Pages

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Interview With an Adware Developer

Check out this great interview with an adware developer. (thanks for the link, Adam)

Lots of juicy technical details in this interview. It's been years since I worked with Windows code but some parts were familar:

IE has a mechanism called a Browser Helper Object (BHO) which is basically a gob of executable code that gets informed of web requests as they’re going. It runs in the actual browser process, which means it can do anything the browser can do– which means basically anything. We would have a Browser Helper Object that actually served the ads, and then we made it so that you had to kill all the instances of the browser to be able to delete the thing.

Back in my WebTaggers days we used the BHO api as well. When the BHO interface first came out, there were all these wonderful ideas that it generated, like "you could load a bunch of post-it notes created by you and your friends every time you visit a web page!" - but the BHO turned out to be more widely employed by the dark side. I have to wonder if MS really considered the potential to use the BHO as more of weapon than a tool when they were designing it.

And other stuff like this reinforces my position that Windows is a threat to public health:

...The Win32 API is fundamentally Ascii. There are strings that you can express in 16-bit counted Unicode that you can’t express in ASCII. Most notably, you can have things with a Null in the middle of it.

That meant that we could, for instance, write a Registry key that had a Null in the middle of it.
[...]
Because of that, we were able to make registry keys that were invisible or immutable to anyone using the Win32 API. Interestingly enough, this was not only all civilians and pretty much all of our competitors, but even most of the antivirus people.

Then he drops this awesomebomb:

Eventually, we got sick of writing a new C program every time we wanted to go kick somebody off of a machine. Everybody said, “What we need is something configurable.” I said, “Let’s install a Turing-complete language,” and for that I used tinyScheme, which is a BSD licensed, very small, very fast implementation of Scheme that can be compiled down into about a 20K executable if you know what you’re doing.

I wonder if he released his improvements to tinyScheme as open source.

Anyways I recommend reading the entire interview.

92 comments:

  1. Thanks a lot for writing about useful, good subject. It needs to know that outsourcing software development could help in your business by installing customized software solutions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for sharing with useful info. It is required to know that ipad application developer could help in your business by installing customized software solutions.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I bet the interview went well. I like the smoothness of the flow of the interview. Great job.
    seo packages

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you a lot for providing individuals with a very spectacular possibility to read critical reviews from this site.
    java training in bangalore java training in bangalore

    ReplyDelete
  5. Concepts are very clear. Thank you for sharing such a valuable content. we are very happy to receive such a nice one Thank you... Java Training in Chennai

    ReplyDelete

  6. Thanks for sharing this informative article..!!
    Keep posting waiting for next post
    Java Training in Bangalore
    iOS Training in Bangalore

    ReplyDelete
  7. Positive site, where did u come up with the information on this posting?I have read a few of the articles on your website now, and I really like your style. Thanks a million and please keep up the effective work. R Programming institutes in Chennai

    ReplyDelete

  8. Awwsome informative blog ,Very good information thanks for sharing such wonderful blog with us ,after long time came across such knowlegeble blog. keep sharing such informative blog with us.
    Airport Management Courses in Chennai | Airport Management Training in Chennai | Diploma in Airport Management Course in Chennai | Airlines Training Chennai | Airline Academy in Chennai

    ReplyDelete
  9. Brilliant ideas that you have share with us.It is really help me lot and i hope it will help others also.update more different ideas with us.
    Cloud computing Training Bangalore
    Cloud Computing Training in Nolambur
    Cloud Computing Training in Saidapet
    Cloud Computing Training in Perungudi

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for your sharing such a useful information. this was really helpful to me.

    Guest posting sites
    Education

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is an awesome post.Really very informative and creative contents. These concept is a good way to enhance the knowledge.I like it and help me to development very well.Thank you for this brief explanation and very nice information.Well, got a good knowledge.
    Hadoop Training in Chennai
    Big Data Training in Chennai
    Big Data Training
    CCNA Training in Chennai
    CCNA course in Chennai
    CCNA Training institute in Chennai

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for the information, Get the best RPA Training in Chennai from Hope Tutors.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your blog is so inspiring for the young generations.thanks for sharing your information with us and please update more new ideas.
    Selenium Certification Training in OMR
    Selenium Training in Perungudi
    Selenium Training in Guindy
    Selenium Training in Saidapet

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks for making this guide and you have given such a clear breakdown of technology updates. I've seen so many articles, but definitely, this has been the best I?ve read!

