Load one physical CD, get two icons on my desktop
I know all this Sony rootkit/DRM stuff has made me paranoid. I loaded my Sarah McLachlan CD into my Mac (a single CD), and two different CDs appear on my desktop (see the screenshot on the left.)
One apparently is the music aspect of the CD and the other is the computer aspect of the CD. Look inside the former, and you see a bunch of AIFF files. Look inside the latter and you see a folder structure, including two executables!
Probably totally innocuous, right? Wait the CD is from Arista records. Any connection to Sony? Is it loading a rootkit?I dunno. Paranoid.
Comments
It's a Mac - nothing can install a rootkit without prompting you for a password first. It's not bulletproof, but MacOSX is waaaaay more evil resistant than That Other Big OS...
Posted by: D'Arcy Norman | December 22, 2005 12:08 AM
> Is it loading a rootkit?I dunno. Paranoid.
Mac OS X, like NeXTstep, doesn't automatically run software off filesystems when they're mounted. (In fact, by default Mac OS X ignores permissions on removable media.)
Posted by: Chris Hanson | December 22, 2005 01:14 AM
Pito--Macs have always handled hybrid CDs (CDs with both audio and data sessions) this way. I had a copy of Sarah McLachlan's Freedom Sessions that worked the same way back in 1995 or 1996.
For your other question, yes, Arista is a subsidiary of Sony BMG. However, when Mirrorball was released Arista was actually using the data layer to add value to the CD, not take it away. So the extra volume contains multimedia content (according to one site, the content consists of "a CD-ROM catalogue that contains order forms for everything from CDs and videos to temporary tattoos and gift certificates for Sarah merchandise, in addition to the usual web links"). Nothing to worry about. For more questions about the Sony BMG rootkit stuff, check out my Boycott Sony blog (http://www.boycottsony.us).
Posted by: Tim Jarrett | January 3, 2006 02:07 PM