Slashdot Mirror
Clever New Windows Worm
freakboy303 sent in linkage to a new worm
that will no doubt be cluttering our inboxes soon. Clever bits include running its own SMTP
service to increase chance of success, as well as using a bunch of spaces
to disguise the true extension of the executable. No doubt countless copycats
will soon follow and our inboxes will be cluttered by countless copies
of the thing. Not that there's a problem with windows security.
You know, reporting new Windows worms is right up there with reporting that there's renewed fighting in the middle east. It's always been there, it always will be there, it's not really news unless that's exactly the sort of thing you're interested in.
Wait, I forgot where I was. Nevermind.
It says that it takes addresses from your mailboxes as well? Coupled with all that spam that was reported on a bit ago, this could be tons of fun!
Send your junk e-mail accounts this virus, check them regularly with outlook and get the spam writers back! WOOHOO!
----- - The beatings will continue until morale improves
Macros don't infect people - people infect people.
"The worm utilises it's own SMTP engine so it does not depend on Outlook for e-mail sending."
:-P
Not even a virus can depend on Outlook anymore...
no no no,
see, people have either used a local smtp server OR used spaces. This is obviously the work of a professional. No script kiddie could be THAT good. This guy probably has an AMD
Pat
(link is to a funny article)
Humans are slow, innaccurate, and brilliant; computers are fast, acurrate, and dumb; together they are unbeatable
At the risk of stroking the collective /. ego, yeah, they are.
Canonical example - someone who got Sircammed at work, came to me and said they were having trouble opening up this attachment someone had sent them, and they wondered why someone sent it to them in the first place.
I did my best "All your base!" voice and said "I send you this file to have your advice!"
Cow orker said "Yeah, hey, how did you know that? Are you reading my mail?"
Another admin and I spent the next hour disinfecting 0wn3d box3n from other cow orkers who had done the same thing.
I didn't see any misspelled words in the sample email at that link...this is an obvious hoax.
For us Windows users, reports of new security issues seem to come as often as potholes on an Arkansas highway. Like the potholes, looking for the next one isn't all that interesting or entertaining, but we still have to try to avoid them or at least minimize their impact.
"Net access: $20/mo. -- Electricity for computer: $20/mo. -- Reaching the 50 Karma cap: Priceless"
I'm at the karma cap, and I've been oscillating between 47 and 50 for some time. Does anyone else in that situation agree with my Modest Karma Proposal?
and i simply assume most people have a sense of humour, but we don't all get what we want, do we?
sure, i know that windows isn't complete crap - hell, i can admit it's gotten pretty useful in the last couple revisions. i've even been known to use it to play the occasional game. but i don't come to /. for flat, ZDNET style reporting. i come to it for useful links and snide comments.
i also come here to do this once in a while:
This is the voice of World Control. I bring you Peace.
I wonder if, say, construction workers, when building a shopping mall, say stuff like, "Man, we have to put railings up? Come on, what kind of idiot would just walk off the edge and plummet to the floor below? Stupid users."
"What? Circuit breakers? What sort of moron would overload a circuit? Who needs circuit breakers? Stupid users."
--
Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
It makes no sense NOT to use a simple filter - when will people learn. Until then, I'll just laugh.
:-)
Unless, of course, you have a Mac, which asks me very nicely what I would like to open happy99.exe with: Photoshop, or TeachText.
Hmmm, I thought there was already a patent for that. Something like:
;)
Method and Apparatus for delivery of a self-replicating bytestream through use of a square port number and excessive white space.
Couldn't find it on the patent search site, though
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
I find it tremendously amusing that a Windows worm was written in Visual Basic, of all things.
Training wheels for small children's bicycle for sale. Buy now and get a free shotgun.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
I've been reading lately that many geeks seem to have problems identifying some of the socal clues that indicate to normal people that they are being picked on or ridiculed. Where I work there are two people that will have clicked on this thing before I arrive to clean it up. So exactly how do I point out to these lusers that some 16 yr old kid is doing the electronic equilivent of holding their very importaint work over a flusing toliet just to watch them worry. And they walked into the situation?
I simply assumed that people on Slashdot are above those biases. We are (mostly) computer and science enthusiasts, and, generally, those types are able to make well-informed decisions about things.
Right. Just like Emacs is a clearly superior text editor to "vi", which is why there's never any discussion about it. Such issues are easily settled in a timely manner by us well-informed geeks!
"640K ought to be enough for anybody"
-- Some guy, I don't remember who...
Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all the unhappy people.
Wow, it has its own mailer engine? I am genuinly interested on acquiring it to see how I can use it for good things so that I won't have to use Outlook all the time. Does this mailer work as a spam mailer?
This program can send mail using only 110K of code. Outlook is pretty big. Why do viruses have to be so DAMN efficient?
"Wireless : LAN
Imagine if you will....
You get an email with an executable attachment.
The attachment executes automatically, because we WANT it to do that.
Upon execution, a EULA pops up, with a "licence agreement" that states the following:
- The program being executed will automatically forward itself to a significant number of people using a variety of means
- Some type of modification will take place to your file system.
- By clicking OK you AUTHORIZE this to happen, and claim full responsibility for any damage that
is caused as a result.
And most importantly, if the cancel button is pressed, the program won't execute.
Chances are good that 90% of the people who would be affected by an illegal virus will just as happily click OK without reading anything. The fact of the matter is, the virus will cause the same amount of damage, but the author could probably plaster his name all over it and not fear any legal repercussions.
Of course, there's always the issue of intent. Bottom line, authorized or not, the INTENT of the program was to cause havok of the same nature as a virus. But in the end, it would sure make an idiot out of anyone who spread it.
And maybe, just maybe, it MIGHT result in people actually READING the EULA's. Yeah.. I know.. I'm dreaming.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
Not_a_Virus_.exe
:-)