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Pro-Linux Mail Trojan Running Around
Xeno noted a story making the rounds about a Pro Linux Virus. Well, they're calling it a vrisu, but its a trojan. Its a flash thingee embedded in emails. It mails itself, and then renames zips and jpegs to have have a Pro-Linux message. Very bad advocacy, but when I turn off Dad Mode, I gotta laugh about it.
It seems that even after patch after patch of the MS outlook system, virus still spread like wildfire. MS should employ a virtual machine to run attachments, that way it could sandbox the application. If it does not do any damage, then it can be let loose into the real operating system. Virus have been getting more and more complex. Connecting to newsgroups, sending email... what's to stop them from quiety sitting on your computer (not doing ANYTHING) just spreading... and then one day, some malicious hacker launches a DDOS against yahoo or something.
Well, they're calling it a vrisu,
I can see it now: the dreaded vrisus and jabberwockys scampering around on a green irish field, playing in the sun...
Sorry.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Why do these people write these? Why do people CONTINUALLY get infected by them?
/. story than this dreck - which is only going to serve to harm the Linux community in general.
What I really don't understand is why someone hasn't written a benign virus/trojan - same manner as the Mellisa/ILOVEYOU trojan, except that when run by the clueless, it would remove any other trojan VBS scripts (or quarantine them) on the machine, ask to send copies to "friends" (upon which it would email itself to people on the address list), then remove itself from the machine.
If the "hacker" wanted to go further, he could place a little "Agree or Disagree" EULA/disclaimer at the beginning the user would have to agree to in order for the code to run. He could also insert a little "educational" note on why the virus ran, and how to protect against future attacks by less benign viruses in the future (up to and including installing Linux?). Finally, he could encrypt the "meat" of the VBS trojan, and put a little blurb in the EULA about the DMCA clauses prohibiting the alteration or creation of software to remove copyright controls on software.
Such a "hack" would be more worthy of a
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
From the article:
He urged users not to click on any attachment "until this dies down."
How about urging people NEVER to click on attachments, unless you've explicitly asked for them? Oh forgot - if we did that, the anti virus companies would go out of business, so we can't do that.
Sheesh.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
TROJ_CMDRTACO.A
TROJ_CMDRTACO.A, or "TacoVirus," colloqually, spreads to all *nix users via coffee. Grinds, mugs, swizzle sticks -- anything coffee related may contain the TacoVirus. And it'll also be found in -- you guessed it, tacos.
The effect of the TacoVirus is minimal but noticable. A users spelling will be instantly transformed from "English" to "Eglihsn," which is to say a somewhat random mix of the correct letters in an incorrect order. User will also be unable to locate items such as "dictionary," "spell-checker," or "friend" to proofread writing.
There is no known cure for TacoVirus at this time.