MS preps DRM hack fix
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Papering over the cracks Microsoft is working on closing a loophole that creates a means to strip usage restriction from music files wrapped in its DRM technology. A program called FairUse4WM, recently posted on the internet, allows users to bypass Microsoft's Digital Rights Management (DRM) system.â¦
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Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O released on  Tuesday a patch for its latest "critical" rated security flaw  affecting its Windows, Office and developer tools software  programs.
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Microsoft Corp. has acknowledged the existence of a program circulating on the Internet that could circumvent its copy protection for online music, but said it was working on a fix.
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Microsoft is working to patch a security flaw in its word-processing software that is being used in targeted cyberattacks.
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Microsoft Corp.  released on Tuesday a patch for its latest "critical" rated security flaw affecting its Windows, Office and developer tools software programs.
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SEATTLE -- Microsoft released a patch for its latest &quot;critical&quot; rated security flaw affecting its Windows, Office and developer tools software programs, the company said Tuesday.
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A bug in Microsoft&#39;s Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 and Proxy Server 2.0 can let hackers spoof Web content, such as a trusted site, with their own fake content, the Redmond
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A member of the Doom9 Forum known only as &quot;Divine Tao&quot; claims to have defeated Microsoft&#39;s Digital Rights Management (DRM) platform for securing the distribution of digital media files over the Internet. According to other Forum members who have already downloaded it, the new utility program for PCs running Windows XP and Vista not only works wonderfully but can even run on Microsoft&#39;s Zune player.
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Is Microsoft's anti-malware giveaway part of a master plan to flush out software pirates?
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Security experts warned on Wednesday that &quot;exploit code&quot; has been released for the critical flaw discovered in the way Windows and other Microsoft products handle JPEG images (see our previous coverage).
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Blog: Microsoft revises one of its critical security bulletins from patch Tuesday, now including a fix for Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has won a patent for a digital-watermarking technology that could be used to protect the rights of content owners even when digital music is distributed without DRM protection.  The technology, called "stealthy audio watermarking," inserts and detects watermarks in audio signals that can identify the content producer, "providing a signature that is embedded in the audio signal and cannot be removed," according to a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trade Organization (USPTO). The application for U.S. patent 7,266,697 was filed May 3, 2004, by Darko Kirovski and Henrique Malvar, both of whom work at Microsoft Research. Malvar is a Microsoft distinguished engineer and managing director of Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, and Kirovski is a researcher there. Microsoft currently has DRM technology called Windows Media DRM that encrypts audio files and protects them from misuse or unauthorized redistribution. The company has traditionally been an outspoken proponent of using DRM to protect owners of digital content, though it said earlier this year it would consider selling DRM-free songs online after rival Apple struck a deal with EMI Group to do so. Forensic digital watermarking technology like the technology Microsoft has patented doesn't encrypt files the way DRM technology does or prevent people from unauthorized use. However, it can be used to prove who owns the content of the digital file by encoding a file with a unique digital signature. That means illegally traded songs could be tracked back to the original purchaser, allowing authorities to identify illegal sharers and serving as a deterrent. The technology could also be used to track files for royalty distribution. In fact, Apple has been inserting simple watermarks into digital audio files that include personal information about the purchaser on some files sold over iTunes so those files can be traced back to their purchaser in the case of unauthorized distribution. However, Microsoft's watermark is much more intrinsic to the file and cannot be stripped out easily by hackers, like Apple's can, said J. Alex Halderman, a computer science PhD candidate at Princeton University who specializes in DRM technology. "It's much harder for people to remove from the recording," he said. The trick for these watermarks to be effective for digital music files, however, is that they must be inaudible and thus undetectable by those listening to the files, which has been difficult for those who have tried to create this technology in the past, Halderman said. Indeed, in their filing, Kirovski and Malvar acknowledged that to work properly, the watermarks must not only be inaudible, but also "must be scattered throughout the file in such a way that they cannot be identified and manipulated" and "be robust enough so that it can withstand normal changes to the file, such as reductions from ... compression algorithms." Microsoft Tuesday declined to comment on how it plans to use the watermark technology it has patented. However, Microsoft Research already has licensed similar yet non-forensic watermarking technology to a company called Activated Content, which is using the technology to insert and extract non-secure data into audio files.
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I can't urge you strongly enough to read the article entitled How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In. It details how Microsoft has built into Vista the "trusted computing" ability to lock down Office files via DRM such that no unauthorized document reader will be able to decrypt and read them. This is perhaps one of the biggest hidden weapons Microsoft has in its arsenal that could sabotage Linux and OpenOffice.org if Microsoft succeeds in its attempt to plug SUSE and all Novell's "interoperability" bonuses.   Think of this, if you will, as the Tivoization of Office files, only with malicious intent.  Microsoft could, indeed, open up the document format completely and swear before God that it will never sue anyone for patent infringement.  However, this does not prevent Microsoft from locking Office files in such a way that only Vista users can read them.  No one else will be able to do so without the proper authorization, thus rendering the open format and Microsoft compatibility entirely meaningless.
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Microsoft is battling a computer hacker who has repeatedly released a free program that strips away a software lock that protects digital movies and songs from being copied.
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Despite pleas from fair-use advocates, Microsoft plans to patch an application that can strip Windows Media files of potentially restrictive DRM (digital rights management) technology.
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A Chinese security group has released sample code to exploit two new unpatched flaws in Microsoft Windows. The advisory comes in the week before Christmas, a time when many companies and home users are least prepared to deal with the problems.
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Microsoft Corp. will combat piracy of  its flagship operating system by requiring Windows users to  verify that their copy of the software is genuine in order to  receive timely updates and security fixes, the world's largest  software maker said on Wednesday.