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WebTV/MSNTV Virus Dials 911
Semji Rkim writes: "Though not the first virus to direct modems at 911, ABC News is reporting a bug in WebTV (Now branded as MSNTV) units which causes the infected unit to hang-up and dial 911. The virus spreads via email and Microsoft officials are looking into how it is able to replicate and also control the modem. Affected users are advised to delete the email and call Microsoft at 1-800-469-3288."
Effected users are advised to delete the email and call Microsoft at 1-800-469-3288.
:-)
I wonder how they will get charged
Microsoft actually has a support phone number? I wonder how much that costs per incident.
This can't be true. Microsoft just spent a whole month focusing on security. There must be some mistake.
C8H10N4O2 | Developer > Code
Tying up 911 lines costs lives. In many jurisdictions you can be fined for prank calling 911, especially if you are a repeat offender. WebTV users would be well advised to be very careful with their email until this problem is resolved.
I read the internet for the articles.
Lol
"911, what's your emergency?" "I've got a Microsoft product in my living room!" "What?" "I've got a Microsoft product in my living room! AIIIIGH!"
This tagline is umop apisdn.
It's not a virus!
It's just the poor MSN infected boxes crying out for help!!
I stole this Sig
Doesn't that figure? A piece of hardware that surely no one can work on and it's open to this kind of attack. Can they even upgrade the firmware within a reasonable amount of time over a modem connection?
I prefer a void in conversation to a vacuous one.
I don't know how many of these exist in the wild, but I know someone at 911 who isn't going to be happy at all.
How are users supposed to get the phone number for Microsoft Technical Support if they can't get online?
sig.
When 911 operator answers, the virus plays a wav file, in the voice of Stephen Hawking's voice thing:
"Help Me. I have Web TV. Help Me"
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Any knowledgeable hacker knows about ATH0, it effects around 50 percent of 56k/33/28 modems.
With this, I was able to hang up peoples connections and even make them dial phone numbers, you send the modem commands and because of a bug, the modems obey the commands.
Its not a virus, Its something thats been going on for years, its an old trick/exploit.hack
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
that a virii could hack a MSN/WebTV unit *and* propagate itself to other MSN/WebTV users.
Microsoft advises affected customers to delete the email and call 1-800-469-3288.
Suggestion for next iteration of virus: dial this number instead.
I guess they never said trustworthy phone dialing.
"That's the sort of blinkered, philistine pig ignorance I've come to expect from you non-creative garbage."-Monty Python
If (incredibly hypothetical?) the guy/gal who wrote this virus gets caught, can he/she be fined/jailed for each and every call made to 911? If so, how long would you be in jail for/how much would you have to pay?
--
http://nemilar.net - Not your grandmother's soup kitchen
From the article: Technicians are advising victims to "hard nuke" their unit -- in other words to reset the machine by entering a new code.
What does that mean, exactly? How would entering any type of "new code" besides a software upgrade protect the box from being hit again?
Microsoft IS trying to police our use of their products! "Those reports say that once the infected attachment is opened, the WebTV shuts down, reboots, then calls 911. Several people have reported this happening and then having a police officer show up at their door. "
This is bad, because 911 services cost real taxpayer money. The question is: can Microsoft be held liable for wasting my taxpayer dollars because of their product's flaws?
None of this will be possible once you all surrender minute-by-minute control over all your computing devices to Microsoft. Duh.
314-15-9265
If I get my hands on the people responsible for this, they're going to need to call 911!
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
Kinda makes you ache for a phone-firewall, doesn't it? Heh.
Hmm I could block 911 & telemarketers...
"Derp de derp."
can we get one of these puppies released which instead of calling 911, call's the white house and says "Bush is an idiot!"? :)
whore
How much longer will it be before unscrupulous 900 number operators enlist people to alter this virus to make it dial their numbers? Given that it takes a month to get a phone bill, the culprits can close up shop and move on long before anyone even realizes there is a probem...
