Microsoft has been declining to comment on criticism of Recall for a week - but they have apparently told a journalist off the record at Future that changes will be made before Copilot+ devices drop in the coming days.
This may include an attempt to invalidate researcher criticism, we’ll see.
WIRED has a piece about Total Recall, a now released tool which dumps keypresses, text and screenshots (they’re JPEGs) from Microsoft Recall
https://www.wired.com/story/total-recall-windows-recall-ai/
Total Recall software by @xaitax https://github.com/xaitax/TotalRecall
Example search for ‘password’:
🪟 Captured Windows: 133
📸 Images Taken: 36
🔍 Search results for 'password': 22
📄 Summary of the extraction is available in the file:
C:\Users\alex\Downloads\TotalRecall\2024-06-04-13-49_Recall_Extraction\TotalRecall.txt
I hadn’t been aware until today of the external reaction to Recall. Holy shit. Tim Apple must be pleased.
Everything from media coverage to YouTube to TikTok is largely negative. All the comments are negative.
These videos have tens of millions of views and hundreds of thousands of comments.
I knew it would be bad but.. it’s worse. I’ve spent hours looking at the sentiment and.. well, they probably would have got better coverage from launching an NFT of pregnant Clippy.
A key element of Recall is Microsoft say only you can access your Recall, it is per user.
ArsTechnica enabled Recall on Windows 11 box and tested the claim. By logging in as another user they could access the database and screenshots.
If you want to know how Microsoft have got themselves into this giant mess with Recall, here’s what the documentation says between the lines:
you, the customer, are a simpleton who doesn’t want to be an AI genius yet. Have a caveman mode.
Recall and Copilot+ is also coming to ASUS systems, including AMD, in a deal with Microsoft.
ASUS Announces Complete Portfolio of AI-Powered Copilot+ PCs https://www.asus.com/us/news/pnm9tg6qccql6ern/
Nvidia announced they are bringing Copilot+ and Recall to PCs, in a deal with Microsoft: https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/2/24169568/microsoft-copilot-plus-gaming-pc-nvidia-amd
Three Copilot+ Recall questions that keep coming up.
Q. Can you alter the Recall history?
A. Yes. You can change the OCR database and change the screenshots as the logged in user or as software running as the local user. There is no audit log of changes.
Q. Are they snapshots, as Microsoft says, or screenshots?
A. They are just screenshots, jpegs.
Q. What is to stop apps on your machine accessing your Recall covertly?
A. Nothing. There is no audit log of access.
@MalwareJake Recall is a melting pot of everything wrong with modern Windows: Per-user app and settings MSIX app setting virtualization Intune MDM per-user policies WinRT generated proxy code Enabled by default, opt-out If you hate it, it's in there, I tell you
If anybody is wondering what Microsoft's reaction to any of the Copilot+ Recall concerns are, they're continuing to decline comment to every media outlet.
I've seen comments MS staff have been given for enterprise customers, which are nonsense handwaving.
Product ships live on devices from Dell, Lenovo etc this month. https://x.com/zacbowden/status/1798221879741931847
Damn, I really thought the Recall database security would at least be, you know, secure. Turns out Microsoft did pretty much what I blogged about for WindowsApps, except you need to find a specific WIN://SYSAPPID instead. So to bypass the security just get the token for the AIXHost.exe process, then impersonate that and you can access the database, no admin required. Or, as the files are owned by the user, just grant yourself access using icacls etc :D
This tool extracts and displays data from the Recall feature in Windows 11, providing an easy way to access information about your PC's activity snapshots. - xaitax/TotalRecall
You can now remotely dump Recall data and screenshots over the internet from Linux etc. Changes in flight for parsing data too.
Gets all users Recall folders and dumps them, then renames screenshots to include .jpg (unnecessary but helpful). I cherry-picked the download_folder functionality from #320 and then improved it du...
Turns out speaking out works.
Microsoft are making significant changes to Recall, including making it specifically opt in, requiring Windows Hello face scanning to activate and use it, and actually encrypting the database.
There are obviously going to be devils in the details - potentially big ones.
Microsoft needs to commit to not trying to sneak users to enable it in the future, and it needs turning off by default in Group Policy and Intune for enterprise orgs.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/7/24173499/microsoft-windows-recall-response-security-concerns
Obviously, I recommend you do not enable Recall, and you tell your family not to enable it too.
It’s still labelled Preview, and I’ll believe it is encrypted when I see it.
There are obviously serious governance and security failures at Microsoft around how this played out that need to be investigated, and suggests they are not serious about AI safety.
I should be transparent btw that I took Satya and Charlie’s commitment to security at face value too - I even published a blog on it backing that up - and I have concerns (it isn’t just me).
They’re now going to have to win trust back about winning trust back.
