SONY DRM rootkit – the gift that keeps on giving



Well… I said, more legs than a centipede for this one…. It looks as though the uninstaller from Sony is an activex control that may have some SEVERE security implications. The ActiveX invokes a command to reboot the computer (RebootMachine). (Which is likely remotely exploitable). Also it appears to use an (InstallUpdate) download which could be exploitable AND if that’s not enough, a n ExecuteCode function which could crash the browser. It should be noted that the ActiveX uninstaller REMAINS ON THE SYSTEM after the SONY DRM ROOTKIT is removed, meaning that these functions would be available for remote exploit even after the XCP software is uninstalled.


Sunbelt blog had the link. Right now the author of the 1st link is looking for a link to the uninstaller so that the above can be verified. I suspect there’s still a bit more to come here as well…

Update 11-15

The securityfix has the story that today several groups of security and privacy experts are expected to announce findings of several serious security vulnerabilities in the XCP software, a search that has been going on in earnest since the rootkit was discovered.

From the article…

But wait, it gets … er … better. The researchers discovered a security flaw in XCP (which stands for “extended copyright protection”) that could afford attackers a window through which to break into computers running the software and install additional software or viruses.

There are some hints there about vulnerabilities with the uninstaller listed above, a link here gives the warning to not use Sony’s uninstaller.

   Send article as PDF   

Similar Posts