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.

Comments

In democratic america...

[Anonymous Coward]

corporations exploit YOU!

hrm, so much for humor. I don't find it funny at all :/

Re:In democratic america...

[conJunk]

damn... you know it's getting scary when the soviet russia joke is not only unfunny, but frightening....

i don my tinfoil hat and robe...

as if

[scenestar]

DRM wasn't intrusive in the first place.

Anti-spyware Bill

[AKAImBatman]

We *really* need to get a anti-spyware bill on the books. Something along the lines of, "It shall be a criminal offsense to install non-application software on any computer when the user has not been reasonably notified in advance and/or agreed to have the modifications made. This bill will be reevaluated for its effect in three years."

Anything running in the background, rootkits, and other forms of spyware (which generally rely on the user not knowing they're there) would immediately become illegal.

Re:Anti-spyware Bill

[queenb**ch]

Problem #1 - Mr. Spyware Programmer in Nigeria where such things aren't illegal.

Problem #2 - Mr. Identity Theif in wierd 3rd world country where such things are illegal but are tactitly condoned by local authority as long as its not someone from their country

Problem #3 - Mr Corporate Lobbyist - RIAA & MPAA ring any bells????

Problem #4 - Your privacy has been dead for decades. The sad part is that people are just now starting to smell the rotting corpse.

Passing a bill here in the USA will only do what CAN-SPAM did - drive them off shore to less regulated places. What's really needed is the ability to establish peering points that co-incide with national borders. Then we can pass a law that says that if we don't like your data integrity laws, we don't pass traffic to/from you.

See if that doesn't actually accomplish what you're looking for.

2 cents,

Queen B

Re:Thanks

[Flower]

Don't tell Sony. Tell the Brothers that they lost a sale. Let them know that the product they worked so hard on now has poorly written software on it that could damage your computer. And through you want their music you can't buy it and you're going to tell your friends not to risk buying this CD.

Awesome

[suwain_2]

On this CD's product page, there are several negative reviews on account of spyware. My favorite puts into plain English why this is bad: "I am very unhappy, since I now listen to all of my music using my IPod."

I think this is the way to fight DRM. When we complain about DRM rights, we're fighting a crusade on principle, and few people really get what's wrong. When you say, "This CD that I paid for can't be transferred to my iPod," people will see that it's outrageous. When people see that it's installing spyware on your computer, they'll flip. Cheers to whoever's left this feedback.

Re:My question:

[eln]

And nobody at Sony bothered to vet a piece of software that was destined to be shipped with millions of CDs? 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.

I think it's far more likely that Sony knew what this software did, and chose to distribute it anyway. This could have been a result of incompetent testers, poor communication between QA and management, overbearing management anxious to get a product out on a strict deadline, or any number of other things.

Re:Sony is protected by the DMCA

[hazem]

Doug, I think you're wrong.

I can disable a copy protection system on my own computer - specifically removing it. They didn't have permission to put it there, and I think it would be a tough case to prosecute me for repairing my own computer. My computer is not Sony's medium to do with as they please - it's MINE - I paid for it, and I licensed the software.

Now, removing the protection from their media - or extracing the content and freeing it from the DRM, yes, that's circumvention, and probably prosecutable under the DMCA.

But my computer is MINE and they don't have the right to secretly fuck with it.

Answer: This is truly evil

[shanen]

So should I sell all of my Sony stock, or buy more?

Seriously speaking, this shows two things. One is yet another demonstration of the fundamental evil of Microsoft's "security" model. Even if you weren't running as root/Administrator (and everyone does, don't they?), then the "reputable" installation from the "reputable" company would just ask you to elevate your privileges.

The other thing is that power is always abused. If not now and by Sony, then tomorrow by some other "reputable" company. (Or put on your tin hat and say "Yesterday by the NSA.")

I hope they track this story, and if it is not another misguided /. rumor, I certainly hope that Sony repudiates the technique and the software. Soon.

Then they should apologize.

Then sack the person responsible.

Then sack the person responsible for not sacking the responsible person earlier.

[Infinite loop warning.]

Well, well, well...

[RoffleTheWaffle]

Cat's out of the bag now. Congratulations, Sony. You fucked up big time.

I'd like to take this opportunity to dissect the article in question here, to point out just how positively obscene this is. There are a few key points I'd like to highlight that I feel we should all take into consideration.

It would appear that Sony has deliberately begun shipping rootkits with its DRM protected CDs. According to the article - and this is a pretty good definition, by the way - "Rootkits are cloaking technologies that hide files, Registry keys, and other system objects from diagnostic and security software, and they are usually employed by malware attempting to keep their implementation hidden." In a nutshell, this means that the program shipped with the CD in question here - and possibly other Sony CDs - is designed to hide itself and other programs from view. In other words, once installed, it will allow Sony and any other interested party familiar with this particular rootkit to operate programs on a compromised system without the user knowing it.

Let's take a step back here to consider the implications of this. Sony is distributing a rootkit, but what does this have to do with DRM? Well, if you really think about it, it has everything to do with DRM. A DRM program that cannot be seen or easily accessed can operate secretly, monitoring and manipulating the system behind the user's back. Any future DRM software Sony distributes could infiltrate a computer secretly, and burrow deep into the system files of said computer.

According to the article, the rootkit was produced by First 4 Internet. Upon investigating the company itself and the products and services it offers, the author dredged up this lovely little nugget of joy: "... However, the fact that the company sells a technology called XCP made me think that maybe the files I'd found were part of some content protection scheme. I Googled the company name and came across this article, confirming the fact that they have deals with several record companies, including Sony, to implement Digital Rights Management (DRM) software for CDs." That right there should be proof enough that this is no accident, and anything but legitimate DRM. Not only does having a rootkit handy make the DRM difficult to thwart, but also allows it to operate secretly.

Now, you'd think that you could just remove this software, right? Wrong. Dead wrong, as a matter of fact. The author of the article had a hell of a time removing the rootkit, actually, and not only that, at any given time, it was consuming between one and two percent of the CPU's power - a small 'penalty' for even having it. (And any programs it's hiding would also have to leech off the CPU and RAM as well.) As he attempted to remove this shit, he discovered even more about the software: "As I was deleting the driver Registry keys under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services I noted that they were either configured as boot-start drivers or members of groups listed by name in the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\SafeBoot subkeys, which means that they load even in Safe Mode, making system recovery extremely difficult if any of them have a bug that prevents the system from booting." Suddenly, this is more than a performance issue. This software could theoretically disable a system should it break or be manipulated by the software it's hiding. It would appear, however, it is possible to remove, but only after eviscerating a handful of driver files, registry entries and keys, and other lovely goodies from your system. The rootkit and the DRM attached to it do not have an uninstaller, and unless you take the same steps the author took to remove this flaming pile of garbage from your system... Well, he puts it pretty well:

"The entire experience was frustrating and irritating. Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files wit

_WHAT_ EULA?!?!

[mrchaotica]

It's SUPPOSED to be a fucking AUDIO CD!!