Silently install software from website
It has probably been asked before but anyway.
What's the best way to SILENTLY install software on the target's computer when he visits my website?
Java? Silverlight? Flash? Something else? It just needs to automatically download something to the target's PC and execute it.
And a strange question perhaps: If I include a Terms of Use and such on the site and include a section there that describes that software will be silently installed with the purpose of etc. Is it then legal? If not, are there any other ways to do it legally? Note: the software being installed deals NO damage to the target's PC.
This can't be done through just a generic method. To run binaries out of the browsers javascript/flash/etc.. sandbox, you'll need to actively exploit the browser. Unless you happen to have an 0day around, which I doubt, the only way this would work is if the browser visiting you is out of date with known exploits.
As for your terms of service, I'm no legal expert, but I believe that terms of service become immediately void the second they start trying to transcend the actual law at hand. Doing this could easily be considered unauthorized computer access in court, which breaks laws in a number of countries and therefore I don't believe there is a legal way to do this. Of course, you should probably consult an actual lawyer regarding this.
Thanks.
Well I know that SilverLight for example has an out-of-browser installation option but it's not silent afaik. But it would make sense that there is no option to do so.
What about non-silent? Like using a Java applet that asks the user if he wants to install it?
About the terms of service or something. Yeah I know I should consult a lawyer first. But I have seen many software that are free that install for example spyware w/o asking because its in there license and agreement (that nobody reads). Those seem to be legal and we all know that if they wanted to tell us that it had spyware that they should have put some BIG RED TEXT option (unchecked) asking the user if it should install that software too. Note: in my country the cops don't even investigate these cases. They don't even have the manpower to do burglaries and such. All those cases are often just ignored by the cops. It's still unwise performing any of those activities tough.
MolesteD_ wrote: Recently someone in The Netherlands won a case claiming the Terms of Service was too long so he did not read it.
I personally doubt that anything in the Terms of Service would matter, instead, give them the option to select it while installing the application itself.
TL:DR put the accept at the top of the agreement