World of Warcraft hackers using Sony BMG rootkit

D3v01D said:
Earlier someone asked if this rootkit can hide cheats from punkbuster and the like.
Is this true? :(
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Of course. Spyware has been increasingly going this route. I'd be shocked if sophisticated cheats didn't alread employ this as well. The whole Sony thing just exposes it, also makes it VERY easy to take an existing cheat and modify it to work with the existing rootkit. 1+1=2.

busta_cap said:
QED
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That's Latin, darlin'! It appears Mr. busta_cap is an educated man. Now I really hate him!
:p
 
busta_cap said:
For one thing, I've had a basic understanding of the principles of entropy and chaos theory long before the wikis (or the internet as a major system) even existed ... and probably since before you recieved your high school diploma.

<ASS WHIPPING SNIPPED>

Before you condescend to someone, you'd be well served to actually know what you're talking about.
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As Sir Isaac Newton would have said, "pwnd."
 
Wouldn't it be poetic justice if the idiots using this Sony rootkit to exploit on games like WoW are the ones that end up getting their computers hacked into? :p
 
Im sure that Sony, owners of EQ2, are laughing when they saw that cheaters are now using their rootkit to h4x WoW.
 
Ech said:
As Sir Isaac Newton would have said, "pwnd."
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I beg to differ. If entropy were applicable, and provable, when viewing smaller systems, rather than total entropy of the universe increasing as a function to define the flow of time in one direction, then we would not have little things like say.. stars, planets, LIFE. The elements that form the molecules, that form the cells, that form your body managed to arrange themselves neatly into a very ordered and precise pattern in seeming defiance of the second law. This is possible only because the second law as a function measures total entropy in the unviverse which increases over time, defining the direction of time, despite smaller systems behaving in a manner that seems to disprove it.

And a physics problem most certainly has no bearing on a discussion of human behavior. Then mixing up scientific laws with barnyard wisdom like the 'law' of unintended consquences. May as well throw in some Murphy's 'law' for good measure since neither are science.
 
Rich Tate said:
Ya I am too, however this discussion is vearing off topic. Take your fancy talk over to genmay, and start talking about WoW rootkits or I'm gonna lock it up. :)
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For the reading impaired.

Topic: World of Warcraft hackers using Sony BMG rootkit

Stay on target!

edit: for the record, I mean the other folks going off-topic, not Rich. ;)
 
Back on topic after the physics/nature of spacetime tiff.

Hackers use Sony BMG to hide on PCs

A computer security firm said on Thursday it had discovered the first virus that uses music publisher Sony BMG's (6758.T) controversial CD copy-protection software to hide on PCs and wreak havoc.

Under a subject line containing the words "Photo approval," a hacker has mass-mailed the so-called Stinx-E trojan virus to British email addresses, said British anti-virus firm Sophos.

When recipients click on an attachment, they install malware, which may tear down a computer's firewall and give hackers access to a PC. The malware hides by using Sony BMG software that is also hidden -- the software would have been installed on a computer when consumers played Sony's copy-protected music CDs.

"This leaves Sony in a real tangle. It was already getting bad press about its copy-protection software, and this new hack exploit will make it even worse," said Sophos's Graham Cluley.

Later on Thursday, security software firm Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC - news) also discovered the first trojans to abuse the security flaw in Sony BMG's copy-protection software. A trojan is a program that appears desirable but actually contains something harmful.

Sony BMG's spokesman John McKay in New York was not immediately available to comment.

The music publishing venture of Japanese electronics conglomerate Sony Corp. (6758.T) and Germany's Bertelsmann AG (BERT.UL) is distributing the copy-protection software on a range of recent music compact disks (CDs) from artists such as Celine Dion and Sarah McLachlan.

When the CD is played on a Windows personal computer, the software first installs itself and then limits the usage rights of a consumer. It only allows playback with Sony software.

The software sparked a class action lawsuit against Sony in California last week, claiming that Sony has not informed consumers that it installs software directly into the "roots" of their computer systems with rootkit software, which cloaks all associated files and is dangerous to remove.

Sophos said it would have a tool to disable the copy protection software available later on Thursday.

Sony BMG made a patch available on its Web site on Tuesday that rids a PC from the "cloaking" element that is part of the copy-protection software, while claiming that "the component is not malicious and does not compromise security."

The patch does not disable the copy protection itself.

The Sony copy-protection software does not install itself on Macintosh computers or ordinary CD and DVD players.
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Draax said:
This very copy protection is the reason why I could not transfer, to my iPOD, any of the songs from the new Foo Fighters CD "In your honor" which I purchased. This in turn caused me to have to download the songs off of a P2P system so I could listen to the songs, I legally purchased, on my iPOD.
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Isn´t downloading a track off p2p that you own on Cd technically legal?

-wil
 
pigwalk said:
Isn´t downloading a track off p2p that you own on Cd technically legal?

-wil
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Apparently not, since it is a hacked song, IE the copy protection has been removed.
 
Now this is an interesting problem from an admin stand point. I forgot if you had to be an Admin for this to install, but, regardless we have some app's that requires users to have admin rights (argh!, and no Run As doesn't work properly with them either). Now traditionally our company has been lax on things like playing music CD's in their computer while working, but I must wonder consequences this has?

If this, or other root-kits off of a music CD may possibly introduce security hazard, and apparently could introduce other problems, this might require tighter controls. I am also interested to see if this rootkit installs in Longhorn?
 
It kind of worries me that this Sony thing being such big news is going to encourage more asshats to take this route in fucking people over...
 
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