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Remote Exploit of Vista Speech Control
An anonymous reader writes "George Ou writes in his blog that he found a remote exploit for the new and shiny Vista Speech Control. Specifically, websites playing soundfiles can trigger arbitrary commands. Ou reports that Microsoft confirmed the bug and suggested as workarounds that either 'A user can turn off their computer speakers and/or microphone'; or, 'If a user does run an audio file that attempts to execute commands on their system, they should close the Windows Media Player, turn off speech recognition, and restart their computer.' Well, who didn't see that coming?"
Microsoft cautioned everyone not to play the song "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears on or near your computer while the mic is on.
Several lawsuits already involve brutal crimes by computers against annoying young teeny bopper women. Although we can't act like we didn't see this coming, tension has been steadily rising.
My work here is dung.
Is that a remote exploit?
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
c:> Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all: Command not found
So here's to you, Mr. Exploit Finding Man!
Now there's a Bud commercial I'd like to hear.
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
I just watched 2001: A Space Odyssey on my machine... this may be my last post.
Years ago when I worked in a shop that used OS/2 (one late version of which included speech recognition), we used to play pranks on each other all the time using that 'feature'. Things like changing a startup sound to be two minutes of silence followed by a verbal shutdown command, or changing confirmation prompt sounds to be 'cancel'. Good fun. The random 'select all / delete / yes' was the best, though.
If they don't prevent them from running arbitrary commands, you know 5 years in the future that every time term end comes around there will be some naked freshman running through the uni library/labs shouting "quit without saving! yes! reboot! yes! shutdown -h now!"
Me and my friends have been waiting for this and joking about it since IBM Via Voice and Dragon Speak. A whole new era of IT pranks and cyberterrorisim awaits us. Imagine bursting into a room full of PCs and yelling
:-)
"FORMAT DRIVE C! CONFIRM!".
Instant fun.
Makes me feel all soft and gooshy inside just thinking of it.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Userfriendly had predicted the fate of voice recognition six years ago - rm -rf / and yet again !.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
Voice control is fine, but having the computer react to its own output is ludicrous! You'd think Vista would be smart enough to recognize feedback... It's like having a retard talking into a mic that's hooked up to his own headphones.
Bob: "Bob go jump off a bridge"
Bob: "Who said that ?"
Bob: "I said that. Now jump!"
Bob: "Ok.. Aaaaaaaagh!"
Stupid.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I expect someone to come up with a site that says:
"Start Internet Explorer"
"Go aytch tee tee pee colon slash slash gee oh ay tee ess ee dot see ex"
Brrr...
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Never? Not even Bananaphone?
Time to quote a usenet classic:
Last year, out in California, at a PC users group, there was a demo of
smart speech recognition software.
Before the demonstrator could begin his demo, a voice called out from the
audience:
"Format c, return."
"Yes, return."
Damned short demo, it was.
OS Reviews: Free and Open Source Software
When your machine room starts doing a gregorian chant...
Bud Light Presents...
Real American Heroes (reaaalllll american heroooessss...)
Today we salute you, Mr Computer Software Exploit Finder (computer software exploit fii-inder)
While others are wasting away their lives drinking, dating, and and having fun, you're hunched over a screen, plowing through code.(hunch plow hunchie plow)
You may not have seen the sun in days, but thats ok- you do this for the greater good.(greaaater goooo-ooodd)
Only YOU could realize that a carefully crafted web favorites icon could potentially bring the world to its knees.(Down on its kneeee--eesss)
So crack open an Ice Cold Bud Light, Oh Overload of Overflow, because without you, CmdrTaco would have to get a real job.
PC: Hi I'm a PC
Mac: and I'm a Mac
PC: I have a cool new feature called voice control.
Mac: That is stupid. I have the Time-Machine which let's you recover old documents. Let's say you accidently delete the documents folder
PC: Okay
Mac: To get you documents back, all you have to do is slide the time machine back one minute.
PC: Sounds cool, but cant you just get the documents out of the trash?
Mac: Yes, but it works even if you accidentally empty the recycle bin
70% of statistics are made up.