Fyodor has every right to tell them to fuck off. This is simple backstabbing now matter how you look at it.
What makes me wonder is if the right people will get enraged enough to do something drastic if drastic measures are required. Truthfully I'm almost betting that there is a law or two broken here. Someone like Fyodor or anyone using that service ought to find a talented and ambitious lawyer to look over the case. A class action lawsuit is definately applicaible if a case against even a single law can be made. On Dec 8, 2011 3:32 AM, <mu...@rubos.com> wrote: > ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- > Subject: Updates on Download.Com caught adding malware to Nmap installer > From: "Fyodor" <fyo...@insecure.org> > Date: Tue, December 6, 2011 11:11 pm > To: nmap-hack...@insecure.org > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Hi Folks. A lot has happened since yesterday's email about > Download.com's antics (http://seclists.org/nmap-hackers/2011/5) and I > wanted to send a quick update. > > First of all, several people complained about my angry tone and my > telling Download.com to "F*ck" themselves. I appologize to anyone > offended. But if you ever spend more than 14 years creating free > software as a gift to the community, only to have it used as bait by a > giant corporation to infect your users with malware, then you may > understand my rage. > > The good news is that many users are sick and tired of having their > machines hijacked by malware. Especially by CNET Download.Com, which > still says on their own adware policy page: > > "In your letters, user reviews, and polls, you told us bundled > adware was unacceptable--no matter how harmless it might be. We want > you to know what you're getting when you download from CNET > Download.com, and no other download site can promise that." > --http://www.cnet.com/2723-13403_1-461-16.html > > Um, what people WANT when they download Nmap is Nmap itself. Not to > have their searches redirected to Bing and their home page changed to > Microsoft's MSN. > > Speaking of which, Microsoft emailed me today. They said that they > didn't know they were sponsoring CNET to trojan open source software, > and that they have stopped doing it. But the trojan installer uses > your Internet connection to obtain more "special offers" from CNET, > and they immediately switched to installing a "Babylon toolbar" and > search engine redirect instead. Then CNET removed that and are now > promoting their own "techtracker" tool. Apparently the heat is so > high that even malware vendors are refusing to have any more part in > CNET's antics! But if CNET isn't stopped, the malware vendors will > come crawling back eventually and CNET will be there to receive them. > > There have been dozens of news articles in the last day and hundreds > of outraged comments on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. In the midst > of all this terrible PR, Download.com went in last night and quietly > switched their Nmap downloads back to our real installer. At least > for now. But that isn't enough--they are still infecting the > installers for thousands of other packages! For example, they have > currently infected the installer for a children's coloring book app: > > http://download.cnet.com/Kea-Coloring-Book/3000-2102_4-10360620.html > > Have they no shame at all??! > > I've created a page with the situation background, links to the news > articles, and the latest updates: > > http://insecure.org/news/download-com-fiasco.html > > Feel free to share it. Together, I hope we can get Download.Com to > apologize and cease this reprehensible behavior! > > Cheers, > Fyodor > _______________________________________________ > Sent through the nmap-hackers mailing list > http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-hackers > Archived at http://seclists.org/nmap-hackers/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. > Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html > Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/ >
_______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
