N-Track a security breach?

Any known instances? Any opinions on this possibility?
Spyware, adware? Reomote access?

I have never had ntrack come up as a problem with spyware detection software…I have had quite a few spyware issues, but never with ntrack.

Any app you install and run is a possibility.

One thing to check is to monitor net access when you run it. Do you see any?

But, no, I haven’t seen any symptoms of it doing anything like that…something I can’t say about some audio drivers and their associated craplets.

Um, no, none of the above. It is as about as squeeky clean as they come. No phoning home in any way.

Be aware that like offenly happens with Anti-Virus, i have heard about some Anti-spy-ad-mal-ware proggies that time to time gives you “false-alarms”.

Tom,

A friend of mine had an experience recently in which when he booted up, the firewall said “Word wants to access www.verisign.com, do you want to allow it?” He said no. then a few minutes later, the firewall said “Norton wants to access www.verisign.com.” Clearly a trojan was trying to pass itself off as these programs. Eventually, it probably would have tried n-track. Is something like this why you are asking?

John

Windows is the BREACH, as well as other MS apps!
Do not use an important Windows based system on the internet.
Simple logic.

There is one new feature in n-Tracks that could potentially cause security issues. It’s part of the broadcast waves features. There is an option to expose your local IP address to the net. Look under the menu Edit/Net Transfer. I don’t know enough about what these features do to know if there is a potential risk in there.

I run n-Track on a machine without any direct internet connection whatsoever. (I update using a portable USB hard drive) That is probably as secure as it gets…

regards, Nils

Thanks for the comments! You know I’ve used n-track for years and years like many of you have and have great respect for n-track and Flavio. But I’m getting swarmed on by something buggy and it’s happening when I use n-track, and not with any other program on my computer. (all this while off line and disconnected form the internet) It’s as if a remote hacker is toying with me. For instance, After a clean install, after adjusting all the preferences, and testing the program and settings that I made. I will close and reopen it to find the settings like they should be.
And also; (set to record on one stereo group) and the other 5 groups canceled. Then I’ll record a track, find a couple notes to edit, high lite a thin line before a note to cut, move my cursor up to the scissors icon to cut, and as soon as I clip it, the program freezes. When I restart, I find the track in it’s original state, and as soon as I high lite to cut again, it freezes again. Ok, so I give up on editing and decide to record some additional ideas while they’re still fresh in my mind. NOW when I record the program records 5 stereo groups (tracks)! This is happening after I’ve selected only one group originally, and then also double checked the settings before recording and editing. This happens so much I have to double check my settings to insure that I’m not going stir crazy! This has been going on for some time now and obviously I need help figuring it out, I no longer think that the problem is n-track, even though it is the only program this kind of weirdness is present in. Hopefully there is a simple explanation!
I know that trojans can do weird things but I don’t see why it would just pick on n-track. Ever hear of anything like this?
And if so, how can I boot back?

Typical Recording Settings for my ntrack Using a Delta 1010 sound card on windows xp:

Sample Frequency= 24 bit 44100 Hz

Audio devices
1-WDM M Audio Delta 1010 1/2 (out)
1-WDM M Audio Delta 1010 Multichannel (in) *advanced settings I have "Stop WDM devices when pausing
“keep checked if using M-Audio Delta”.

Buffer settings are all the same 5120’ 4, preload buffers 8,(default) Disk loading 10 (default)

OPtions:
everthing is in the original default position except,
system timer
I’ve unchecked playback time and record time.

Soundcard’s Mixer/Volume control path:
sndvol32.exe I always thought this was in the ntrack folder but I see that it is in the system32 folder, with no path pointing to sndvol32.exe… Is this right?

And of course the VST plugins are showing the proper path.

From the hammer on the Record VU, to select audio format:
I choose; Sterio, 24 bit, I uncheck “Enable Live input processing”, and for selectiing 1/0 channels
I leave that all alone. They’re all checked so I can make choices from the vu meter view.

And of course I select sterio and 24 bit from the playback vu, that’s it! Very simple and at this point
I’ll close ntrack and reopen, so the settings will save.

Now how changes happen after that and why all the monkey business is occuring are the questions. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!

Note: verisign is a legit site to go to, and is used ensure that the digital signature stamping code is up to date. Word checks digital signatures, as would Norton, to verify that something is from a trusted source or not. You can block calls to it, but it will ensure that you are not up to date…

Also, NTrack DOES call home periodically, to verify that the access codes you use are not pirate versions… This is part of the ‘the numbers have been found to be circulated on the internet’ thing. It’s not a problem. I’ve looked at packets before, and there is nothing more than piracy check.

