Windows Update drivers bricking USB serial chips beloved of hardware hackers

Posted by JaseP on Oct 23, 2014 2:56 AM EDT
Ars Technica; By Peter Bright
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Hardware hackers building interactive gadgets based on the Arduino microcontrollers are finding that a recent driver update that Microsoft deployed over Windows Update has bricked some of their hardware, leaving it inaccessible to most software both on Windows and Linux. This came to us via hardware hacking site Hack A Day.

... The latest version of FTDI's driver, released in August, contains some new language in its EULA and a feature that has caught people off-guard: it reprograms counterfeit chips rendering them largely unusable, and its license notes that:

Use of the Software as a driver for, or installation of the Software onto, a component that is not a Genuine FTDI Component, including without limitation counterfeit components, MAY IRRETRIEVABLY DAMAGE THAT COMPONENT The license is tucked away inside the driver files; normally nobody would ever see this unless they were explicitly looking for it.

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