I know somebody at a retailer in Europe that is selling Copilot+ PCs. They’ve had fewer than a thousand preorders through to customers.
In relative terms, for them it’s about as successful as Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League.
A reminder that a few weeks ago at RSA, Microsoft signed CISA's Secure By Design pledge... and then shipped an enabled by design keylogger that OCRs your screen constantly into AppData.
Edit: I should say that's less a reflection on Microsoft and more a reflection on CISA's Secure By Design pledge.. it's a good idea, but the scope is extremely limited.
I think MS are a way off extracting themselves from Recall situation they've got themselves into.
This is just one YouTube comments section on a video since the not-enabled-by-default change - 500k views - but there's loads more, similar on TikTok.
I imagine it's going to continue through week and into next week when the laptops ship.
I have heard rumblings MS are discussing trying to take action against me over the whole thing, which a) good luck and b) would be pouring petrol on the flames.
Some backstory - it's being reported Microsoft developed Recall in secret to try to avoid scrutiny. https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/microsoft-has-lost-trust-with-its-users-windows-recall-is-the-last-straw
I'm hearing that various MSFT people are furious about how this played out over the past few weeks, which IMHO represents a serious lack of introspection.
Microsoft have paused the rollout of Windows 11 24H2 in preview channel, it was the version containing Recall. Microsoft have not explained why.
https://x.com/brandonleblanc/status/1799478915582542199
I don't know if it was publicly known but it was possible to use Recall on more hardware via Mach2, before this was pulled.
I have an image where when viewed on a Copilot+ Recall PC, a Windows process crashes as it tries to process the screenshot.
New email signature?
Microsoft’s President Brad Smith appears before US House Committee on Homeland Security tomorrow.
His testimony: https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-06-13-HRG-Testimony-Smith.pdf
In this bit he talks about Recall (not named), where he pats himself and Microsoft on the back for “a feature change” and job well done.
Given it has been a complete cybersecurity and privacy car crash - and as of today the changes (plural) they’re referring to haven’t even been implemented - it seems like Microsoft fails to grasp customer needs: safety.
One other thing - Microsoft's written testimony to the US House says, quoting, bolded by MS:
"Before I say anything else, I think it’s especially important for me to say that Microsoft accepts responsibility for each and every one of the issues cited in the CSRB’s report. Without equivocation or hesitation. And without any sense of defensiveness."
Counterpoint: they publicly disputed the report in the media. https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/25/24139914/microsoft-cyber-security-incidents-trust-report
I should say that if Brad is asked about Recall tomorrow, the answers may raise some.. uh... eyebrows here.
I don't know what MS SLT have been told, but expect fun when the feature drops on consumer laptops in a few days.
As I mentioned in my blog, there is some more security hardening there on Copilot+ PCs (this was before MS put out their blog)... but it's still easily bypassable.
Microsoft’s Recall puts the Biden administration’s cyber credibility on the line
https://cyberscoop.com/microsoft-recall-secure-by-design/
Interesting article. All through this, CISA and the DHS have declined to comment.
The Verge reports today that "Windows engineers are scrambling to get additional changes tested and ready for the release of Copilot+ PCs next week."
It also says "Recall was developed in secret at Microsoft, and it wasn’t even tested publicly with Windows Insiders."
I've also been told Microsoft security and privacy staff weren't provided Recall, as the feature wasn't made available broadly internally either.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/13/24177703/microsoft-xbox-game-showcase-windows-recall
Brad Smith just said Recall was designed to be disabled by default. That is not true. Microsoft’s own documentation said it would be enabled by default - they only backtracked after outcry.
He has somehow got almost every detail about Recall wrong while testifying.
Obviously, I’ll wait to see the announcement but it sounds like they’ve finally realised they need to take the time and get the feature right (and frankly consider the target audience - most home users, it ain’t).
They should have announced this before or during the US House hearing.
Announcement is out. Good on Microsoft for finally reaching a sane conclusion.
- Recall won’t ship as a feature at launch on Copilot+ PCs any more.
- Won’t be available in Insider preview channel at launch, as it was pulled.
When it does appear in preview channels, privacy and security researchers need to keep a close eye on what Microsoft are doing with the feature.
Microsoft tried developing this feature in secret in a way which tried to avoid scrutiny. Thank you to everyone who stood up.
If anybody is wondering, Microsoft moved the announcement up as I scooped them 🤣
Thank you to everyone who helped out with this one, there was no way something that constantly OCR’d the screen being implemented so poorly was acceptable but Microsoft really, really dug their heels in.
Photographic memory of everything you’ve ever done on a computer has to be entirely optional, with risks explained and be done right.. or not at all. Accountability matters.
Microsoft, be better.
Kevin Beaumont
Pamela Barroway – Biz Editor