Superfish
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Internet |
Founded | 2006 |
Defunct | May 2015 |
Fate | Closed |
Successor | JustVisual.com |
Headquarters | , |
Key people |
|
Services | Visual search[1] |
Revenue | c. $40 million |
Number of employees | 90 |
Superfish was an advertising company that developed various advertising-supported software products based on a
History
Superfish was founded in 2006 by
Since its founding, Superfish has used a team of "a dozen or so PhDs" primarily to develop algorithms for the comparison and matching of images. It released its first product, WindowShopper, in 2011.[14] WindowShopper immediately prompted a large number of complaints on Internet message boards, from users who did not know how the software had been installed on their machines.[12]
Superfish initially received funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and to date has raised over $20 million, mostly from DFJ and Vintage Investment Partners.[15] Forbes listed the company as number 64 on their list of America's most promising companies.[16]
Pinhas in 2014 stated that "Visual search is not here to replace the keyboard ... visual search is for the cases in which I have no words to describe what I see."[17]
As of 2014, Superfish products had over 80 million users.[18]
In May 2015, following the Lenovo security incident (see below) and to distance itself from the fallout, the team behind Superfish changed its name and moved its activities to JustVisual.com.[19]
Lenovo security incident
Users had expressed concerns about scans of SSL-encrypted web traffic by Superfish Visual Search software pre-installed on Lenovo machines since at least early December 2014.[citation needed] This became a major public issue, however, only in February 2015. The installation included a universal self-signed certificate authority; the certificate authority allows a man-in-the-middle attack to introduce ads even on encrypted pages. The certificate authority had the same private key across laptops; this allowed third-party eavesdroppers to intercept or modify HTTPS secure communications without triggering browser warnings by either extracting the private key or using a self-signed certificate.[5][8][20] On February 20, 2015, Microsoft released an update for
Criticisms of Superfish software predated the "Lenovo incident" and were not limited to the Lenovo user community: as early as 2010, users of computers from other manufacturers had expressed concerns in online support and discussion forums that Superfish software had been installed on their computers without their knowledge, by being bundled with other software.[12]
CEO Pinhas, in a statement prompted by the Lenovo disclosures, maintained that the security flaw introduced by Superfish software was not, directly, attributable to its own code; rather, "it appears [a] third-party add-on introduced a potential vulnerability that we did not know about" into the product. He identified the source of the problem as code authored by the tech company
Products
Superfish's first product, WindowShopper, was developed as a browser add-on for desktop and mobile devices, directing users who hover over browser images to shopping Web sites to purchase similar products. As of 2014, WindowShopper had approximately 100 million monthly users, and according to Xconomy, "a high conversion to sale rate for soft goods". Superfish's business model is based on receiving affiliate fees on each sale.[15]
The core technology, Superfish VisualDiscovery, is installed as a man-in-the-middle proxy on some Lenovo laptops. It injects advertising into results from Internet search engines; it also intercepts encrypted (SSL/TLS) connections.[7][29]
In 2014, Superfish released new apps based on its image search technology.
See also
- Browser hijacking
- Computer vision
- Concept-based image indexing
- Content-based image retrieval
- Image processing
- Image retrieval
- Malware
References
- ^ a b Hoge, Patrick (October 21, 2014). "Superfish dives deep into visual search". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
- ^ a b "Microsoft, Lenovo scramble to protect users from Superfish security flaw". CBSnews.com. CBS/AP. February 22, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
- ^ Hirschauge, Orr (December 25, 2013). "Another blow to Israel's 'Download Valley' as Google bans toolbars". Haaretz.com. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
Among the companies in Download Valley most likely to be hurt by the change are the startups Revizer, Superfish, CrossReader and the Client Connect division of the company Conduit …
- ^ a b c "Alert: Lenovo "Superfish" Adware Vulnerable to HTTPS Spoofing". United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team. February 20, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
- ^ a b Fox-Brewster, Thomas (February 19, 2015). "How Lenovo's Superfish 'Malware' Works And What You Can Do To Kill It". Forbes. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
- ^ a b Chacos, Brad (February 20, 2015). "Bravo! Windows Defender update fully removes Lenovo's dangerous Superfish malware". PC World. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
- ^ a b Williams, Owen (February 19, 2015). "Lenovo caught installing adware on new computers". The Next Web. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
- ^ a b Hern, Alex (February 19, 2015). "Lenovo accused of compromising user security by installing adware on new PCs". The Guardian. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
- ^ "U.S. government urges Lenovo customers to remove Superfish software". Reuters. February 20, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
- ^ "Superfish gets $10M for image search". San Francisco Business Times. July 30, 2013.
- ^ "Q&A: Adi Pinhas, founder and CEO of tech startup Superfish". San Jose Mercury News. January 2, 2015.
- ^ a b c Fox-Brewster, Thomas (February 19, 2015). "Superfish: A History Of Malware Complaints And International Surveillance". Forbes. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
- ^ "Executive Profile – Michael Chertok – Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Superfish, Inc". Bloomberg, retrieved. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
- ^ Craig, Elise (July 16, 2014). "Superfish Aims to Dominate Visual Search, One Product at a Time". Xconomy. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
- ^ a b Craig, Elise (July 16, 2014). "Superfish Aims to Dominate Visual Search, One Product at a Time". Xconomy. p. 2. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
- ^ "America's Most Promising Companies". Forbes. January 2015. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
- ^ "What Will It Take for Visual Search to Catch On?". eMarketer. November 11, 2014. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
- ^ Weiss, Vered (September 3, 2014). "Adi Pinhas' Superfish #1 Fastest Growing Private Software Company in the US". Jewish Business News. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
- ^ "After Security Scandal, a Tech Firm Says It's Changing Focus". ABC News. May 28, 2015. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 31, 2015.
- ^ Valsorda, Filippo (February 20, 2015). "Komodia/Superfish SSL Validation is broken". Retrieved February 25, 2015.
- ^ Auerbach, David (February 20, 2015). "You Had One Job, Lenovo". Slate. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
- Heise Security(in German). February 24, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- ^ "Superfish denies blame in Lenovo security mess". The Mercury News: siliconbeat. February 20, 2015.
- ^ Brewster, Thomas (February 20, 2015). "The Company Behind Lenovo's Dangerous Superfish Tech Claims It's Under Attack". forbes.com. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
In a brief email conversation with Barak Weichselbaum, Komodia's founder who was once a programmer in Israel's IDF's Intelligence Core,...
- ^ "Palo Alto startup points fingers over Lenovo ad software security flaws". Contra Costa Times. February 23, 2015.
- ^ "Komodia's SSL Decoder/Digestor product page". Komodia Inc. December 14, 2010. Archived from the original on January 22, 2011. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
- ^ ""SSL hijacker" behind Superfish debacle imperils large number of users". ars technica. February 20, 2015.
- ^ "About". Komodia. December 13, 2010.
- ^ Duckett, Chris (February 19, 2015). "Lenovo accused of pushing Superfish self-signed MITM proxy". DNet. Retrieved February 19, 2015.