[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
If he doesn't reinstall first...
I remember talking to a guy who was selling this "phone home" software
and he was saying that it will stay on the system (and stay active)
even after a format and reinstall. He also said that it would keep
working even if someone installed Linux over the top. Needless to say
I didn't believe him but I still wonder if such a thing is possible?
Apparently, this product does just that. Those are the claims, anyway. The
only way to stop it working is to physically replace the hard drive which
is in the machine.
YMMV - I haven't actually had one stolen to test it yet. :)
Sounds like marketing BS to me!
Either the OS/hardware can access the area, so
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda
erases all trace of the lifesaver
OR
the OS/hardware CAN'T access the area, so
nothing in the magic area can run. THE END.
Don't forget that there is an area on the hard disk reserved
for hardware maintenance, e.g., storing bad sectors info, etc.
Whilst this is not accessable to standard OS tools, even by
raw input/output copy like your example 'dd', identifying
info may be stored there by special programming.
We do this in MSDOS by running in Debug mode. Once in
debug mode we instruct the debugger to jump to a specific
memory address (Info that is supplied by Disk manufacturer)
with a command like:
g=address or g:address depending on the disk controller chip.
Then we follow and respond to the prompts.
I think this can be done whether the disk is used for MS or Linux,
or any OS because the maintenance area is not dependent on the
OS portion of the disk.
One may want to experiment on this using Linux debugger. But
first one needs to know what memory address to 'jump' or 'go to'.
Anybody noticed how easy (sic) it is to get your
bios health-monitoring working under linux.
Aaah but we doit, without you noticing, and despite
your valient attemps to stop us ...
Besides, I naively trust that no linux enthuiast would
nic another's toys, else you're not an enthusiast!
James
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