latest driver version, 353.54, was only available through Windows Update. Nvidia GeForce Experience tried to downgrade the software to an earlier version, triggering an update conflict.

Previous versions of Windows Update treated driver updates as optional but this has changed with Windows 10.

The laudable aim is to make sure consumers are running up-to-date software. Poor patching practices are frequently exploited by hackers of various capabilities in order to push malware.

Automatically rolling out updates may seem like the answer but the practice is not without its problems, as highlighted by this issue. Corporates have long been wary of these problems, hence the widespread practice of delaying the rollout of updates in order to allow testing or to see if there are any early problems before applying updates themselves.

According to a recently received comment from Microsoft: “This issue has been addressed and customers with Windows Update will receive the update.”

More commentary on the issue can be found in a blog post by security industry veteran Grahan Cluley here. ®