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EFF and Sony Disclose New DRM Security Hole
Dotnaught writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and SONY BMG Music Entertainment said on Tuesday that SunnComm is offering a patch to fix a security vulnerability with its MediaMax Version 5 content protection software on 27 SONY BMG CDs. Security firm iSEC Partners discovered the hole following a request by the EFF to examine the SunnComm software. The vulnerability involves a directory installed on users' computers by the MediaMax software that could allow a third party to gain control over the affected Windows PC. The EFF and iSEC delayed disclosing the problem until SunnComm could develop a fix."
Who in their right mind would voluntarily install something from SunComm or SonyBMG given their track record?
Their software phones home and cripples your computer. Would anyone here actually trust them?
..did they also fix that little issue where the DRM installs itself even if the user doesn't accept the EULA?
Yes, but the one thing they haven't been successful in is pointing out the danger of DRM to Joe Sixpack. A number of people I've spoken with have never heard of the Sony 'rootkit' case and had no idea that playing a recent Sony DRM-protected CD on a Windows PC could be dangerous to their computer system.
My blog
Don't be surprised in Sony divests itself of BMG music at some point in the future, to keep from losing customers for its home electronics business.
They already lost me. And when a company loses my business, they lose it permanently.
I had a Technics CD player in the mid-80's that had to be fixed repeatedly for the same problem under warranty. When the problem recurred shortly after the unit went out of warranty and they refused to fix or replace it, I sent a polite letter to the head of Panasonic USA explaining the situation and telling them that if they didn't replace the unit I'd never buy a another Panasonic product. They declined to fix or replace the unit and twenty years later, I still don't have another Panasonic product.
You can be sure that there will never be a Sony product in my house in the future.
Of course, this could be their attempt to implement DRM by fear. If your PC gets compromised every time you put a Sony audio disk in the drive, maybe you'll stop doing it. If you don't put the CD in your PC, they don't have to worry about you copying it.