Nuclear Beef

By Thomas C Greene

According to a recent thread at BugTraq, an executable file is automatically and silently installed on the user's machine when the CD is loaded. The file is said to be a driver that prevents users from ripping the CD (and perhaps others), and attacks both Windows boxen and Macs.
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On Windows, when a CD is loaded, a text file called autorun.inf is read,and any instructions within it are executed. In this case, the machine is instructed to install some manner of DRM driver that prevents copying. We haven't seen either the .inf file or any of the executables, so we can't say how or at what level it accomplishes this - or if indeed it actually does accomplish this.

But assuming that the unconfirmed reports are accurate, we have here a media company infecting users' machines silently with a file that affects a computer's functionality, without first obtaining informed consent: a likely violation of pretty much every jurisdiction's anti-hacking laws.

Wow, that's one quality piece of "journalism" there, Thomas Greene!

I mean, how would he have been able to obtain a copy of the Beastie Boys CD to verify this? Must have been prohibitively difficult, which is why his editor had to go to press without verifying, you know, the thing that the article is about. It's not like Greene could have gone down to the music store and bought a copy, right?

Amazon Release Date :
Audio CD - June 15, 2004

Inadequately Researched Article Publishing Date :
Published Wednesday 23rd June 2004 11:18 GMT

Stunning.

The infected CD is being distributed worldwide except in the USA and UK, which prevents us from giving a firsthand report. However, according to hearsay, we gather that the Windows version exploits the 'autorun' option, and that the Mac version affects the auto play option.

Oops. My general point about reporting on things a journalist cannot personally verify stands, but I acknowledge that his laziness is not as extreme as it previously appeared. I still believe that Greene should verify matters of fact before reporting on them, as any journalist should. I'm not a journalist, but I'm quite sure I could aquire a non US/UK version of this CD given a week or so.