Peer-To-Victim File Sharing

ShareSniffer is profiled in a SecurityFocus article today. The company has come up with a new and guiltless way to trade MP3s: just use someone else's hard drive. They have a "bevy of lawyers" (bevy, n., a group, esp. of girls or women) who say taking advantage of public Windows shares is perfectly legal. And why not? Clicking "I Agree" without reading a license agreement is legally binding, right? So when you click "Share This Folder," whether you understand its implications or not, you've authorized the world to play with your drive, and have no right to complain.

</devilsadvocate>

Comments

We have to respond to this

[msuzio]

Oh great. I read this report and thought "this can't be for real". But apparently it is. I never thought I'd see the day when such outright "cracking" activities are treated as a business model :-).
Clearly, this is not a good thing or a moral thing to do -- I can defend Bob and Joe trading MP3s, but if they do it via Sally's open share (and grab some of her files too), that's a totally different thing. The problem is, the corps are going to point to this and say: "See? These geeks are just a bunch of thieves and pirates!".
In this case, it seems fairly clear-cut that they are right :-). I sincerely hope this program falls flat on it's face, and these guys go out of business. If they presented their tool as a "security hardening" device to probe your own network, I could buy it. But they aren't even putting up that much of a facade (how stupid are they?).

Lawyers don't trump AUP

[Tackhead]

Bevy of lawyers or not, there's nothing to stop you from reporting sniffs for shares as potential violations of the sniffer's ISP's AUP.

Remember - in many states, spamming is "legal" - but accounts still get whacked because an AUP that says "we nuke spammers" is every bit as legal.

Same thing applies here: Sniffing for shares may be legal (though morally questionable). Using the shares may even be legal (though even more morally questionable). But reporting sniffers to abuse@sniffer's-ISP is also legal, and it's just as legal for that ISP to LART the offender for TOS violation when a sufficient number of abuse reports pile up.

It's understandable.

[SpanishInquisition]

With 40+ gigs hard drive on the market, it's has become more and more difficult to fill it all up with useless crap you download from the net. Thankfully the great community of the net has found a new way to solve this problem, now anyone can fill your drive with useless crap so you can live your life in peace without never having to spend night after night downloading useless crap from the net because you know that someone will do it for you. Just remember to delete everything and defragment once in a will to leave space for new useless crap.

RIAA should clamp down on netbios!

[Anomynous Coward]

Dear Microsoft,

Please cease and desist the use of netbios immediately, because it is used to transfer copyrighted material some of which are owned by our members.

Yours mercilessly,

RIAA

Could this spell the end of one of the most ugly MS TCP/IP protocol hacks?

I guess not. But the thought made me smile ... ;-)

.vortex

--

How did all this schisse porn get in my MP3 share?

[Bonker]

IT Manager: Well, I'm afraid we're taking your workstation away. Security will be by in a few minutes to escort you out of the building.

Developer: What? Why? I didn't do anything to get fired over!

IT Manager: We found all sorts of obscene materials on your harddrive in shared folders.

Developer: Huh?

IT Manager: Like German schisse porn and crushing videos.

Developer: That's ridiculous-- Oh my god! What are they doing to that poor German Shepard? Wait a second, I didn't put this on here! I swear!

IT Manager: It's your own fault. You didn't *have* to share those drives.

Developer: Yes I did! My manager told me to!

IT Manager: We're firing him, too. Seem's he has goat.cx pictures all over *his* hard drive.