Sony DRM Uses Rootkit Techniques
New digital rights management technology shipping on music CDs by Sony Corp. of America/Bertelsmann AG artists employs stealthy, rootkit-style techniques to hide from users, according to a security expert.
The new technology, which Sony has dubbed “sterile burning,” manipulates the Windows core processing center, or “kernel,” to make the DRM almost totally undetectable on Windows systems.
These DRM files are almost impossible to remove without fouling Windows systems and could be used by malicious hackers to hide their own programs, according to Mark Russinovich, chief software architect at Winternals Software Inc., a company that makes administrative software tools.
Marc Russinovich of Sysinternals made the discovery. He has well documented steps on his blog of all what he had to go through to remove it. From the look of it, you can really mess up your computer trying to get rid of it…
Basically what they are doing is exactly what malware and spyware creators are doing.. which is illegal. Expect Sony to get some very bad press about this as well as getting their a$$es sued off.
I’m in Madison today and tomorrow.. I’ve been watching NCIS, My Name is Earl and The Office.
I love NCIS.. it’s a damn good show and Earl is a pretty good show as well, though I’ve only seen a two of those episodes… then you have The Office. I watched it last season when it debuted and it totally sucked…. Now, this version of The Office is based off the British version which is funny as crap. This was the first one I watched this season and it was much better then the one I saw this year… so I don’t know.
Flando left me a message today…. he found out that at his new job he gets paid only once a month… it’s a school after all.. So he has about 30 days until he gets another paycheck… Funny stuff. 
Ooo, Law and Order SVU is starting… supposed to be a bigtime awesome episode the commerical says… we’ll find out.
UPDATE: Holy crap… that was a good episode… I wonder if all SVU episodes are good.
Watching Family Guy on Cartoon Network… Laughing my a$$ off the first 10 minutes…
9 users commented in " Why I will never buy anything Sony makes again… Plus random thoughts.. "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackHey Dorf…
Do you watch Earl because it’s funny or because of Jamie Pressly?
I watched Earl because of her.. shes hot. So Dorf I will ask the same question as Heather.
I don’t get to see a lot of weekday TV, but I sure love it when I catch Earl!
I watch it cuz of both. Jason Lee is the shit. Loved him since Mallrats (my fav movie).. and Jamie Pressly.. whoa… Poison Ivy III anyone? = )
.. actually it was called Poison Ivy New Suduction .. or something like that.
I also watched The Office last night.. 1st time for me. It was pretty funny - when they moved that guys desk into the shitter, and then he answered his phone and stuff. Funny.
I will admit she is pretty hot… but I would have to say Nadine Velazquez, who plays Catalina, is the chick for me.
If you like lawyer shows, catch Boston Legal. William Shatner is freakin great in it.
PS-I listened to the voice mail……that was hilarious. If I were you though, which I’m not, I wouldn’t call Wez anymore. Ever. For fear that he would do that to me.
That Sony shit pisses me off. I quit using IE unless absolutely necessary because of the spyware. I use firefox. It screws your whole computer up. Sometimes my mouse would even quit moving because of it! I have even quit visiting some blogs I really like because they put so much shit in their sidebars that I get popups, spyware and malware just opening them. Thank you for sharing that. The bastards.
God, I sound like my dad.
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