News flash: Sony f*cks up bad

Nyamaza · Post by **Nyamaza** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:52 am

((warning, very well explained, but also tech heavy blog article ahead)) http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/

To sum up, for those less tech savvy, Sony music's last 20 album releases or so install a player onto your computer in order to be played on a windows machine. The user is never informed that core pieces of their operating system are also being altered, which cause any fire, folder, process, registry value, etc that begins with $SYS$ to be completely invisble to even most of the operating system. There is NO uninstall option for this change (an uninstall application can be obtained through a truely byzantine process) , the change itself is sloppy and can cause system crashes, Sony is potentially informed every time a protected cd is played ivia this code, and virii and trojan horse programs have already been released that exploit the fact that this install keeps the OPERATING SYSTEM, much less any antivirus software, from seeing certain files.

Now, I work tech support for Sony Vaio, through a tech support firm, so I only indirectly employed by Sony, but frankly, this maks ME feel dirty being THAT close to a royal screwup like this.

oh, and

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/1 ... index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/1 ... index.html

Frankly, I wish the media was more over this. There is some coverage at least, but frankly, this kind of thing is frightening. Imagine the sort of exploit being done in the virus story, mixed with the sasser/MSBlaster worm. And they say it doesn't pose a security issue.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 7:46 am

Well that sucks.

I think I should point out that when I visit the forums at work, half the banner ads are blocked by the firewall with the explanation: "Spyware", and at least once I've seen "Malicious sites" as an explanation.

Political action concerning computer issues is just not going to be televised, I think. People who get their news through the idiot box are not exactly the most computer savvy demographic, and that's BEFORE you make the lowest-common-denominator assumption necessary for broadcast news.

Sylvain · Post by **Sylvain** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 12:24 pm

Things like that will certainly do nothing to dispel the widespread conspiracy theory that maintains that all personal computers are constantly being spied upon!

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 2:48 pm

I assure you, they ARE.

However, mostly they're being spied upon by corporations trying to figure out what kind of shit you'll buy next.

Sylvain · Post by **Sylvain** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 4:45 pm

Well, at least I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that they'll blush themselves silly when they find out!...

Hampster · Post by **Hampster** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 5:58 pm

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2005/ ... e-you.html

They have the right to do this, I have the right to not buy Sony music.

though this is why they lose copyright cases whenever they're before the SCC.

Alfador · Post by **Alfador** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:24 am

I'm thinking this isn't going to get the attention it DESERVES until someone writes a virus that takes advantage of this hack to bring a few thousand systems TO THEIR KNEES.

Micro_Fur · Post by **Micro_Fur** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 2:41 pm

After finally getting through the whole report I had a VERY strong urge to bathe, even though I am a fairly benign white-hat myself, this is the kind of junk that makes us [white-hats] look just as bad as the tempermental greys and blacks. No offense to you Kesh, but I alyays had a deep seated hatred for Sony America, now I know why, and I feel verry sorry for you having to serve that evil giant just to survive.

The_Fox · Post by **The_Fox** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 2:51 pm

Micro_Fur wrote:After finally getting through the whole report I had a VERY strong urge to bathe, even though I am a fairly benign white-hat myself, this is the kind of junk that makes us [white-hats] look just as bad as the tempermental greys and blacks. No offense to you Kesh, but I alyays had a deep seated hatred for Sony America, now I know why, and I feel verry sorry for you having to serve that evil giant just to survive.

I think you mean Nyamaza, not Kesh.

- Jarylan

Andrick · Post by **Andrick** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 1:50 pm

allan_ecker wrote:I assure you, they ARE.

However, mostly they're being spied upon by corporations trying to figure out what kind of shit you'll buy next.

...

Then I'd like to know what computer they're looking at to think it's mine considering the stuff I've been getting: a free year's subscription to Family Circle magazine; personalized flyers for geriatric services, breast augmentation (and it's a little jarring to see "Ms." in front of my very masculine name), and pediatric medicine; and enticements to vegetarian eateries.

Micro_Fur · Post by **Micro_Fur** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 3:43 pm

The_Fox wrote:
Micro_Fur wrote:After finally getting through the whole report I had a VERY strong urge to bathe, even though I am a fairly benign white-hat myself, this is the kind of junk that makes us [white-hats] look just as bad as the tempermental greys and blacks. No offense to you Kesh, but I alyays had a deep seated hatred for Sony America, now I know why, and I feel verry sorry for you having to serve that evil giant just to survive.
I think you mean Nyamaza, not Kesh.

- Jarylan

Whops, now don't I feel like an idiot!

Micro_fur - Ok, maybe you should ignore me now.

MightyFoxling · Post by **MightyFoxling** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 9:10 am

Ech, yeah I heard about this. I'm doing a paper for my macroeconomics class concerning copyright, and personal rights infringement in technology. My dad (consequently my teacher) brought this up to me as a possible source.

Stupid Sony, though. Man.

Andrick · Post by **Andrick** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 11:08 am

Alfador wrote:I'm thinking this isn't going to get the attention it DESERVES until someone writes a virus that takes advantage of this hack to bring a few thousand systems TO THEIR KNEES.

The force is strong with this one.

Alfador · Post by **Alfador** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 6:52 pm

Andrick wrote:
Alfador wrote:I'm thinking this isn't going to get the attention it DESERVES until someone writes a virus that takes advantage of this hack to bring a few thousand systems TO THEIR KNEES.
The force is strong with this one.

PWNED!