eyeHide 2.0: Bait and Switch

Jaan Patterson
Rating: (four burnt toasts)

Jaan Patterson
Speicherstraße 44
Frankfurt Am Main D-60327 DE
+49 6997945949 jaanone@mac.com

Collateral damage:
At least €5 for your files held hostage in a bait and switch

The Tracker Report

Thanks to Tracker which has to be one of the most useful apps ever.

 Start: Sat Jun 23 02:09:43 2007
  Stop: Sat Jun 23 02:12:03 2007
Target: /Volumes/eyeHide/eyeHide.app
  Root: /Users/rixstep

Accessed
--------

Changed
-------

Modified
--------
/Users/rixstep/Documents/Downloads
/Users/rixstep/Documents/Downloads/eyeHide
/Users/rixstep/Documents/Downloads/eyeHide/.eyeHide
/Users/rixstep/Library/Preferences
/Users/rixstep/Library/Preferences/com.jaanpatterson.eyeHide.plist

com.jaanpatterson.eyeHide.plist

The key keys here are 'startMeup' and 'thePass1'. The former is the number of times the app's been launched (on the sixth it pulls the bait and switch) and the latter's - unbelievably enough - your password in plain text. Note as well the file says there's been a donation - which is eminently false!

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>NSWindow Frame createHiddenpw</key>
    <string>558 470 213 181 0 0 1440 878 </string>
    <key>NSWindow Frame openHiddenpw</key>
    <string>558 502 213 149 0 0 1440 878 </string>
    <key>createHidden</key>
    <false/>
    <key>deleteHidden</key>
    <true/>
    <key>deleteRecent</key>
    <integer>0</integer>
    <key>donated</key>
    <true/>
    <key>firstHelp</key>
    <false/>
    <key>firstRun</key>
    <true/>
    <key>getthePath</key>
    <string>/Users/rixstep/Documents/Downloads/eyeHide/.eyeHide</string>
    <key>helpRun</key>
    <false/>
    <key>idid</key>
    <false/>
    <key>openHidden</key>
    <true/>
    <key>startMeup</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
    <key>thePass1</key>
    <string>eyeHide</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Knowing how the app is going to try to stop usage after five launches it's time to play around a bit: the test team set the key 'startMeup' to '999'. Click the link.

Collateral Damage ⇒