i dont know much about rootkits ether....this tread is the first i ever herd about them.

but i read the artical that kath put in ,one huge headache later i figured out that they are basicley bad programs that somehow hide themselfs from the user....and can be used as a an attemt at overkill DRM...

and after reading that ,i downloaded that "rootkit revealer" program and ran it ..and it came up with whol bunch of stuff....wich i have no idia what it was...but all the stuff was ether in the "temporary internet files" or in with my one game "far cry" folders and a couple registry entries ,but the PC isent acting any worse than normal, so im assuming (hope) all the stuff it found is harmless...

now my brain reely hurts...

i have never put a CD like that in my computer nor do i own any like that....nor will i buy any...

but i do alot of CD ripping myself from friernds collections etc and i dont want to expose my computer to it...

is there a way to simply not install or ignor it? like holding the shift key to stop it from auto running when a cd of this nature is inserted?? and will ripping programs just ignor the data track and rip the DA as normal???

Watch out for Sony's uninstaller!
 

Hello you wonderful people!

I ranted about Sony's rootkit elsewhere on this forum and pointed out a link in there that was an interesting read. That was this one: http://p2pnet.net/story/7025.

Now I see there is a lot of talk here about this rootkit uninstaller put out by Sony to "fix" the matter. The following read should prove interesting. I don't know if anyone here was aware of this particular situation, but if you aren't, this is a good read:

http://p2pnet.net/story/6984

Mmm I want a LINUX OS so bad I can taste it. I've got the PCLinuxOS disk, but not the resources to use it right now, hrrmph.

Peace.

im not 100% ..but i think you can compleatly get around all this sony/DRM BS by clicking NO to the EULA thing when you put one of these discs in your computer.

by doing that you dont install any software. and if it DOSE install somthing without your "consent" even if you clicked no and dont agree to sonys licence crap....YOU can sue the pants off SONY.

(i think)

Thanks
 

I'm not really worried about it. I don't burn CDs to my computer or save them to the computer. I do share what I've downloaded though, so that could be of concern if someone has the rootkit on their system.

Thanks for the advice.

well theres some rootkit killers under my perfectly safe from viruses blah blah ect all free things but 1 word really gets rid of my rootkit problems..... EWIDO (ps infinate scans, 14 day trial is only limitation but that just stops updates and on access protection ) get it at www.ewido.com :D get her or urself to download it

nvm about the perfectly safe from all viruses... an imature guy "self proclaimed spyware expert" started nagging at me for his own fault... he tattled on me for minor vulger and now my post is gone.... tell him thnx if you know him.. its Lord of the Rings haha thats him ... XD

Actually, this HAPPENED, and that's why Sony/BMG are sued!

They installed their rootkit, even if you rejected their EULA. Not only you could not play the CD, but the rootkit was installed, and then opened a listening port that HAS been exploited by remote virus and PC hijackers.

Then Sony released a "fix" that was even worse and less secured than the rootkit initially present on the CD. By installing the "fix", younot only removed the rootkit, but you agreed with its EULA that states that you use the fix at your own risk. Sony wants to convince you that it is notresponsible, but it forgets to say that the fix it proposes actually installs a new software that will wait for instructions from ANY source in the Internet.

This "fix" (actually an ActiveX component) was ALSO used by virus and PC hijackers.

The Sony/BMG even is the worst thing that happened in the media industry. It demonstrates that the DRM technology it defends is not safe, not developed according to basic security standards, and that these media actually lie in their licences, lie to their legitimate customers, and spy on them illegally.

The effect of this is that now many organizations have banned ALL music CDs on work places (or have removed CD/DVD players from their workstations, and now also remove floppies, disconnect the USB and Firewire ports, disable PCMCIA ports on notebooks, password protect the BIOS to apply these restrictions).

The only way to save your work is now via the private LAN (when it works, and the system admin is effectively doing his work to change the storage tapes. You can't save multiple times during day, and every one now depends on a single system admin(whose work and competence is supposed to be always better, safer and faster than yours).

GOOD, sony had it coming...
i herd that a fiew months ago the RIAA got sued for rakettering and conspericay or somthing..is that true?


but?...i can see why a ban on all music cds on business/school computers would be a good idia now, or , maybe more resonalbly all recent sony CDs and or all the CDA-CDROM combo discs, but why would they disdable everybodys cd burners/floppys and usb/firewire ports and not let anybody save any of there work? what dose that have to do with sonys BS?

and isent there a patch out now that makes your computer immune to sonys rootkit? ...patching seems more reasonable than ripping out everybodys cd drive...

This just means that media producers have nowbecome non trustable for computing. CDA until now was considered harmless because it was assumed that mass producersof these CDs would not violate the confidence of their customers using unfair practices. But now, they are considered as much untrustable as any roguesoftware maker. And companies do not have the tools to control the legality of licences for medias.

What is worse is that these rootkits arereally softwares installed without being visible in software licencing control systems. The whole computing system becomes untrustable because it becomes impossible to know exactly what is running on it and if it's legal or not. So companies are placed at risk of false alarms for alleged copyright violations, without the most basic tools to verify the claims. This is where Sony/BMG may be sued for racketing (due to unverifiable claims). But I don't know if such action has occured anywhere.