    JAVA Training in Chennai
    JAVA Course in Chennai
    Java training institute in chennai
    Best JAVA Training institute in Chennai
    Java Training
    Java classes in chennai

    ReplyDelete
  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  16. You are doing a great job. I would like to appreciate your work for good accuracy
    Regards,
    Data Science Course Training

    ReplyDelete
  17. Its a good post and keep posting good article.its very interesting to read.
    devops certification in chennai

    ReplyDelete
  18. Amazing! I like to share it with all my friends and hope they will like this information.
    Regards,
    Python Training in Chennai | Python Programming Classes | Python Classes in Chennai

    ReplyDelete
  19. In the beginning, I would like to thank you much about this great post. Its very useful and helpful for anyone looking for tips. I like your writing style and I hope you will keep doing this good working.
    Ethical Hacking Course in Chennai
    Certified Ethical Hacking Course in Chennai
    PHP Training in Chennai
    ccna Training in Chennai
    Web Designing Course in Chennai
    ethical hacking course in chennai
    hacking course in chennai

    ReplyDelete
  20. A good blog for the people who really needs information about this. Good work keep it up.

    Article submission sites
    Technology

    ReplyDelete
  21. Amazing article. Your blog helped me to improve myself in many ways thanks for sharing this kind of wonderful informative blogs in live.
    angularjs training in chennai | angularjs course in chennai

    ReplyDelete
  22. Good job! Fruitful article. I like this very much. It is very useful for my research. It shows your interest in this topic very well. I hope you will post some more information about the software. Please keep sharing!!
    SEO Training Institute in Chennai
    SEO Training Institute in Chennai
    SEO Training Institute in Bangalore
    SEO Training Courses in Coimbatore

    ReplyDelete
  23. Your info is really amazing with impressive content..Excellent blog with informative concept. Really I feel happy to see this useful blog, Thanks for sharing such a nice blog..
    If you are looking for any Big data Hadoop Related information please visit our website Big Data Training In Bangalore page!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Your info is really amazing with impressive content..Excellent blog with informative concept. Really I feel happy to see this useful blog, Thanks for sharing such a nice blog..
    If you are looking for any Data science Related information please visit our website data science institutes in bangalore page!

    ReplyDelete
  25. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete


  26. 2 of 65
    comment

    Tuhin Pabna
    Attachments
    Nov 28, 2019, 9:29 AM
    to noyon0461


    2 Attachments

    keep up the good work. this is an Assam post. this to helpful, i have reading here all post. i am impressed. thank you. this is our digital marketing training center. This is an online certificate course
    digital marketing training in bangalore / https://www.excelr.com/digital-marketing-training-in-bangalore

    ReplyDelete
  27. I am inspired to read this blog. keep sharing more informative blog.
    Website Designing Company in Delhi

    ReplyDelete
  28. After reading your article I was amazed. I know that you explain it very well. And I hope that other readers will also experience how I feel after reading your article.
    Data Science Certification in Bangalore

    ReplyDelete
  29. financial advisors in bangalore

    A Financial Planner is a Life Planner A Financial Advisor is not someone who just guides you where to invest.

    ReplyDelete
  30. What a wonderful information, how you had written this content. This content is very helpful for me. Thank you for your nice post!!!
    DevOps Training in Chennai

    DevOps Course in Chennai

    ReplyDelete
  31. Thanks for the post. It was very interesting and meaningful. I really appreciate it! Keep updating stuff like this.
    3D Scanning Services Near Me
    3D Laser Scanning Targets
    3D Scanning Reverse Engineering

    ReplyDelete
  32. Hi! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and new initiatives in the same niche. Blog gave us useful information to work. You have done an amazing job!
    AWS Training in Hyderabad
    AWS Course in Hyderabad

    ReplyDelete
  33. I found some useful information from this article, thanks for sharing the useful information. Ziyyara Edutech’s comprehensive online tutoring program is specifically designed to help Class 12 students excel in their Physics, Math, Science, and other subject studies.
    Book A Free Demo Today visit Class 12 physics online tuition

    ReplyDelete
  34. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly that love and read more on this topic. Unlock the door to GCSE success with Ziyyara Edutech's premier online GCSE tuition.
    For more info visit Online GCSE tuition

    ReplyDelete