Slashdot Mirror
Virus Piggybacks Microsoft Mail Worm
metacell writes "A virus (a version of the Chernobyl virus) infects an email worm executable (the Klez worm), and is spread along with it. "
It's a damn good *delete* thing that Microsoft has been *delete* spending the last few weeks
doing a *delete* security audit *delete* of all of *delete* ah never mind. My wrist hurts
from deleting over a meg of mail worm viruses a day.
Hmm, maybe Microsoft could just disable scripts in their email software? That sounds like a good option.
No one uses Outlook macros anyway, except worm writers. It's common sense that I don't want any software, not just viruses, automatically sending email without my consent or confirmation (or even knowledge!)
Why isn't there a version of Evolution for windows? It's great software - I'd pay for it if it wasn't free. And, NO VIRUSES!!!
Unitarian Church: Freethinkers Congregate!
Alright. I've been in the field for some time but have never really pursued this: What other options for email clients do we HAVE besides Outlook/Outlook express in a windows environment?
I'm pretty sure that Eudora is still around, but what is out there for windows-based, user friendly software? It'd almost be worth the switch just to avoid all these damn Outlook-friendly virii.
First of all, I did some calculations, and found that there are over 1600 different subject line possibilities alone with this virus! This takes into consideration the number of variable words within the subject lines, and doesn't even account for the number of different message bodies. All things considered, there are probably over 10,000 possibilities!
The second thing about Klez that I find interesting is the payload... You often get totally random files from people's computers (if they survive virus removal)... For example, one of my coworkers got the 2001 operating budget of her church, and was able to see how much everyone was paid, how much they blew on projects, etc... Opening your inbox is like opening presents on christmas morning... most of the stuff is pretty boring, but every once in awhile you open something interesting!
You don't have to remove the functionality; just make it REQUIRE the script to be CRYPTOGRAPHICALLY SIGNED by a known entity, like the sysadmin.
Fucking simple solution, unless you wanna argue that clients should execute code from UNKNOWN and UNTRUSTED sources for some reason?
Belief is the currency of delusion.