sony's rootkit exploit confirmed!

if sony or anyone else tries to tell you that the sony DRM rootkit is not a security risk, or that the security risk it poses is only "theoretical", tell 'em they're wrong and point 'em to this news item:

World of Warcraft hackers have confirmed that the hiding capabilities of Sony BMG's content protection software can make tools made for cheating in the online world impossible to detect. The software--deemed a "rootkit" by many security experts--is shipped with tens of thousands of the record company's music titles.

Blizzard Entertainment, the maker of World of Warcraft, has created a controversial program that detects cheaters by scanning the processes that are running at the time the game is played. Called the Warden, the anti-cheating program cannot detect any files that are hidden with Sony BMG's content protection, which only requires that the hacker add the prefix "$sys$" to file names.

so if you like to play world of warcraft and you really want to cheat, all you need to do is buy a sony copy-protected cd! that's cheap!

i actually heard about this yesterday, before my previous post on the subject, but i didn't understand what those WoW hackers were talking about.¶