The Silent Deep

I came across this as a link at Geek news central, as well as noticing it on Digg amongst other places. There is rarely something that makes me stand back in awe and amazement - and also makes me mad as hell - but this is one of those times.
The people at Sysinternals - who have developed the Root Kit Revealer to detect the worst possible forms of computer invasion - have now found a Root Kit installed by Sony as part of their DRM. - A poorly coded root kit too! AND, from all reports, it is NOT covered in the EULA.

Mark’s Sysinternals Blog: Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far
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 with a RKR scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files.

The awe and amazement is a reflection of the detailed and comprehensive analysis they took to discover this critter and the fact that they posted each step along the way. The depth of analysis was common 20 years ago with a small DOS system - but within a windows machine nowadays - and using many routines that they wrote themselves I think that they deserve an award.
PLEASE go to their site and read this - then take your Sony merchandise back and ask for a refund.

HOW DARE THEY INVADE OUR MACHINES! HOW DARE THEY !

Anyone thinking class-action?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 at 9:15 pm and is filed under DRM, Spyware, Digital Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.