JUST SO YOU KNOW!!

HTH
DSP

Duncan,

Yeah, but the site it wants to go to is a directory that posts a list of folks that have lost their verisign authorization. There was a trojan back in October 2003 that was programmed to initiate a denial of service attack on Verisign. This is either that one, or a new version of it. It isn’t normal behavior.

John

Quote (duncanparsons @ Feb. 02 2005,05:10)
Also, NTrack DOES call home periodically, to verify that the access codes you use are not pirate versions.. This is part of the 'the numbers have been found to be circulated on the internet' thing. It's not a problem.

I thought that maybe something like this could be happening to cause some of the werid action I've been experiancing. But I'm sure it can't happen that often and only to a few of us.

But I suppose if a trojan inbeds itself then that action could happne more often?
Quote (Tom @ Feb. 02 2005,02:58)
Thanks for the comments! You know I've used n-track for years and years like many of you have and have great respect for n-track and Flavio. But I'm getting swarmed on by something buggy and it's happening when I use n-track, and not with any other program on my computer. (all this while off line and disconnected form the internet) It's as if a remote hacker is toying with me. For instance, After a clean install, after adjusting all the preferences, and testing the program and settings that I made. I will close and reopen it to find the settings like they should be.
And also; (set to record on one stereo group) and the other 5 groups canceled. Then I'll record a track, find a couple notes to edit, high lite a thin line before a note to cut, move my cursor up to the scissors icon to cut, and as soon as I clip it, the program freezes. When I restart, I find the track in it's original state, and as soon as I high lite to cut again, it freezes again. Ok, so I give up on editing and decide to record some additional ideas while they're still fresh in my mind. NOW when I record the program records 5 stereo groups (tracks)! This is happening after I've selected only one group originally, and then also double checked the settings before recording and editing. This happens so much I have to double check my settings to insure that I'm not going stir crazy! This has been going on for some time now and obviously I need help figuring it out, I no longer think that the problem is n-track, even though it is the only program this kind of weirdness is present in. Hopefully there is a simple explanation!
I know that trojans can do weird things but I don't see why it would just pick on n-track. Ever hear of anything like this?
And if so, how can I boot back?

Quote (Tom @ Feb. 02 2005,04:31)
Typical Recording Settings for my ntrack Using a Delta 1010 sound card on windows xp:

Sample Frequency= 24 bit 44100 Hz

Audio devices
1-WDM M Audio Delta 1010 1/2 (out)
1-WDM M Audio Delta 1010 Multichannel (in) *advanced settings I have "Stop WDM devices when pausing
"keep checked if using M-Audio Delta".

Buffer settings are all the same 5120' 4, preload buffers 8,(default) Disk loading 10 (default)

OPtions:
everthing is in the original default position except,
system timer
I've unchecked playback time and record time.

Soundcard's Mixer/Volume control path:
sndvol32.exe I always thought this was in the ntrack folder but I see that it is in the system32 folder, with no path pointing to sndvol32.exe... Is this right?

And of course the VST plugins are showing the proper path.

From the hammer on the Record VU, to select audio format:
I choose; Sterio, 24 bit, I uncheck "Enable Live input processing", and for selectiing 1/0 channels
I leave that all alone. They're all checked so I can make choices from the vu meter view.

And of course I select sterio and 24 bit from the playback vu, that's it! Very simple and at this point
I'll close ntrack and reopen, so the settings will save.

Now how changes happen after that and why all the monkey business is occuring are the questions. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!

:) I had some success beating this last night and today!
I know that it is definitely a connection scenario that is causing the problems that I've outlined in the above quote. And here is how I know and how I beat it.
I have zone alarm pro which shows any program trying to connect to the internet by listing active programs and adding an icon next to the program that is actively connected or is trying to connect. I removed all programs from it's list, then started working in ntrack in within moments it froze on me. So I went to my control panel: DO THIS!
system, click on advanced, and then choose and set the performance SETTINGS to "adjust for best performance".
Then I ran ntrack and instead of it hanging up and freezing it closed immediately. So I was free to move quickly to reopen ntrack to redo and save. Then as soon as I got booted again I checked the list of programs on zone alarm and sure enough there was ntrack with the connection icon next to it. So I removed it from the list (same as booting IT FROM TRYING TO CONNECT!) Now ntrack ran smooth and free as if it was right out of the box and as I would expect it to. Soon I was booted again and immediately I checked the list of programs active, and there it was again, ntrack with the connection icon next to it and back on the list. I removed it again and ntrack ran smooth and fast, extremely nice! Even better than I expected! At least now I know how to boot back! :D I hope this helps anyone else experiencing these pitiful actions on your machine!
Good luck,
Tom

