Three years ago, I warned about music CDs that were deliberately corrupted by manufacturers in order to prevent copying. Because such CDs were really not CDs at all—they violate the published standard for music CDs—some computers had trouble handling them, and the corrupted discs could cause those computers to crash.
Now Sony Music, in an attempt to stem piracy, is putting out a new form of CD containing copy protection code that hides itself on your computer. The software, which is technologically similar to spyware and computer viruses, has no uninstall feature, and attempting to remove it manually can render your CD drive inoperable.
The Washington Post reports:
The CDs in question make use of a technique employed by software programs known in security circles as “rootkits,” a set of tools attackers can use to maintain control over a computer system once they have broken in.
People may differ over what exactly a rootkit is, but the most basic ones are designed to ensure that regular PC monitoring commands and tools cannot see whatever has been planted on the victim’s machine. Because rootkits generally get their hooks into the most basic level of an operating system, it is sometimes easier (and safer) to reformat the affected computer’s hard drive than to surgically remove the intruder.
Sony’s anti-piracy program installer pops up when you drop one of these content-protected CDs into your drive. If you agree to install it, there is no “uninstall” feature. [Mark Russinovich, who discovered Sony’s rootkit software,] was able to use his knowledge of rootkits and the Windows operating system to zero in on the offending driver files needed to run the software. Unfortunately, he found that removing the program also erased the system files that power his CD-ROM drive, rendering it useless.
Russinovich also discovered that the Sony program drivers are configured to load themselves in “Safe Mode” (a diagnostic mode of Windows that is useful for fixing problems with the operating system), which he said could make system recovery extremely difficult if any of the program drivers has a bug that prevents the system from booting.
