Hackers Tune In To Windows Media Player

11 Jan, 2005 at 12:46am ET Article published in Tech

Hackers are using the newest DRM technology in Microsoft’s Windows Media Player to install spyware, adware, dialers and computer viruses on unsuspecting PC users.

Security researchers have detected the appearance of two new Trojans, Trj/WmvDownloader.A and Trj/WmvDownloader.B, in video files circulating on P2P (peer-to-peer) networks.

According to Panda Software, both Trojans take advantage of the new Windows anti-piracy technology to trick users into downloading spyware and adware applications.

“When a user tries to play a protected Windows media file, this technology demands a valid license. If the license is not stored on the computer, the application will look for it on the Internet, so that the user can acquire it directly or buy it,” Panda Software explained.

An unsuspecting user attempting to download the DRM (digital rights management) license will instead be redirected to a Web site that loads a large quantity of adware, spyware, modem dialers and other viruses, the company said in an advisory.

Source: eWeek

Comments

12 Jan 2005 ~ 12:09am Omatic810 Oof, ouch. Better be careful on Kazaa, guys.
12 Jan 2005 ~ 12:26am KingFish better get the heck off of kazaa nowadays
12 Jan 2005 ~ 12:49am Thrax using WMP for music is beyond me.
12 Jan 2005 ~ 12:55am primesuspect Really? That surprises me. It's pretty easy. You click "play" to play the song, "pause" to pause it, and "stop" to stop it. You can also do forward AND back. You can shuffle and you can put songs in the order you want by doing this click and drag thing. It's very cool.

I thought someone as smart as you would have no trouble playing music in WMP.
12 Jan 2005 ~ 1:31am godzilla525

Thrax wrote:

using WMP for music is beyond me.

Ditto. I never cared much for DRM of any form, and Microsoft's claim that 64kbps WMA is CD quality is a complete lie. :shakehead

I can't even get decent results with WMA at 160kbps 2-pass VBR.
14 Jan 2005 ~ 6:24pm Shivian Media Player Classic all the way baby!
14 Jan 2005 ~ 6:38pm Thrax

godzilla525 wrote:

Ditto. I never cared much for DRM of any form, and Microsoft's claim that 64kbps WMA is CD quality is a complete lie. :shakehead

I can't even get decent results with WMA at 160kbps 2-pass VBR.

Even on a more technological level.. Microsoft strongarmed third-party, directly-integrated codec controls right out of WMP with WMP8. For example, with WMP6, Radium MP3 codec and AC3 Filter could have their levels, surround settings, DRC and gain adjusted in real time -- the raw audio output of the channels could be observed by accessing the codec interfaces from WMP.. Now you can't do that, it's a pathetic waste of time to even <i>try</i> to get decent audio out of WMP. And if you try to use WMP6, you don't have support for the newest WMA/WMV files which I play rarely but would nontheless like to have support for.

Media player classic, all the way.