We're adware-compatible!

David Gerard · Post by **David Gerard** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:21 pm

http://philosecurity.org/2009/01/12/int ... are-author

The inherent insecurity of Windows is deeply frightening. I hope we
don't emulate it *too* well.

- d.

James McKenzie · Post by **James McKenzie** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:05 pm

David Gerard wrote:

http://philosecurity.org/2009/01/12/int ... are-author

The inherent insecurity of Windows is deeply frightening. I hope we
don't emulate it *too* well.

This is indeed scary but also very interesting that a programmer at his
level could exploit Wine.

James McKenzie

3vi1 · Post by **3vi1** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 8:49 am

I wouldn't put too much stock in the braggings of an ad-ware author. Let's see what happens when he sticks a null in the middle of the Wine registry.

People use Wine to run "must-have" or "no-equivalent-Linux-program" applications like productivity suites and games. There's very little reason to install some crapware screensaver or the other apps typically bundled with adware.

And, if Wine does get infected (which would say something good about its compatibility), just blow away the prefix and either recreate it or restore it from a backup (BackupPC rocks!). Installing different apps into their own prefixes makes this even easier. And, it's not near the hassle that people go through when a Windows box gets owned.

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:02 am

3vi1 wrote:I wouldn't put too much stock in the braggings of an ad-ware author. Let's see what happens when he sticks a null in the middle of the Wine registry.

Should work just fine. Wineserver is 100% unicode.

Gert van den Berg · Post by **Gert van den Berg** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:07 pm

On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 5:02 PM, vitamin <[email protected]> wrote:

3vi1 wrote:
I wouldn't put too much stock in the braggings of an ad-ware author. Let's see what happens when he sticks a null in the middle of the Wine registry.
Should work just fine. Wineserver is 100% unicode.

What about the .reg files? They seem like ASCII.... (But it could
probably be UTF-8 as well)

Gert

vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:39 pm

Gert van den Berg wrote:What about the .reg files? They seem like ASCII.... (But it could probably be UTF-8 as well)

They contain binary data as well only represented in a way readable in ascii (as byte sequences).

3vi1 · Post by **3vi1** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:02 pm

vitamin wrote: Should work just fine. Wineserver is 100% unicode.

I'll take your word for it. But, at worst you see a key with a \0 or something in the name? That would make it stick out more than hide itself, and deleting it in Wine is a breeze.

But I digress...