Whether you love it or loathe it, DRM is here to stay. Microsoft needs no convincing about its necessity, but a recent DRM library from the software giant sets up users for a potential hack attack.
PCWorld reports that despite having a really catchy name, msnetobj.dll leaves your computer open to a trifecta of attacks: denial of service, integer overflow, and buffer overflow.
In other words, your system's security could easily be compromised. Disregarding that scary possibility, msnetobj.dll is meant to "prevent the owner of a computer from saving or viewing certain files except under limited circumstances, and to prevent the computer's owner from disabling" it. So, like an annoying sibling, even if you don't like it, you're stuck with it.
Of course we've discussed the pitfalls of DRM before. So this news isn't really news in that sense. The fear has always been, 'what negative effect will DRM have on legitimate consumers?' Here it's obvious: possible security breaches by malicious people, as well as limits to what might be perfectly legal computer usage. It's easy then to view DRM as not a necessary evil, just evil. But at least the discussion is being had.
If you want to better avoid the risk msnetobj.dll poses, steer clear of questionable websites. However, it's a sad state of affair when folks can't safely search for celebrity porn videos without fearing for their online safety. Thanks for ruining that too, DRM!