"Chances of RHIC-induced Armageddon are exceedingly rare, but... you never know." - MIT Physicist Bob Jaffe
Why can't the fucking virus writers understand that they need to be portable across platforms? It seems most virus writers these days are targetting Microsoft products without so much as a thought about portability. What about users running MacOS, Linux, Solaris, *BSD or any other operating system? What about users who don't even have a modem? And what about users in other countries where the emergency number is different from that in the US? This virus is buggy as hell, I wouldn't want it if my life depended on it! (pun intended).
I can somehow imagine a frustrated kid making a virus "for fun" or "because I can". But this is *evil*!! And stupid, not to mention! What if someone close to him dies due to his crime?
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
M$ sends an automated voice message out to all their subscibers. Either that or make all the access numbers just play this instead of sending any actual data.
"Services will not be availiable today because of a virus that affects webtv users. The virus takes control of the webTV modem and causes it to dial 911. Please unplug your webtv unit from the phone line until we can fix the problem. Please call 555-1212 if you suspect your webtv has been affected"
Clean up your mail servers. Install something to filter out the virus and any varients. Even the least tech savvy people will understand "It dials 911" and "Unplug your webtv"
Just some advice.
--toq
Next thing you know, WebTV will be dialing 1-900 numbers and Microsoft will try and pick up the profits. Just another reason to go broadband.
We're Doomed
See the Digital Sky is falling! So that thread has been validated. Sure it ain't a pacemaker, but it is an appliance, and clogged 911 circuits could cause serious life threatening damage.
There's an argument to be made that having a Microsoft product in your living room could be termed an emergency.
I personally find this alleged virus' behaviour entirely appropriate.
It's just trying to help.
Can't you see that?
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
In order to be able to pass Hayes commands to the modem, you first have to establish a terminal session to the modem itself; if you can do this, it's already game over.
Otherwise, knowing about ATH0, ATA, ATDT and ATM0 (well, the last is useful if you're dialing late at night and don't want to wake others) isn't so much l33t as having paged through the manual while waiting to get an open line.
OTOH, figuring out that you can down a BBS you don't like by requesting a file named COM1:? That's getting warmer...
Easy does it!
This comment has been submitted already, 276865 hours , 59 minutes ago. No need to try again.
For those of you not familiar with the US emergency system ;-)
911 is a phone number used in the US to report emergencies (police, medical, etc)
...just have the MSNTV units call the 1-800-469-3288 number directly.
Why don't the people who write viruses ever have a sense of humor?
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
How about the bill thats in legislation Here. What if you cause a death by clogging up the 911 lines....would that qualify for the life sentence under the bill?
The virus should call Microsoft Technical Support and not 911. Every WebTV would be calling MS. Now that would be funny!
what about ping? or is that too 733t for you?
Part of the purpose of 911 is to report crimes.
Hacking is a serious crime.
The virus is just calling 911 to report itself.
A legparnasom tele van angolnaval.
if after it dialed it played popular music using only dial tones.
Maybe the rolling stones "Start me up"..
But it have to take the form of "Hi, I am an attachment. Please download me to a local disk, chmod me to be executable, and then run me with administrator privileges, you can trust me, really", seeing as Linux e-mail clients don't have the kind of Mack-truck-sized-security-hole access that Outlook and other MS clients have.
Odds of it happening? Not that likely. Windows is so easy to exploit that my grandmother could probably write a virus and get it to replicate and spread worldwide through Outlook/IE holes. On Linux/UNIX/etc. you at least have to try usually and know something about the system to write a viable exploit.
This, right about the time ax-Microsoftie security snake oil salesman is harping about the dangers to our infrastructure because of the Internet, and when Microsoft is promoting Palladium as the solution to its MUA scripting bugs.
Coincidence? Probably. But geez, you can bet they will spin this to their favor. Instead of apologizing for their incompetence, they will use it as evidence of the dangerous new world we live in, and request us to please bend over for all their new security initiatives.
Our infrastructure is under threat from hacker terrorists! The free world is at stake! Join up at your NET Guard recruiting office now!
