2mcabre
May 22nd, 2003, 03:09 PM
While true some think I am overly paranoid. I truly believe that we are being setup for the ultimate in spyware intrusion.
Think about it. What control/ software plug-in is most commonly installed on every computer?
Macromedia Shockwave and Flash Player.
Here's the problem.
[hr]
Flash Player has the ability to allow outside websites to use their own software to gain access to your webcams and your microphones. You are not informed of this prior to flash player being installed (or in most cases automatically updated…)
And even though since I have been pestering macromedia to cough up a solid statement concerning "Exploitability" they have refused to make an official statement, BUT have made it easier to find the settings instruction page, and have made a point to clarify on the TOS and EULA that Macromedia is in no way responsible for what 3rd parties do with their software (sounds like an admission of "exploitability" to me), they have also linked to separate uninstallers for both shockwave and flash players.
[hr]
Anyway, the "Potential" of exploitability is too high for this to not be considered spyware. Think about it. Sooner or later advertisers are going to figure out that we don't want ads, spam or pop-ups. So now what do they do?
Easy, exploit the Flash player control so that they can actually look into our lives and hear what we say and/ or how we react to a specific site.
Worse case scenario is that the XXX folks figure out how to exploit this so that they can "Really" peek into our private lives. Who knows? One day one of you may find yourself staring in the next "Amateur" adult video on-line at Dirty Dans!
:o
[hr]
OK Im done ranting. If even for shits and giggles you can include an installation block for this.
The clsid for this annoyance is…
D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000
http://www.macabre.cnchost.com/mm.jpg
And even though MM says they are not responsible for the downloaded content it's awful funny how the codebase comes from their own site…
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0" width="740" height="165">
All I know is I am sick and tired of getting stuck up on websites that are downloading this in the background, holding up the site and wasting my time, as I refuse to use any MM products till they publicly claim that this feature cannot be "exploited".
::) But you know they wont, they are counting on it to grow their sales of director tools etc. :o
[hr]
Think about it. What control/ software plug-in is most commonly installed on every computer?
Macromedia Shockwave and Flash Player.
Here's the problem.
[hr]
Flash Player has the ability to allow outside websites to use their own software to gain access to your webcams and your microphones. You are not informed of this prior to flash player being installed (or in most cases automatically updated…)
And even though since I have been pestering macromedia to cough up a solid statement concerning "Exploitability" they have refused to make an official statement, BUT have made it easier to find the settings instruction page, and have made a point to clarify on the TOS and EULA that Macromedia is in no way responsible for what 3rd parties do with their software (sounds like an admission of "exploitability" to me), they have also linked to separate uninstallers for both shockwave and flash players.
[hr]
Anyway, the "Potential" of exploitability is too high for this to not be considered spyware. Think about it. Sooner or later advertisers are going to figure out that we don't want ads, spam or pop-ups. So now what do they do?
Easy, exploit the Flash player control so that they can actually look into our lives and hear what we say and/ or how we react to a specific site.
Worse case scenario is that the XXX folks figure out how to exploit this so that they can "Really" peek into our private lives. Who knows? One day one of you may find yourself staring in the next "Amateur" adult video on-line at Dirty Dans!
:o
[hr]
OK Im done ranting. If even for shits and giggles you can include an installation block for this.
The clsid for this annoyance is…
D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000
http://www.macabre.cnchost.com/mm.jpg
And even though MM says they are not responsible for the downloaded content it's awful funny how the codebase comes from their own site…
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0" width="740" height="165">
All I know is I am sick and tired of getting stuck up on websites that are downloading this in the background, holding up the site and wasting my time, as I refuse to use any MM products till they publicly claim that this feature cannot be "exploited".
::) But you know they wont, they are counting on it to grow their sales of director tools etc. :o
[hr]