Microsoft really, REALLY, screws the pooch this time
Correspondent:: "nu-monet v7.0"
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 11:13:49 -0700
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(And all because Microsoft cares more what other
corporations think than their customers.)
http://tinyurl.com/6d75a
Hackers are turning digital rights management features
of Microsoft's Windows Media Player against users by
fooling them into downloading massive amounts of spyware,
adware, and viruses, security firms said Tuesday.
According to anti-virus vendor Panda Software, two new
Trojan horses -- dubbed WmvDownloader.a and WmvDownloader.b
-- have been planted in video files seeded to peer-to-peer
file-sharing networks like eMule and KaZaA. The Trojans take
advantage of the new anti-piracy features in Windows Media
Player 10 and Windows XP SP2 to trick users, said Panda.
When a user tries to play a protected Windows media file,
the anti-piracy technology demands a valid license; if that
license is not stored locally, the player looks for it on
the Internet so the user can download or purchase it.
However, these Trojans only "pretend to download the
corresponding license from certain Web pages," said Panda
in its online alert. "What they actually do is redirect
the user to other Internet addresses from which they
download a large number of adware, spyware, dialers, and
other viruses."
Others, including Kaspersky Labs and Ben Edelman, a Harvard
student and spyware researcher, have confirmed the effects
of the two Trojans.
Edelman's test of one of the Trojans on a clean PC
demonstrated its impact.
"I pressed 'Yes' once to allow the installation. My computer
quickly became contaminated with the most spyware programs I
have ever received in a single sitting...all told, the
infection added 58 folders, 786 files, and an incredible
11,915 registry entries to my computer."
--
"Mars was destroyed with weapons from the future.
There, does that make you feel any better?"
-- nu-monet
Correspondent:: nikolai kingsley
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 10:44:24 +1100
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> However, these Trojans only "pretend to download the
> corresponding license from certain Web pages," said Panda
> in its online alert. "What they actually do is redirect
> the user to other Internet addresses from which they
> download a large number of adware, spyware, dialers, and
> other viruses."
there's a particular expression people get on their faces; the best
example i can think of is on the face of Gorman, the inexperienced
Marine commander from "Aliens", when he was told where his Marines were
and why they couldn't use their guns. "Great. that's just great."
someone at Microsoft has that expression on their face *right* *now*.