Software follows a life cycle on a computer, which begins with installation and ends in uninstallation. Uninstallation may happen for various reasons, new version of the software, free disk space for other things. Removing software should be less painful than installation. Software that is difficult to remove is evil. Viruses and spyware/malware typically make the removal process as painful as possible. Oddly enough Symantec does the same thing with their consumer grade “Security Software”.
While working on a computer for a neighbor, I came across a few tool bars and other general junk installed on the computer. Even though tool bars usually are not spyware, there is no reason to have the Google, Yahoo, and ask tool bars installed plus a few others. The uninstallers were one or two click installers, pretty standard stuff. Then came the odd software. No one knew what it was, but it was sitting on the installed applications list. Before uninstalling, the user was prompted to fill out a captcha to prove that they were not a computer. After filling it out the uninstall process proceeded as usual. A second software package had the same sort of thing, but it was a tad more sophisticated. It had animated noise bars. Either way, why are these software writers afraid of automated removal of their software? It is pretty obvious, they wrote malware.
What did it do? Well, the obvious thing was auto spawning and eating up 50% of the CPU resources (the system has a Pentium D 820 processor). It disguised itself as Internet Explorer (Why anyone still uses IE is beyond comprehension). Additionally it would cause periodic pop ups and a odd message alert prompt stating “Windows Explorer” when entering Control Panel.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]
Announcing the immediate availability of Iframe-B-Gone 1.1.0. This new version’s interface matches better with WordPress 2.5′s new dashboard. A dashboard widget performs quick scans of the default terms (yes terms, delimited by comments) and counts how many infections have been cleaned. Note that even with multiple search terms possible, only automatic removal of iframe tags is fully supported. That said, the WordPress Exploit Scanner may be a more valuable tool even though it does not automatically protect against iframe injections.
The new version is available on the Iframe-B-Gone project page.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]
Long, long ago, one was a big time peer-to-peer technology enthusiast. Gnucleus was one’s client of choice and the code base that one first dipped into C++ with. When Shareaza went open source, a jumping of ships happened, Gnucleus hadn’t been updated very often as the core was separated into GnucDNA and the GUI became stale. At one point of time, in a not that great move, one had the desire to build a new p2p network. A more secure, scalable, and stable network was the goal. The only thing that came to light was a makeshift specification for a alternate source system which some of it’s principles have made it to some modern clients. Though the entire idea was never played out due to a lack of time, and a shift in interests. Overtime one lost touch with the p2p community, and frankly the fact that some of the crappy p2p clients still exist is amazing.
When checking up on the Shareaza project one learned of the malicious attempt at stealing the Shareaza name (domain, brand, and trademark). Shareaza was never trademarked as it’s an Open Source project and shouldn’t require such protections. After the La Societe Des Producteurs De Phonogrammes En France (SPPF, France’s version of the MAFIA (err. RIAA)) made false legal claims against a non-active former developer of Sharaza, the domain mysteriously transferred hands. The hijackers gave the domain to Discordia Ltd, a company that preys on user stupidity and use the law to stiff arm their enemies. Now Discordia Ltd filed for registration of the Shareaza trademark. Funny how you can be the original user of a word, even coin it, only to have scum steal it from you. Hell, it’s funny that you can rip the previous site design from a person, along with a logo that is close enough to copyright violation and get away with it (See Exhibit 1.). That is as long as you’re in bed with the Media (e.g., RIAA, MPAA, NBC, Fox/News Corp., etc.).
Comparing the true website for Shareaza with the hijacked one, it is blatantly apparent that Discordia Ltd. is infringing on the copyright of the Sharaza development team. The logo is identical, the website layout employees the same color scheme and style of the true site. They even go as far as to claim copyright on the site all the way back from 1999. That happens to be an illegal claim as Shareaza did not even exist back then. By acting in a malicious and deceiving manner Discordia Ltd has opened itself up to any copyright lawsuit brought upon it. Hopefully some kind individual will file the necessary DMCA notices and accompanying lawsuits for copyright infringement should Discordia Ltd fail to comply with the requests of said individual.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]