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Sony BMG learned that lesson this week when news slipped out that First 4 Internet, the company that provided the DRM software, had slipped a rootkit into its content protection scheme.
Will that music CD lead to your PC's doom?
It doesn't take much to set off the security-conscious tech community. The reaction to this bombshell was predictably swift and overwhelmingly negative. Forget malware of the week. The outcry eclipsed every other computer security story and still rages on.
Although Sony contends that its purpose was to solely prevent unauthorized copying of songs on Windows systems, it's the unintended consequences of the act that has techies up in arms.
Part of the outcry was fueled by the thought of a company, especially one of Sony's stature, installing hidden and (largely) undetectable software on consumers' PCs. But there is a more chilling prospect.
The danger is that malware coders will step through the door that Sony opened up and make themselves at home. Some users are already putting the rootkit to creative uses, such as enabling cheating in World of Warcraft, the incredibly popular online game.
To make amends, Sony has released a patch, of sorts, that exposes the offensive code. But how many users are affected and don't even know it?
Looks like it's time to add a rootkit detector to your computer's defenses to go along with your anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, firewall...
Note: Any opinions expressed below are solely those of the individual posters on the AntiOnline forums.
Ah, but you clicked on the EULA! rcgreen shares some thoughts.
I've been ranting about DRM for months, that it is, by definition, a trojan horse. As for the legalities, right now it's the Wild Wild West. They can say anything they want in a EULA. It's when it goes to court that issues get defined. You can sue them. Maybe you'll win. Maybe not.
qwertyman66 is annoyed at how the software digs its claws into a system.
My biggest problem with this is the way they make it so hard to remove, to the extent that you can end up disabling your CD drive if you aren't 100% sure of what you are doing.
How would they justify that to a court? Their EULA states that you can remove the software, but in doing so you will possibly lose your CD drive. Could that be considered a Denial of Service Attack?
phishphreek80 gets to the heart of the controversy.
The thing that may bug me the most out of all this is that Sony's program can help malware writers hide their code. World of Warcraft "hackers" are already doing this.
What are the chances that users have purchased a CD and Sony has already installed this rootkit on their PCs?
Even though Sony is releasing a patch to make the files visible (but not remove them), IMO, that is still not enough. They are acting as an enabler for malware writers to easily hide their malware.
What's your take on the Sony rootkit flap? Sound off in our forums.
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