As someone mentionned earlier, if this thing ties up 911 some people might actually pay with their lives for this stupid little prank.
Maybe Micro$oft is to blame for the security flaw, but the author of this virus should be severely punished if he is found. impacting life-or-death services like 911 is downright terrorism as far as i'm concerned.
I'd personally beat him up real good and let him get the busy signal while trying to call for help because of his work.
Shame on you, this is the kind of stuff that gives hackers a real bad name. (Even if the target IS a Micro$oft product)
Why would anyone write something like this... using up valuable 911 phone-time is serious stuff. Those call centers in some places are very taxed and when someone really needs emergency help it may not be available. The creator of this virus could be responsible for deaths, even.
Hello, operator? Give me the number for nine one one!"
if this happened on 9/11, and there was a WebTV in one of the WTC's, and there was a business man reading his e-mail on webtv, and the virus took control of the webtv and called 911, and then the plane crashed into the wtc, would the fireman have arrived quicker, changing history so that an errant virus writer saved the lives of thousands?????? nah.
I don't know the exact in's-and-out's of the webtv e-mail system but back in the BBS days, we used to send each other (amongst friends) DOS TSR's that would be disguised as a trusted executable file for a legit program. The person would run it and hang up their modem used ATH0. And dial out numbers using ATDT. To get rid of it, they would have to reboot using a bootdisk since the TSR would be in their autoexec.bat file. Anyway, the point is that this method of modem-"hacking" is very easy to do and shouldn't be tough to adapt for the modern day webtv.
A part of me actually finds the idea of Microsoft being held liable for the 911 calls pretty amusing. But the reality is that it costs money and unfortunately it could cost lives. I hope all of you people make sure to tell your moms/dads/grandparents/spouses/friends/etc. to disconnect their boxes from the phones lines.
i'd be calling for help if i was using something called MSNTV, because it certainly wouldn't be my choice. maybe the little boxes are simply crying out for help ...
when it rains, it gets real soggy. when it pours, i'm under the tap just _waiting_ for the joy
man this is a funny thread...i haven't laughed this hard on slashdot ever.. :o)
"Electric Relaxation" - ATCQ
- Bwana
Im a little concerned over that so many companies and others are so eager to connect everything including the kitchen sink to the internet. There seems to be enough people stupid and evil enough to hack just about anything to get some fame. The fame they then uses when they start their security firm later on in life.
HTTP/1.1 400
It's my understanding that many communities can fine a person or organization if it's determined that a call to 911 was due to anything other than a real emergency or an honest mistake. So what's going to happen here? Is grandma going to get busted because she opened an email on her WebTV? If this virus becomes widespread and wreaks havoc on the 911 call centers around the nation, perhaps it will signal that the time is ripe to hold software manufacturers liable for the bugs in their products.
:wq
wasnt there viruses that used to call 1-900 numbers?
.. they don't make 'em like they used to.
sigh
i know in some of the suburbs around here (Philadelphia area) they will charge you a "911 usage fee" even if it is valid. 2 friends of mine were playing video games late one night and the guy who's house it was started to have a seizure (they were about 16 then). the guy's parent just sorta freaked and didn't know what to do. the other guy called 911 and the sick kid ended up in the hospital for a few days. about a month later the family got a "911 usage fee" charge and it was something like $250. that's totally insane to me. i know here in Philadelphia you are told to call 911 for almost everything, and they route and log the calls in one system. if it's something like a car breakin then they forward it to the local department. Philadelphia pondered the 922 or whatever system for more casual calls (like a stolen car stereo discovered in the morning), but scrapped it and put all the money into enlarging the 911 system and training the operators to route the calls instead of the upset callers knowing which was the right number for which situation. it kind of makes sense to just have one huge routing system than a few independent groups of dispachers.
anyway, i hope these people get this fixed soon. i would think webTV users are not the most computer literate and things like this just make them hate "those damn machines". besides costing them money, a lot of 911 systems are stretched as is and something like this can really screw them up.
