The CD popping page

The original article (basically) stated:

If you are viewing this page in IE, your CD drive just popped open. So WHY are you still using IE? Go search Google for 'Firebird browser'.

If Firebird isn't for you, perhaps Opera or Mozilla will be to your liking.

You need to be running IE and at least v7.0 of Windows Media Player for this to work. If you are running an older version, I still suggest upgrading. An older version gains you nothing for security, since everything is so tied together in MS Windows.

I hope a lot of people see it so they can see how tied together MS Windows is, and how vulnerable that makes that operating system. Think of it this way...with the code hidden in this page, I use your web-browser to access a component of the media player to go through the core components of your operating system to connect to your hardware. If that doesn't scare the bejeebus out of you, then you aren't A) a security freak or B) a unix-lover. Or very smart, perhaps.

I love both A & B, so it bothers me quite a bit.

Here are specifics why this vulnerability is bad:

• With the messaging hole in Windows that was sent patched a few months ago, I could have sent this code to your computer over and over again...your CD drive becomes effectively useless.
• If you were installing software from CD while surfing, you could have this page ruin your installation. Some installations cause real problems when interrupted (OS Service Packs distributed on CD, for example).

Other code exists out there on the net that will crash your browser or operating system by viewing a webpage (if you have appropriately vulnerable, unpatched software on your computer). I won't post these here, because I am trying to make a point, not cause a catasprophe.

PS. I claim no ownership of the code in the source. Someone else had the knowledge, I just implemented it here.

Greg