Sony in Another Rootkit Imbroglio

It looks like one of Sony’s USB flash drives—the USM-F series—creates a hidden directory when you install the fingerprint reading software on your Windows PC. The problem? It doesn’t show up in normal file browsing, doesn’t inform you that it’s creating it, and can serve as the home for—wait for it—malicious rootkits. Even worse, “third-party” rootkits have been spotted in the wild using the hidden Sony folder. [Computer World via TechDirt]

1. [Halloween Jack]

   Next up: Sony comes out with a My First MP3 Player that injects microscopic explosives into childrens’ heads that will detonate if they don’t break into the Manhattan Maximum Security Prison Island and rescue the President.

2. [lummox]

   Just to clarify a bit: the Sony software doesn’t create a home for malicious rootkits – it itself is a rootkit. It creates a home for various malicious pieces of code that don’t have to bother implementing the rootkit technology themselves (if they want to hide from the operating system) as they can use the existing rootkit from Sony.