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Sony DRM Installs a Rootkit?
An anonymous read writes "SysInternals.com guru Mark Russinovich has a detailed investigation of a rootkit from Sony Music. It's installed with a DRM-encumbered music CD, Van Zant's "Get Right with the Man". (Mmmm, delicious irony!) The rootkit introduces several security holes into the system that could be exploited by others, such as hiding any executable file that starts with '$sys$'. Russinovich also identifies several programming bugs in the method it uses to hook system calls, and chronicles the painful steps he had to take to 'exorcise the daemon' from his system." This house is clear.
Not that this makes it better in any way, but I liked how he said
I hadn't noticed when I purchased the CD from Amazon.com that it's protected with DRM software, but if I had looked more closely at the text on the Amazon.com web page I would have known
followed by a picture of the amazon web page in question with [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD] clearly visible in massive letters.
Man, Sony'll do anything to make sure your system has their Cell in it.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
i don my tinfoil hat and robe...
:)
Wow, a tinfoil hat and robe! When do the pants and underwear come in?
However when you said "hat and robe", my first thought was of Bloodninja's cyber adventures.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
Getting a cockroach with my just purchased pizza.
I'm glad I get my music off of p2p networks and don't have to worry about trojans and rootkits and that evil hacker stuff!
No no no no no - lets get this right - rootkits only permit you to root a *nix system. On Windoze systems, the System Administrator is already rooted.
You never played Star Wars Galaxies, did you?
Exactly. Also, never autorun CDs.
sulli
RTFJ.
Excellent idea. I already submitted my email stating that I won't support the band (what's their name again?) anymore.
Suing them IS trying to remove it, so suing them invokes the DMCA.
congrats for catching the joke, you genius you!
If I kill you to prevent you from killing me, killing you is self defense and not a crime. Seems reasonable that if I kill Sony's process to prevent it from stealing my ID that it's self defense and not a crime. The DMCA is one of those laws that is so out of whack, nevermind the US Constitution. It probably violates Brittish common law, the Magna Carta, and if you look hard enough it probably violates the code of Hammurabai and the social order of primitive hunter-gatherer cultures too.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Norton actually REMOVES viruses?!
The sounds like something the National Enquirer would do a story on. "Norton Actually Removes Viruses instead of just showing you you're infected!"
It is most likely that this is actually an elaborate ploy to ruin the lives of Van Zant fans by die hard Lynrd Skynrd fans.
I can disable a copy protection system on my own computer What makes you think its your computer?
Hands down the illest ventriloquist this side of the Mississippi River, Hah!
Is that you Jack?
I wonder what would happen if somebody brought a small claims court case based on this...
[waves fingers in front of face Wayne's World style]
Judge Judy: So I understand that this man's company facak'ded up your computer? And it cost you 600 meshugena dollars to get it fixed?
Random Dude: Yes, your honor. I bought some lame ass CD that Sony price gouged me for (they have DJs to pay off you know) and when I put it into the CD drive on my Sony laptop, the drive stopped working and the computer didn't function properly. I went to my local Sony authorized dealer to have my computer serviced, but they weren't able to fix it. Since they said it was a software issue and not covered under the warranty, they charged me $200 (they have call centers to outsource you know). So then I was going to reload Windows XP, but my Sony laptop didn't come with the original CD (they have Politicians to bribe you know). So that set me back $400 for a new copy.
JJ: That is unconscionable. What is your side of the story?
Howard Stringer (CEO of Sony): He forgot to mention that we sued his kid brother for having music on the computer.
JJ: You, sir, are below slime. I find for the Plaintiff.
Or if it was on Texas Justice:
Larry Joe Doherty: Hey boy! I hear this guy cost you some mucho dinero 'cause of your computer or something?
[same as above, but with a different end]
LJD: Give that boy his $600! Now come sit in this chair and put this hat on!
The same scenario on Judge Joe Brown:
Joe Brown: I'm from the streets, but I've never heard of this scam. Tell me how it went down.
[yadda yadda from above]
[the judge sticks a shiv in the CEO and then hands the wallet to Random Dude]
JB: Case dismissed.
And on Night Court:
Harold T. Stone: $50 and time served...and Dan will fuck your wife and sister while Bull pulls out your arms and beats you with them.
[the judge disappears in a puff of smoke]
....When you put what you think is an audio CD in your CD ROM drive and click on the drive icon,....
On a Mac, when you put an audio CD in the drive, iTunes opens and you get music. If there were some Mac version of a rootkit installer malware on a DRM-ed CD you would get a window asking for a password, but ONLY after clicking on the installer's icon. There is absolutely NO way to install such crap on a Mac by simply clicking on the CD disk icon or merely putting a CD in the drive. Only after giving the admin password would such garbage be able to install. Around here, none of the users know the admin password. I would fault the insecure Windows OS for a) autorunning the software on a CD and b) for allowing users write access to the deepest system internals without the slightest warning or notice. If Windows were more secure, such dastardly exploits would be a lot harder, although not impossible, since stupid users that know the admin password would likely type it in. Still for a commercial company to stoop to such tactics is abominable and probably skirts the edges of the law.
All theory is gray
So you're telling me that if I prepend a file name with "$sys$" it will be nearly undetectable? Finally! An easy and effective way to hide my pr0n. I can't wait to buy this CD
Good point, and in that case I rescind my offer to copy and distribute. The thousand pieces thing is still happening.
Thank you for reading One Man's Opinion. No participation necessary. Offer void where deemed by law or PATRIOT Act.
And nobody at Sony bothered to vet a piece of software that was destined to be shipped with millions of CDs?
They did--by putting it on one of their releases. Releasing a single CD just isn't a big deal to these people. And it's done by the music division, which probably has even less experience with software than the rest of the company.
It's beyond absurd that a company of Sony's size would allow a piece of software to appear on any of its products without Sony having tested the hell out of it first.
From your remark, we must conclude that you have never owned a Sony camera, laptop, or PDA.
This is NGTCB. The submitted obviously hasn't been keeping up with Newspeak. Don't worry, I've already reported them to Minitrue.
My First RootKit!