Digital Home Thoughts: More Insanity: Rootkit Delivery via DVD

"Heise Online is reporting about yet another example of the ever-warming relationship of copy protection and rootkit technologies. The affair started with the digital rights management system Sony BMG was using to protect audio CD's. Now, we can also confirm (thanks to Rüdiger from our German office!) that at least the German DVD release of the movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" contains a copy protection mechanism which uses rootkit-like cloaking technology . The Settec Alpha-DISC copy protection system used on the DVD contains user-mode rootkit-like features to hide itself. The system will hide it's own process, but does not appear to hide any files or registry entries. This makes the feature a bit less dangerous, as anti-virus products will still be able to scan all files on the disk. However, as we note in our article on rootkits, it's not that uncommon for real malware to only hide their processes."



Good grief! Just when I thought the entertainment industry couldn't possibly do anything more to piss off their customers (I should really learn by now, shouldn't I?), the German Mr. & Mrs. Smith DVD release contains copyright protection that installs itself at a low level, similar to a rootkit (the distinctions are a bit blurry at the moment). This is insane - the people buying the DVD are very likely not the ones ripping it and uploading it. Most people that are willing to pay for a movie are not the types to rip one and share it with the world. I'm already holding my breath in fear every time I put a new CD in my PC, now I have to do the same thing with my DVDs? Not cool.