From: John (OceanCity_at_mac.com)
Date: Thu Nov 10 2005 - 07:16:13 PST
11/9/05 Ed Kummel issued the following and I have taken literary
license to pass it along on a "Need to Know Basis" . . . ?
>Sony's root kit was rather inoccuous...it really didn't do anything
>dangerious in and of it's self to a computer...What makes it insidious
>is that it was written so that *ANY* file that was prefixed with $sys$
>would be hidden from any attempts to discover it. <----snipped---->
>it doesn't take much to slip in a rootkit under the guise of a
>Pamela Anderson Strip Poker game to lose all control of your *nix machine...
>Ed
>web/gadget guru
>http://newton.tek-ed.com (download Newton packages)
>Tony Morrow <gizmo1482_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>John wrote:
>
>"I'm not an expert, but I *did* stay at a Holiday Inn Express once..."
> --Holiday Inn Commercial
I'm not an expert either, but I play one on TV ;-)
As one of the rootkit blog-rags mentioned, the danger is _potentially_
greater than any semantic distinction.
I SERIOUSLY DOUBT that a multi-national long-standing enterprise such as
Sony would ever risk maliciously installing any malware in this or any
other way as their reputation is their most important asset. Unless they
are going belly-up, even though they are going thorough a very tough
period right now, they know never to use such a transparent questionable
ploy as installing bona fide "rootkits" even if their intentions were
nefarious.
I remember hearing about something very similar which Adobe was reported
to have done about 5-6 YEARS ago prior to the words rootkit, malware,
spyware, etc. became mainstream, whereby Adobe's application CD's
installed some code along with I believe PhotoShop that would send some
information [presumably serial or license numbers and names or whatever]
over the Net back to Adobe. Supposedly this information was warehoused
in Adobe's servers over the years for potential future license
infraction detection use, however Adobe wisely never openly pursued
anyone offending the legal licensing of their application(s) because
they knew any possible financial gain would be paled by the negative
backlash in public outcry, just as there are now some rumblings about
Sony's predicament. I believe Sony needs to come clean and do a full
reverse, as the general American and other populations around the world
are willing to forgive anyone ONCE for just about anything as long as
they fess up and start clean.
John
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