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.
just like the rep AOL gets, the more users you have the more dumb users you have.
Do you know what that means? It means the system needs to be engineered to handle those users. It does NOT mean we should shout and flame about how stupid those users are. Guess what: Everyone who uses an online service (or the Internet, for that matter) is NOT a Computer Science or Engineering major, and they should NOT be expected to act accordingly. They are there for their own purposes, to accomplish their own ends. The systems should be designed accordingly, with error prevention and correction built in, to catch things that would otherwise hurt users or administrators.
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.
Viruses get sophisticated enough that they look at subject lines in your current "Sent Items" folder and use the same subject and text, just adding the attachment, or if they find an email you previously sent that had an attachment and replace it and re-send the message.
Its only a matter of time. Its amazing how even a dumb virus can fool so many people.
I Heart Sorting Networks
Most sensible organisations will already be blocking .pif files in mail - this virus is already known by McAfee as W32/Shoho@MM and they have detailed it as a LOW risk worm.
On another note, I hope Slashdot isn't going to run a story on every new virus that gets released...
-- Pete.
Monochrome - Probably the UK's largest internet BBS
That's the idiot that picked Outlook/Exchange for the corporate messaging system, right? Sorry, I'm not ranting at you, but I hear this a lot at work and want to set the record straight.
I don't think it's fair to blame the user for not knowing that ".txt.pif" is a magic extension that can hurt their computer, or just to tell them "don't open email from someone you don't know". The fact of the matter is that it's wrong for your email client or your web browser to executed code from an unknown source, and the user should have to take positive steps (more than one) to execute such things. Microsoft's email tools are fundamentally broken, even to the point where they betray their supposed ease of use by requiring the user to puzzle over which emails are safe and which aren't.
So no, I don't really blame the marketing guy for not knowing that ".txt" is OK but ".txt.pif" isn't OK - it's not his job to know. It's the job of the tools Mr. Marketing is given to tell the difference for him and not automatically or easily do something dangerous. And it's the job of corporate IT purchasers to make sure that the right tools are being given to Mr. Marketing. More than anything, the repeated Microsoft virus and worm attacks point to a fundamental failure to learn from past IT purchasing mistakes.
Don't get me started on my company's new internal IM system that only works from Windows - thanks for nothing there, guys.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
Apache has a veto-proof majority of the web servers out there. Where are the Apache worms? Why is IIS, with far less market share, getting them? It's because Apache is secure and IIS is not, period.
Linux and OSX are both based on the Unix security model, a fundamentally sound design refined by two decades of real-world practice (dating back to the RTM worm in the early 1980s). It's not a matter of the virus writers aren't looking... it's a matter of a lack of exploitable holes. Name ONE Unix email client stupid enough to auto-execute code. Just one!
Yes, there are still exploitable holes here and there in Unix/Linux. But they generally require real mastery to find. Windows macro viruses can be written by 14 year old boys. My wife, a technical writer, doesn't know enough programming to write heapsort (do you?), but she knows enough to write a macro virus in VBA.
Get it through your head... the number of viruses and worms today is not a function of popularity or attention. It is a function of poor design and poor implementation, combined with security by obscurity (a technique discredited everywhere but Microsoft).
Really, learn about it. Don't just whine because Microsoft is getting a richly deserved spanking, and you don't want to hear how bad your favorite OS sucks.
Hand me that airplane glue and I'll tell you another story.
OK, I come here for news, and for discussion. I read the headlines, generally the blurbs, and I poke around in the discussion until I can't stand it any more.
I don't use this site as a basis for generating opinions regarding what company is bad, what company is good, or what text editor I should use. I have my own methods for said exercise.
Surely, you realize that this site is coded, maintained, and read by geeks. I find it quite unlikely that a reader of this site hasn't formed an opinion one way or another regarding Microsoft. We don't thaw out cavemen, and then teach them to read, using Slashdot (boy, that's be an exercise in futility, with the l33t speak, and the horriffic grammar and spelling.)
Bottom line is this, and I know it's been said many times in the past: This is not a real news site. It's just a weblog, and it happens to have a lot of people who like it. The Slashdot editors are under no obligation to be fair, or unbiased. If you don't like it, create your own site. Buh-bye.
The XP exploit, at least, is an entirely new class of security hole, not seen before, and every last one of the 10M+ XP boxes shipped is vulnerable to total control from the outside.
If that ain't news, what is?
As for the worm... well, it's mildly technically interesting. But if Microsoft worms have become so common that they are no longer news... well, i think that's news, too!
Hand me that airplane glue and I'll tell you another story.
Bullshit. If Slashdot wanted to be a "respected news firm", then that would make sense. However, it's run by some guys who liked Legos, Star Wars and KDE on Debian. They post links to stuff they think is nifty around the web, and a community grew around it. Now most links are submitted by readers and we all chat in the discussion board under each story. But at the heart, it's *still* just a website run by some guys who think legos (now mindstorms) Star Wars (now the pre-trilogy) and... well, CmdrTaco still uses KDE on Debian at any rate.
Think about what influence Slashdot has over a very large proportion of the "geek community" and other technical and scientific gropus.
It's opinion. People have them, and some people make theirs very public. It's part of human nature. I'm sure your office has a guy who goes off about how great some type of coffee is, or some woman who will tell anybody who will listen the plot of last night's TV show that she loves. Well, remember how I said that this is *not* a news site, but a site run by some guys who like geeky stuff? Their opinions are that Microsoft generally sucks (and it's shared by quite a few people). I may not agree (in fact I don't - and I run Linux on server and desktop), but I don't bitch about them stating their opinion on the site they run.
Dear Ghod - do you write in to Art Bell and bitch that he shouldn't have weirdos on his show? Do you write in to Howard Stern and tell him he should be more compassionate? Do you write in to Rush Limbaugh and tell him that he should stop expressing his opinions on political issues? No - they (and two of those three I can't stand listening to), are great radio *because* they are opinionated bastards that put weird, occasionally informative crap up on their show.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Egress filtering at the firewall will block the spread of this. Simply don't allow anything but the mail server to make SMTP connections out. Done. Same thing with all of those "home firewall" products.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
The post office has taken steps towards irradiating mail. Maybe more ISPs need to "irradiate" email.
.exe attachment... it is boring. Show me an actual .txt file that can do some damage and I'm interested!
The consumer-level answer (repeated like a mantra) of course is to use anti-virus software, and I find it interesting (and conspicuous) that MS has stayed out of the anti-virus racket- but I suppose one cannot integrate AV software into the OS.
It still boils down to individual "responsibility"- at home I run no AV software on my windows box, and I've never had a problem. I'm no windows apologist, but the fact remains that most people treat their PCs as if they are leaving their keys in the car, garage door unlocked, etc... I mean, it certainly is more "convenient" to ignore any security precaution in actual life (think airport)- but is it safe? And is it at all convenient to clean up after a security breech?
Windows *has* most of the tools for a reasonable level of security if only people educate themselves and use them. The widespread problems people experience, such as this, boil down to NOT opening unknown attachments- which is email 101. This STILL boils down to an
Those that suggest you "dance like no one is watching" really want to see you make a complete fool of yourself.