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rgheck

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  1. As a Linux user, I was excited to see that the latest DVD Audio Extractor is available for Linux, but I was puzzled about the fact, when I installed it, that it requires certain "capabilities", as they are know, and started to investigate. Specifically, the program is capable, even when run as an ordinary user, of writing (or over-writing) arbitrary files, as if it were running as root. Further investigation showed that the program reads a file known as /etc/passwd, that contains a list of all users on the system. This is extremely suspicious and suggests that, as in the infamous Sony copy protection scandal, the program embeds some sort of rootkit. Probably, it is using this facility just to record the date of its first use in some hidden area of the disk. But the security risk here should be obvious. I have not investigated the program as closely on OSX, but I suspect the same is true there. I do not know about Windows, but of course Windows has a completely different security model (if one can call it that). I would advise not to install this program. If you need to extract audio from DVDs, find a copy of the old DVD Audio Explorer. It only runs on Windows, but you can run it on almost any old laptop.
  2. That's not a bad guess, but the libraries needed to get around the encryption are perfectly happy to run with normal privileges. That is certainly true of DVD rippers, which have to deal with CSS, too. E.g., VLC runs as a normal user, with no extra "capabilities", as they're known. If there's a need to write and read directly from the disc stream, this can be accomplished in other ways, that do not compromise security globally. All you have to do is change the permissions on that one device. I've seen that done with other programs. I suspect the elevated privileges are used for the purpose of writing and reading some hidden data that deals with the "trialware" aspect of the program. But it's extremely suspicious that, as I verified using the strace utility (which tells you about every call a program makes), DVD Audio Extractor reads the /etc/passwd file!! Someone want to explain that?! Remember the Sony copy protection rootkit scandal? I think they're doing something similar.
  3. I'd strongly recommend not using DVD Audio Extractor. I've investigated the program at some length and found that, on Mac and Linux, at least, it is using elevated privileges that in principle allow it to take control of the system. I.e., it's a massive security hole. The old DVD Audio Extractor still works perfectly well, though of course it's only for Windows.
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