Sony has infected over one-half million world wide nets incl U.S. Military

Welcome to Planet Sony ^ | 2005-11-15 09:28 | Dan Kaminsky

[Centurion2000]

bump for later

[Centurion2000]

Colossus?
What was that?

[Political Junkie Too]

P1 was an adolescent. This is a grown-up fight! ;-)

-PJ

[6ppc]

Obscure literary reference bump!

[Political Junkie Too]

Colossus? What was that?

It was the Forbin Project.

-PJ

[CFC__VRWC]

I'm not up this stuff. Translation please. What does this mean for the average Joe?

If you've recently bought and played a Sony-BMG music CD on your computer, you've probably got this rootkit installed without your permission on your system. You need to hit the link in Post #12 and download the tool to remove it. It leaves your system vulnerable to hackers who can exploit the hole it blows open in your operating system. It also mines your hard drive for personal data and sends it back (without your knowledge) to Sony.

If you haven't bought any Sony-BMG music CDs, DON'T!

[dickmc]

Not much if you have not put a Sony DRM protected CD in your computer which may include Columbia, RCA and a bunch of others. However, there are some reports that it propagates through internal internets.

Hopefully, Sony may well now be prosecutable under Federal Law regarding government and military computers. Map is not detailed enough to see if in Iraq but I would suspect so.

One thing would be for Utah FReepers to put a lot of pressure on Hatch.


I can just see this in 10 years:

1. 10 DRMs on a computer each fighting over which CD driver to use.

2. Most DRMs don't unload and are continuously stealing 10 x 2 percent or 20 percent of your CPU cycles

3. Conflicts between DRMs which no one will take responsibility for. Blue Screen of Death every minute.

4. Even more bootleg songs on the net since no computer owner will even go in the same room as an Audio CD

5. Every song is on the net is in bit perfect form since at least one computer owner in the world is smart enough to run his CD player's S/PDIF optical output into a high end sound card on his computer ...and... the post the rip on the net to get even.

6. Sony is down to 1,569 Audio CD purchasers with the following profile:
Average age......................... 14
Average annual income...... $20 a month allowance
Have computer at home..... 0.000001%
Favorite band..................... Jay and the Nosepickers

[Right Wing Assault]

SONY dumba$$e$! In their eagerness to put this out, they forgot to look at the possible unintended consequences. At least I HOPE they forgot. If they KNEW this could happen and went ahead anyway, they should be drawn and quartered.

[dickmc]

Oh, they're going to have to do better than that. The infection's already in place. I forsee much trouble for that company in the future.

Since they are still out there to infect computers at used dealers, garage sales, etc. perhaps Sony should be forced to provide a free replacement and a $100 bounty.

[Frank_Discussion]

Naw. Free agent.

[Frank_Discussion]

Haven't heard about P1 for a WHILE! Whew, that's an oldie! :)

[quietolong]

BACK UP!

Before you ever go on the net play CDs or anything
BACK UP your OS.


Nothing like running a compare, wiping your hard drive and installing your backup to take care of these things.

[fhlh]

you guys forgot about the WOPER!......

"would you like to play a game?"

[Political Junkie Too]

Is that you, Joshua?

-PJ

[fhlh]

"Greetings, Professor Faulken"

[DJ MacWoW]

ping

[Technogeeb]

If you've recently bought and played a Sony-BMG music CD on your computer, you've probably got this rootkit installed without your permission on your system. You need to hit the link in Post #12 and download the tool to remove it.

Note that doing so is technically a violation of the DMCA (a stupid law, but a law nevertheless). Using the sony-supplied removal tool (assuming you can jump through the hoops to get them to send it to you) is even worse, since the Active-X control required in the process opens up your machine to arbitrary software execution from any web site you visit from that point forward.

Legally, the only way to remove the rootkit is to reformat your hard drive and reinstall the operating system from scratch. On the other hand, if this software (Sony's rootkit) had been written by an individual or small company, the authors would be in jail by now. If Sony is above the rule of law (and it would appear that they are), then should the law (even bad law like the DMCA) be part of their arsenal?

[Kozak]

Waiting for responsible Sony executives to atone for problem with honorable Seppuku....

[Political Junkie Too]

the Active-X control required in the process opens up your machine to arbitrary software execution from any web site you visit from that point forward.

Can't you use Tools->Manage Add-ons... to disable it after use?

-PJ

[ßuddaßudd]

Sony? Is that the same company that sold me a CD Burner, blank Discs, music cds and then tells me not to copy music with the stuff I bought from them? Oh, I see now, I was stuck on stoopid for a minute there.