windows 10 Windows 10 update just flashed my bios

[Kindachris]

Hi guys i am new to this forum so hopefully this first post will be useful to anyone who has the same query.

 

I recently booted up my asus gl503ge laptop after a week away from home and as expected there were a bunch of updates from this month's patch tuesday. After the update was done i restarted and checked for updates again. Then a weird firmware update came up and started downloading. This was marked as from Asustek(find images in attachment below). I got another restart notification and after clicking it my laptop restarted into the uefi bios and started updating it. I was confused as this was the first time this ever happened. I always assumed that firmware updates were only for surface laptops but has windows update also started providing bios firmware for third-party oems like asus now. I thought it was a virus or some kind of attack but after checking asus site and scanning with antivirus (bitdefender) i cant find any traces of malware activity. Is this some new undocumented feature of windows update and has anyone else gotten it or am i some kinda guinea pig

Edited May 15, 2019 by Kindachris
General spelling correction. Sorry on mobile.

[Constantin]

MSI got it also.

I would suggest, if you dont have any issues don't update the bios

[Kindachris]

Just now, Constantin said:

MSI got it also.

I would suggest, if you dont have any issues don't update the bios

Hi thanks for the reply. Really didn't intend for a bios update. I assumed it was some driver update but was taken aback when ezflash booted up and started flashing the new bios. I guess this is some new feature of windows updates. Looked around on google but couldn't find any kind of new article suggesting that this was some new windows update feature.

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, Kindachris said:

Hi thanks for the reply. Really didn't intend for a bios update. I assumed it was some driver update but was taken aback when ezflash booted up and started flashing the new bios. I guess this is some new feature of windows updates. Looked around on google but couldn't find any kind of new article suggesting that this was some new windows update feature.

It's possible there was some kind of critical bug in the BIOS, thus warranting the update.

I am unsure however.

[Kindachris]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

It's possible there was some kind of critical bug in the BIOS, thus warranting the update.

I am unsure however.

Couldnt find changelog for the update just the generic stability and security update blurb

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, Kindachris said:

Couldnt find changelog for the update just the generic stability and security update blurb

Hmmm..

check perhaps (I don't use Win10, so again, guessing here) your update options and see if you've subscribed to all of them, or just critical stuff

[Curious Pineapple]

Maybe it's due to the Zombieload exploit, just get every machine possible updated.

[Kindachris]

21 minutes ago, Curious Pineapple said:

Maybe it's due to the Zombieload exploit, just get every machine possible updated.

Yes that sounds plausible. Only weird thing is the signature is from 2018. Then again the private disclosure was probably done then and the fix was with Microsoft in testing and was probably just released to coincide with all the other bug fixes now that the exploits are disclosed publicly.

[Kindachris]

28 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Hmmm..

check perhaps (I don't use Win10, so again, guessing here) your update options and see if you've subscribed to all of them, or just critical stuff

Subscribed to all updates. Including other Microsoft products. Guess this is a part of the Zombieload fix as Curious Pineapple stated below.

Edited May 15, 2019 by Kindachris
Spelling again

[Kindachris]

Came across this yesterday. Turns out there is a legit mechanism for Uefi updates via windows update. So Oems like Asus are now able to update firmware of the Uefi Bios directly from Windows Update instead of us having to manually flash it via a pendrive.

 

Hope this helps anyone else who has the same moment of panic and confusion I did

 

Links to new update mechanism from Microsoft:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/bringup/windows-uefi-firmware-update-platform

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/updating-device-firmware-using-windows-update

[Edward78]

Ya, not sure about MS updating my bios.