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Hotmail Servers Shut Down by Code Red
An Anonymous Coward writes: "SF Gate has this story about Code Red taking down some of Microsoft's Hotmail servers. That's funny." So is Code Red a problem yet? Meanwhile my sircams have stopped, except for 2 people who mail me a hundred or more a day. Thank god for filters, but if I had a monthly bandwidth cap, I'd be pissed.
I bet Microsoft is wishing they left those hotmail servers on BSD. If I remember correctly, they started moving from BSD to Windows 2000 just about this time last year...of course that was after an unsuccessful try in about the 97/98 time frame....
Crewd
I submitted this as an article this morning, but as it is still pending, and both my home and work servers are still under constant annoyance, I figured I'd pass it on here as well. If you are running a Windows NT server, kindly do us all a favor and just turn it off for a few months.
According to yesterday's Handler's Diary on www.incidents.org, "Microsoft has confirmed that if an IIS 4.0 webserver is using URL redirection, it is still vulnerable to Code Red even if the Microsoft patch is installed". The only known solution is to remove all URL redirections from NT servers running IIS 4.0.
-Tommy
"I got a half gallon of Jack, and 2 dozen Ant Traps. I'm about to get wild." -me
I work for a small company that handles license production for a number of the software companies, most of the stuff for OEMs - one of them is Microsoft. (You know that little piece of paper with the cool hologram and bunch of numbers? We make them)
Now Microsoft is very critical about who gets access to the serial numbers and databases. They have there own servers, VLAN, and firewall at our plants for distribution of licenses. Think it would be pretty secure, right?
Well not really, they all got Code Red when it first came out. Now we were cleaning Code Red up on our own webserver (Yeah, I know, should have patched) Noticed that the MS server were infected, called up MS and told them what was up. They didn't believe us and told us the servers were already patched. Took a number of calls and yelling to get their boxes fixed.
I don't know if its really funny or really sad.
The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data.
>people can't get to their accounts that are filled up with SirCam
I was out of town for a week (two weeks ago), when I returned, the Hotmail Janitor had deleted all my saved mail in all my folders, and all I had left was that weeks spam/sircam.
In complaining to Hotmail support, they replied, to my Hotmail account, asking what the name of my Hotmail account was. I'm not joking -- they're that stupid.
In further correspondence, they have said that they can't recover anything deleted by their "auto janitor".
They have said that Hotmail should not be trusted to store valuable mail (and that I should use outlook instead -- the damn software responsible for SirCam in the first place).
They think this is my problem, and I should upgrade my anti-virus software (I've repeatedly assured them that I've been WinDoh's free for four years -- I can't find McAfee's Linux download site).
They say their anti-virus protection is sufficient -- yet I rec'd two more SirCam laced spams today. They won't let me download the contents (even though it won't hurt my Linux system).
I've told them that their anti-virus protection kicks in too late -- they need to not stick any email into the Inbox that has the SirCam virus (they don't let you download the attachment anyway -- why bother letting it fill up your quota).
I've told them they should shut down their Janitor and make backups until this problem is resolved, or more Hotmail customer's are going to get their accounts wiped out without backup.
I've also told them that the correct solution is to bounce new incoming emails headed for an over-quota user, rather than allowing the incoming email and deleting the existing, saved, mail.
They don't get it. They don't understand.
And, if any Microsoft troll cares to say I'm a liar about this (like they did the last time I reported this in Slashdot)... I have the email transcripts to proove that this is Hotmail's behavior.
I have found two solutions:
www.mail.com
www.graffiti.net
Both provide free email excellent (and web hosting) service, and are smart enough to not run Microsoft products.
When I die, please cast my ashes upon Bill Gates -- for once, make him clean up after me!