Microsoft to slay Sony's sinister software
Microsoft to slay Sony's sinister software
Nov 15, 2005: It just isn't Sony's month. The embarrassing saga that is its insidious Digital Rights Management (DRM) software just keeps on going.
Now, along with accusations of malware, impending lawsuits and consumer fury, Microsoft has announced that it is updating its security tools to detect and remove Sony's shambolic software.
Last month Mark Russinovich of SysInternals discovered through a long an arduous investigation that Sony's Digital Rights Management (DRM) software had installed a rootkit on his machine when he had put in one of their CD's.
The software is designed to limit the amount of times a CD can be copied to a computer, theoretically controlling excessive copying by consumers. However DRM software can often be easily circumvented, so in order to prevent this Sony used a rootkit to cloak its software in windows. Rootkits open up many vulnerabilities and space for malicious code to enter a system, they are often used by hackers for example to cover their tracks.
Antivirus companies Sophos and Trend Micro have both reported finding new Trojans written specifically to take advantage of the holes Sony's DRM software has opened up. What is more worrying, is that many consumers will be unaware of the threat posed by the software and install it on their home and potentially office pc's.
Even if one is made aware of the threat, there is no way to easily uninstall it without requesting specific instructions from Sony. That is until Microsoft releases new detection and removal tools.
"We are concerned about any malware and its impact on our customers' machines. Rootkits have a clearly negative impact on not only the security, but also the reliability and performance of their systems." Said Jason Grams, group program manager for Microsoft's anti-malware team in his blog earlier this week. "We have analyzed this software, and have determined that in order to help protect our customers we will add a detection and removal signature for the rootkit component of the XCP software to the Windows AntiSpyware beta."
Microsoft is planning to release an update to it's spyware sniffer Windows AntiSpyware, as well as it's online anti-virus service Windows Live Safety Center. No release date for either has been set as yet. Microsoft will also add the Sony rootkit to the worms, Trojans, and viruses detected and deleted by Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.
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