I can't wait til one these virus writers has to call 911 cause "he's fallen and can't get up", but can't get through cause his virus is flooding the phone lines to 911.
This just looks like another ATH0 hack. Check out http://216.239.35.100/search?q=cache:7TqncCwNansC: www.psc.ru/sergey/bgtraq/HARDWARE/ath0DoS.html for more info.
Orange
Back in the days of 2400bps, when modems touted features like "auto-dial," every night when one of my friends made his BBS rounds, the cops would show up at his house.
This went on for days. And no one really put it together until, one night, while listening to the dial-tones coming out the speak of his Avatar 2400 modem, he noticed that anytime the modem attempted to dial an 8, nothing would come out.
And one of the BBSs he dialed started thus:
(8)91-1xxx
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
Will someone please go and irradiate the whole Redmond area and rid the world of this BS?
Unplug your WebTV from the wall when it's not in use. Then it can't call 911 unless you're using it right then, and you'd notice when your connection was interrupted.
I design user interfaces for a free network management application,
Is this news worthy here??
WAIT!!!!!!! unless this is the front for that ever scrupulous underground hacking cult known as the Lucky Charms... Green Clovers and Purple Mushrooms...
click my heels...
For one thing, I doubt the operators get paid until the customer pays the phone company. In most states, the phone company cannot disconnect your service if you refuse to pay for calls to 900 numbers. The worst they can do is block your access to those numbers in the future...which might be a good thing in this case!
Second, once the complaints came in, the phone company would quickly cease all payments to the operator, and turn their info over to the district attorney's office for prosecution.
Whoops.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If I authored this virus, I would *not* think of this as a serious threat to anyone's life. Why? Because it is within Microsoft's power to avert the whole thing by having everybody unplug their boxen if it gets out of hand. This has the potential to be a *big headache* for MS, which could outweigh the outside chance that this would actually be allowed to get so out of hand as to cost lives.
Slashdot 's editors are dickheads
I had a ctcp command do that on undernet once. Like[1] an idiot, I ran it, and nothing seemed to happen. It had however hung up the modem and dialled 911. I tried it four times. I forgot about it and carried on for about 15 minutes. Then at midnight I heard a knock on the door. I thought maybe a neighbor had some sort of an emergency or something. It was the police. He asked if everything was ok, but wouldn't leave until he saw my mother to make sure I didn't hack them up or something. It was kind of hard to explain that someone on undernet had sent me this command and said that it actually done something else. I wish I could say I learned something from that experience...
[1] maybe "like" is not the best word
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Could this story have anything to do with this one:
Schmidt Predicts Digital Sky Is Falling ??
Shome mishtake shurely?
This came in as a Civil Emergency Message through the National Weather Service this morning:
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
CIVIL EMERGENCY MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NE
220 PM CDT MON JUL 22 2002
THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS BEING TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF SHELBY
COUNTY IOWA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT.
911 LINES IN SHELBY COUNTY IOWA HAVE BEEN AFFECTED. IF YOU NEED TO
REPORT A 911 CALL...PLEASE CALL 755-2121. IF YOU ARE MAKING THE
CALL FROM SHELBY...CALL 544-2404. IF YOU ARE MAKING THE CALL FROM
PORTSMOUTH...CALL 743-2525. IF YOU ARE MAKING THE CALL FROM PANAMA
CALL 489-2786.
ZAPOTOCNY
KingPrad
Stop the Slashdot Effect! Don't read the articles!
Anyway, I don't know how many times this poor sysop's machine had dialed 911 when attempting to call-back verify 911-1234, etc. And I don't know if anyone ever bothered that first day to see if was smart enough not to dial 011 numbers.
~~~
With that big wad of cash, Microsoft has purchased the numbers 911. The side effect is that people trying to call for help get Buddy, the Microsoft help desk attendant instead of thier local police.
The year: 2006
"ABC News is reporting a bug in Palladium (now branded as "MSNPC") which causes the infected machine to launch the MSN Explorer web browser and bring up the Whitehouse.gov website."
