Sony CD's and malware

[adrian]

Watch out if you try to play a music CD from Sony on your PC:

https://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html

Basically, the CD installs its own software for copy protection, and if you try to uninstall it, you may make your PC's CD-ROM drive unusable.

 

[andysrockets]

Err actually it is a bit more serious than that... It can actually render your entire windows install unusable, requiring a complete reformat and reinstall !

My advice - steer well clear of ANY copy-protected "CD". They are not CDs, but borked CD-ROMs with audio tracks, and should never contain the trademarked CD logo. Many will probably not play in any non-hifi CD players (especially mp3/cd walkmans, pc cdroms, and car cd-changers).

Was also reported here...
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/01/sony_rootkit_drm/

IMHO Sony (and any others) are in for a class action lawsuit.

 

[cydermaster]

Another way of protecting your PC from Sony's malware is to only obtain cds by Sony artists through Peer-to-Peer networks, where the offending 'ware has been removed. lol

 

[JDcluster]

A class action suite to me.
The people VS Sony corp.
Broken computers from Sony music CD's
I guess they need to up their Computer sales a bit...



JD

 

[vjp]

I won't buy from Sony anymore, after I bought a CD player that came with a "get 10 CD's free" offer, and I never got the CD's. So, for the past 12 years I have boycotted (most*) Sony products.

I hold a grudge for a LOOOOOOOOOONG time.

*although I did buy a Sony camcorder about a year and a half ago.

 

[CraigM]

This could get even more ugly..

By clicking "Yes" to the EULA on Sony CD's you will have a nice little Rootkit installed on your PC, and even worse, a backdoor for any script kiddie virus writers..

The Rootkit will hide from any directory listing files that start with $sys$ . So any malicious coder that was'nt able to write there own rootkit now has one conviently install on a couple hundred thousand PC's, all thanks to Sony.

The company Sony subcontracted to code the DRM Rootkit has issued a "patch". The patch only removes the cloaking "rootkit" part of the software, but leaves the DRM intact. https://updates.xcp-aurora.com/

 

[andysrockets]

Apart from being seriously arrogant, what Sony has done is open the door for the malware script kiddies. Not necessarily to hook onto the Sony code, but to highlight yet another backdoor into Windows.

The entertainment company behind World of Warcraft has also employed serious arrogance and potentially illegal software. Best of all, though is that WoW cheats are using the Sony software (or at least the technique) to hide the information that Blizzard Entertainment is illegally gathering...
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/04/secfocus_wow_bot/

I've always been 101% against DRM, EULAs, Software Patents, I do agree that the copyright holder is due an acceptable royalty.

The thing that really cheeses me off is that any software company (in fact all of them) are legally allowed to leave behind registry entries and files on my disk after an uninstall. If I decide to give up my rights to a piece of software then when I hit uninstall, there should not be a single trace on my computer that that software ever existed. If there is, then that is theft!

My understanding is that the SonyBMG software also stole CPU cycles (despite Sony claiming it was non-intrusive). To me, that is also theft.

Am I glad that I only use Windows for Rocksim, Altacc, RDAS, etc. and use Linux full time for almost everything.

 

[cydermaster]

Well said, Andy. Software leaving stuff/baggage behind without your consent is disgraceful behaviour. If you decided that you are fed up of that Star Wars Ep1 DVD sitting on the shelf, reminding you of the dissapointment the first time you saw it, and you decide to bin it; you expect it to go compleatly, not leave an image of Jar-Jar Binks perminantly etched on the shelf's surface.

As with Andy, Its at these sorts of times I'm glad I use Linux: "apt-get remove .... It does exactly what it says on the tin!"

 

[adrian]

And the really stupid thing about this sort of copy protection is that it only harms people who bought the thing legally and are trying to use it legitimately. It doesn't stop the pirates, or at least not for long. This actively encourages piracy! (Hence cydermaster's previous comment about getting the music via P2P to avoid having your PC fouled up by the copy protection. )

For a real taste of arrogance, take a look at the BBC report about the affair, and in particular the comments from Mathew Gilliat-Smith, chief executive of First 4 Internet, the company responsible for the copy protection.

Mr Gilliat-Smith said Mr Russinovich had problems removing XCP because he tried to do it manually something that was not a "recommended action". Instead, said Mr Gilliat-Smith, he should have contacted Sony BMG which gives consumers advice about how to remove the software.

Mr. Russinovich probably knows more about Windows than all of XCP put together, he's not some clueless kiddie. Besides, what about people who found the rootkit but didn't track it down to a DRM-infested CD?

 

[cydermaster]

Looks like the lawsuits have started:

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4424254.stm

Also in the article:

XCP PROTECTED CDS

Trey Anastasio - Shine
Celine Dion - On ne Change Pas
Neil Diamond - 12 Songs
Our Lady Peace - Healthy in Paranoid Times
Chris Botti - To Love Again
Van Zant - Get Right with the Man
Switchfoot - Nothing is Sound
The Coral - The Invisible Invasion
Acceptance - Phantoms
Susie Suh - Susie Suh
Amerie - Touch
Life of Agony - Broken Valley
Horace Silver Quintet - Silver's Blue
Gerry Mulligan - Jeru
Dexter Gordon - Manhattan Symphonie
The Bad Plus - Suspicious Activity
The Dead 60s - The Dead 60s
Dion - The Essential Dion
Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten
Ricky Martin - Life

 

[andysrockets]

Originally posted by cydermaster
Looks like the lawsuits have started

At long last

Adrian hit the nail on the head. The only losers are those that use the infested CD-ROMs innocently, and later find problems with their PC.

In the long run, MAC users will also be screwed by Apple's "Trusted Hardware" policy, and Linux (and OSS) users will have to resort to potentially illegal methods again to get around regional coding which masquerades as "copyright protection technology" for the purposes of lawsuits.

 

[andysrockets]

And the first malware to make use of Sony's malware is out in the wild...
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/10/sony_drm_trojan/

 

[cydermaster]

https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4430608.stm

 

[cydermaster]

From the Lugradio forum:

It also appears that Sony might have violated the GPL by statically linking the Go.exe to the LAME library and not releasing the sources.
Quote:
An anonymous expert, figured out the CD 'Get Right' by 'Van Zant' contains strings from the library version.c from Lame. He stubled upon: "https://www.mp3dev.org/", "0.90", "LAME3.95", "3.95", "3.95 ". This discovery could imply major consequences for Sony.
from https://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/11/sony-you-dont-reeeeaaaally-want-to_09.html

Looks like Sony are rather up the creak without a paddle on this one!

 

[andysrockets]

OK this really is an OT thread, but one more post won't hurt...

Never thought I'd ever be able to bring myself to say this, but there is some good in Micro$oft...

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4434852.stm

 

[cydermaster]

Originally posted by andysrockets
there is some good in Micro$oft...

They're only doing it to get rid of the Open Source Software, just incase the user finds out that OSS actually is quite good and installs Linux instead of paying the M$-tax on their next comp! lol

 

[stevem]

MICROSOFT DOES LOTS OF GOOD THINGS!!!!!

like keeping many of us employed!

if it weren't for Microsucks there's be lots of IT guys looking for work!

 

[cydermaster]

Update from Aunty Beeb:

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4514678.stm