Slashdot Mirror
Earthstation 5 Claimed to be Malware
Rob from RPI writes "You may remember the announcement about a company, or program, or both called Earthstation 5 who recently 'Declared War' on the MPAA. Well guess what? Turns out that it's got code in it that allows anyone to delete any file on your computer. I suggest that you un-install as soon as possible!"
Because the link is on geocities it's sure to be
Don't trust code from sources you don't know. I only provide these for the inevitable geocities
Really, I mean it. From looking at their web site one would have thought they were totally legitimate!
A P2P service that ACTIVELY PROMOTES piracy? It sounded too good to be true, and it was. All of this wonderful information from some schmoe with an email @yahoo.com? This whole deal is shady, no matter how you look at it.
And in other news when Reuter's contacted Earth Station 5's lead programmer, he had apparently mumbled under his breath.. "its not a bug damnit!, it's a feature"
to hear our comments. http://www.earthstation5.com/contact.html
As of this writing, I haven't seen a single follow-up post.
Is it true? I don't know, Is it a hoax? I don't know that either. It has more than a few caveats about using the exploit, that's for sure.
What I do know is that that Geocities site with the exploit code will disappear bandwidth constrained faster than snot. :)
Tinfoil hat on . . .
Let's say ES5 is an MPAA/RIAA front to discredit file sharing and harm filesharers.
Now, apparently, ES5 is in Palestine.
What better way to do "double damage" than to not only have a way to attack filesharers, but also to connect it to a location people associate with terrorism?
OK, tinfoil hat off now.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
I'm sure everyone has at least seen one article where they tell you to NEVER install software from a company you've either never heard of, or don't trust. At this point, the internet has been around long enough that most people realize this, especially if you have data on your machine that is so important that you can't risk getting a virus or a trojan (such as this, apparently) on it. Live by the internet, die by the internet. Just because someone claims to be against the RIAA doesn't make them your friend. Just because someone is against SCO, doesn't make them about free software rights. There are such things as self-serving deeds, even if they appear to be good gestures to all.
today is spelling optional day.
I'm curious - how can it be determined without the benefit of source code for ES5 that the exploit isn't just a horrendous oversight instead of a malicious pre-meditated function of the software?
If it is malicious it seems odd that they would make it possible for ANYONE to delete someone elses files through crafted search strings, thus significantly increasing the chance of their nefarious plans being uncovered.
If it were me, and I was secretly working for the RIAA, I'd just code in a simple client/server protocol that the RIAA could use to delete people's files, entirely seperate from the normal operation of the program itself. This would be much harder to identify as malicious code.
Sorry, but this just looks to me like a bad "failure to chroot()" bug and not the big conspiracy theory its purported to be...
Did you know that you can rearrange the letters of "EARTHSTATION FIVE" to spell "RIAA VOTES IN THEFT"?
They're behind the whole thing, I'm telling you.
Link to Zeropaid discussion with the actual code http://www.zeropaid.com/news/articles/auto/1002200 3i.php
earthstation5.com Back-order this name
Domain EARTHSTATION5.COM
Date Registered: 2/26/2002
Date Modified: 6/13/2002
Expiry Date: 2005-2-26
DNS1: ns1.earthstationv.com
DNS2: ns2.earthstationv.com
Registrant
Earthstationv Ltd, A Palestinian Corporation
Jenin refugee camp #23
Jenin (PS)
NONE
Administrative Contact
EarthstationV Ltd., A Palestinian Corporation
Mr Domain Administrator
Jenin refugee camp #23
Jenin (PS)
NONE
067351065
67351065
ras@earthstationv.com
Technical Contact
EarthstationV Ltd., A Palestinian Corporation
Mr Domain Administrator
Jenin refugee camp #23
Jenin (PS)
NONE
067351065
67351065
ras@earthstationv.com
Registrar: NameScout.com
If I had received this in my Inbox, I probably would have ignored it. It's interesting that I'm conditioned (brainwashed?) to ignore this stuff when it's in an email, but when I read it on /. I take it seriously.
you must be new here.
~the keyboard is mightier than the pen.
People need to stop trashing Earthstation 5. It's a fantastic program, and does exactly as advertised. Plus, it seems to have built-in compression software -- my free disk space has been steadily increasing ever since I installed it!
May we never see th
Rest assured, brothers, your files have not been deleted; they have been martyred and are currently being serviced by 72 virgins.
So, the standard Tech Support staff?
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
The *maintainer* of Earthstation V's domain record is fom Israel. I do not know what this signifies.
To see this, go here and click on the mnt-by ("maintained by") link.