It sounds like a general framework for routing these kind of raw disk i/o would be useful... probably configurable by app would be most useful.
thoughts?
I agree, a sandbox system where the 'litter box' (a sand box to put all your crap) would hold potentialy dangerous direct disk accesses to the MBR or close to it. it might be worth making one per app and making sure that you can't just read the contents so obscure it in some way as to allow us to prove that we're out for compatability and not piracy.