On Fri, 10 Aug 2001, Tim May wrote:
* The alleged use of "registration sniffers" which Microsoft was alleged (probably wrongly) to have used a few years ago to scan the hard disks of users of its products and then this information--it was alleged--could be retrieved by MS at some point. (I say probably wrongly for reasons discussed a few years ago. Still, it suggests some possibilities, which is why I mention it now.)
I would be indeed very surprised if Redmondware wasn't backdoored. It would be trivial to slip several hard-to-detect buffer overruns by putting a programmer mole on the team. It would be about as easy to slip such backdoors into an open source system, and be it in application layer.
* There were some cases years ago where Webcams, often built into monitors or left sitting on top of monitors permanently, could be turned-on remotely. Even more the case with built-in microphones. It'd be a hoot if the Feds are finding ways to turn on Webcams and microphones in homes and businesses. Even to leave trojans on a system for storing compressed snatches of audio.
If h4x0r d00dz can do it http://douglas.min.net/~drw/mirrors/altern.org/bo2kfun/best.html why can't feds do it? Given that NSA allegedly hires top of the crop, especially.
Maybe something like this is the bugging technology the FBI doesn't want to disclose in open court?
This would be rather reserved for *rare* cases involving heavy artillery, as stray packets leaking out would be intercepted by a smart firewall. Anyone knows to put sensitive materials on an air-gap protected low-emission machine (LCD instead of CRT, preferably a wearable with a private eye type of display), right? -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://www.lrz.de/~ui22204/">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBMTO : N48 10'07'' E011 33'53'' http://www.lrz.de/~ui22204 57F9CFD3: ED90 0433 EB74 E4A9 537F CFF5 86E7 629B 57F9 CFD3