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TurboTax DRM Writes to Your Boot Sector?!

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-that-ain't-cool dept.

ltwally writes "As reported on Slashdot (amongst other sites) recently, the latest version of TurboTax is laden with DRM software. Even worse, however, is that it apparently writes to your hard drive's boot-sector , as reported at Extreme Tech here. As I'm sure most Slashdotters already know, the boot-sector is often times used for silly things like boot-loaders and such. "

6 of 733 comments (clear)

  1. only in danger if you dual-boot by ltwally · · Score: 5, Interesting

    TurboTax's DRM software only modifies sector 33 of your boot-sector. Basically what this means is that for Windows only users, you're safe.

    If, however, you use other boot-loaders or "alternative" OS's, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise as things suddenly stop booting. YIKES!.

    Anyhoo.. just thought that I'd point out that any of you that just have to run TurboTax should be "safe" unless you run something non-M$.

    --



    /dev/random
    1. Re:only in danger if you dual-boot by Pius+II. · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is software targeted at average users, meaning that it is easily possible that some of them still use hard drives which store additional enablers in the MBR to overcome all those silly BIOS limits (512 mb ought to be enough for everyone. No wait. Shit. Well, then let's extend this to 2 GB. Oh, damn. 8 GB. Oh, there goes another. 32 GB. Oh no, wrong again. 128 GB. To be continued...).
      I don't think I have to mention what overwriting those drivers means to the users data; plus, you aren't even likely to be able to restore those drivers.

  2. Re:How Appropriate by crawling_chaos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The install instructions for TurboTax state that it will not install correctly with a virus checker enabled. Now we know why.

    --
    You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
    -- Colonel Adolphus Busch
  3. 3D Studio Max does a similar thing. by dnaumov · · Score: 5, Interesting

    3DS Max like to keep it's registration information in the boot-sector and of course it's ONLY compatible with the Windows bootloaders.. This means that if you have a dual-boot system with Linux using GRUB to boot Windows, the moment you register 3DS Max from within your Windows install, your bootloader will be practically wiped out. If you reinstall the bootloader again, 3DS MAX will complain that you have to re-register and obviously, if you do so, your bootloader will be wiped yet again.

  4. Not the boot sector! by steveha · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This annoying DRM junk does not involve the boot sector. According to the actual article (which I actually read), they found it writing to track 0, sector 33.

    Track 0, sector 0 is the boot sector. The partition table is stored in this sector. The rest of track 0 (sectors 1 through 63) is not officially used, so some DRM systems like to stash data there.

    What makes this annoying is when you try to install another DRM-enabled product that also wants to write in the same place; after you install the second program, the first one will accuse you of being a pirate, and it will refuse to run anymore. Since there is no standard for using this space, its easy for two DRM systems to conflict with each other.

    If there were a standard for using that space, presumably the DRM authors wouldn't want to use it! After all, someone would write a utility that showed you what programs were using that space, and for what... and then it wouldn't be obscure, and so it wouldn't be "secure" anymore. Feh.

    I won't ever buy programs that pull stunts like this.

    steveha

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  5. LEGALLY Circumventing (sortof) all this crap by nurd68 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1.) I just happen to have an inspiron 7500 with no screen (hinges broke off). Works fine when hooked to a CRT, though.

    2.) It came with a Win98 license that I retained, but never used (it was a GNU/Linux box).

    3.) Install legal copy of Win98

    4.) Install copy of TurboTax

    5.) Do taxes

    6.) Pass laptop around to family and friends, who hook it up to their monitors and printers, but (as per the license) it is only installed on ONE machine. (The machine just happens to move around a lot...)