I had some success beating this last night and today!
I know that it is definitely a connection scenario that is causing the problems that I’ve outlined in the above quote. And here is how I know and how I beat it.
I have zone alarm pro which shows any program trying to connect to the internet by listing active programs and adding an icon next to the program that is actively connected or is trying to connect. I removed all programs from it’s list, then started working in ntrack in within moments it froze on me. So I went to my control panel: DO THIS!
system, click on advanced, and then choose and set the performance SETTINGS to “adjust for best performance”.
Then I ran ntrack and instead of it hanging up and freezing it closed immediately. So I was free to move quickly to reopen ntrack to redo and save. Then as soon as I got booted again I checked the list of programs on zone alarm and sure enough there was ntrack with the connection icon next to it. So I removed it from the list (same as booting IT FROM TRYING TO CONNECT!) Now ntrack ran smooth and free as if it was right out of the box and as I would expect it to. Soon I was booted again and immediately I checked the list of programs active, and there it was again, ntrack with the connection icon next to it and back on the list. I removed it again and ntrack ran smooth and fast, extremely nice! Even better than I expected! At least now I know how to boot back! I hope this helps anyone else experiencing these pitiful actions on your machine!
Good luck,
Tom
THE SYMPTOMS:
I’ve used n-track for years and years like many of you have and have great respect for n-track and Flavio. But I’m getting swarmed on by something buggy and it’s happening when I use n-track, and not with any other program on my computer. (all this while off line and disconnected form the internet) It’s as if a remote hacker is toying with me. For instance, After a clean install, after adjusting all the preferences, and testing the program and settings that I made. I will close and reopen it to find the settings like they should be.
And also; (set to record on one stereo group) and the other 5 groups canceled. Then I’ll record a track, find a couple notes to edit, high lite a thin line before a note to cut, move my cursor up to the scissors icon to cut, and as soon as I clip it, the program freezes. When I restart, I find the track in it’s original state, and as soon as I high lite to cut again, it freezes again. Ok, so I give up on editing and decide to record some additional ideas while they’re still fresh in my mind. NOW when I record the program records 5 stereo groups (tracks)! This is happening after I’ve selected only one group originally, and then also double checked the settings before recording and editing. This happens so much I have to double check my settings to insure that I’m not going stir crazy! This has been going on for some time now and obviously I need help figuring it out, I no longer think that the problem is n-track, even though it is the only program this kind of weirdness is present in. Hopefully there is a simple explanation!
I know that trojans can do weird things but I don’t see why it would just pick on n-track. Ever hear of anything like this?
And if so, how can I boot back?

It was zonealarm all along! [\B]
After more testing it became clear that the odd phenomenons occuring where do to ntracks need to call home and zonelarms need to stop that. So zonealarm was freezing ntrack. I didn’t think to turn zonealarm off while working off line, amazing!

I put ntrack through some very vigorous tests, trying to stress it into a freeze and couldn’t! ntrack passed them all with flying clolors. Sorry Flavio for creating a consirn or if I caused you any extra work.
Cheers!
Tom

Tom,

Why not just tell ZoneAlarm to let n-track call home? That is less trouble and safer than disabling ZA.

John

Quote (Stringer @ Feb. 04 2005,23:00)
Tom,

Why not just tell ZoneAlarm to let n-track call home? That is less trouble and safer than disabling ZA.

John

Hi John,
Because all this was taking place off line, and I had no reason to expect or suspect any attempts of any programs connecting to the internet. Or for that matter why zonealarm would put shuch a deep freeze on any program while the modem was disconnected and zonelarm in the locked position.
It cought me by supprise to the point of thinking I was being hacked remotely. It was extreemly frustrating and has only really emerged since version 4.0... But now that I see 4.04 work in normal conditions I wouldn't go back to 3.3.
So I guess the good points here are that this can help someone else avoid going through what I just did and I have some hair left and didn't brake anything in the apartment! :D Thanks for your comments and consirn!