Hell, they can't even get a set top box right... imagine what happens when they are in charge of a whole friggin PC!
"To make a mistake is only human; to persist in a mistake is idiotic." Cicero
411 might have been amusing.
911 is just sad.
This now concludes our broadcast day.
From the article,
This virus only affects Microsoft WebTV/MSNTV units. Windows PCs, Macs, Unix, and Linux machines are unaffected.
Huh!? I thought viruses affected EVERY computer and email client the same! I mean they've never suggested anything different on the news before this?!? Do you mean that when checking my email on Red Hat using Pine I won't get klez or code red???
I stole this Sig
It's great that the virus dials 911. I mean, my local Stonecutter lodgemaster told me only suckers dial 911.
The real emergency number is 912.
*grin*
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
So this is the company we're supposed to trust to make the internet more secure with Palladium?
Humorless sig goes here.
.. the exact behavior of this 'virus'? just hangup and dial? or dial again and again and again? dial after every online session?
members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
Not really. Happy 20th! :o)
no big suprise there
we can rebuild this sig. we have the technology
Hmmm, makes me confident about driving my Volvo with a MS OS in charge. Lemme see, it gets infected and we drive down to the police station? ;) Or maybe it replicates itself by ramming other cars? ;) ;) Then, it adjusts the flow to the heater core so that the car interior is cold or in cars with power windows rolls the windows down regardless of driver control. Soon, both car and driver have a cold. Randomly give the timing a spin so that it sneezes (backfires). ;) ;)
How about cold.vbs? First it checks to see if the outside temp is below 45 F. It causes the radiator fan to slow down and make the car run cold, cracks open the drain plug so that the car's nose drips and adjusts the thermostat so that it runs a little hot.
So, do we then need to see Norton for a cold remedy for it? Or just park it in the garage for a few days and give it plenty of antifreeze? Or chicken soup?
The fun has just begun!
You must be the change you wish to see in the world - Ghandi
would be funny if the guy who made this virus died because he couldnt call 911 because all the lines were tied up.
EOM
I dont know how web tv works, but i do know that on a webtv the maker has a complete control over the software and the hardware that runs on it.
And it still has viruses.
My Playstation is jealous. Now it wants its own line, too. All the other set-top appliances have one.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
Maybe this is off topic but can anyone actually give me a good example of a use for a macro in an email message - what could this possibly achieve, and even more so, what could allowing it to auto-run achieve? what about allowing it access to the users address book, or modem? is there any valid application that anyone can think of that could not be done another, safer way? The average user doesn't even use macro features in any application (spreadsheet doesnt count) so why are they installed/enabled by default in the first place? The need for a macro feature is even less likely for a WebTV user. Does Microsoft take security seriously? since im not even a programmer and i can see the mistake, im thinking no.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
What's more, they're going to win. A jury will take nanoseconds to decide between a grieving family and a convicted abusive monopolist sitting on $40 billion in liquid assets.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
...is that the loser who made this all happen has a heartattack and can't get through to 911 emergency services because his/her own virus/hack/whatever is tying up the line.
Sometimes these pranks go too far.
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
If the person who wrote this virus has caused 911 to be tied up, and this has possibly caused somebody to die, would they be prosecutable under the new anti-hacker law that Congress put together?
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
Gotta be at least one story like this.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
One of the big selling points of the WebTV unit was that it was "impossible" to get viruses. The sales staff were trained to say this (I knew a few). Obviously this isn't the case.
A lot of people have commented that Schmidt is full of... well, Schmidt, because anything critical should not be hooked up to the Internet. But here's an example of one way the ubiquity of Internet-connected computers could disrupt things.
Hypothetical scenario:
Whether this "virus" was planted by terrorists is not at issue, though. Perhaps we should pay more attention to Schmidt -- after all, who would know more about the insecurity of 95% of US PCs than an ex-MS security chief. We need to start looking at how our non-Internet-connected infrastructure might be indirectly vulnerable to Internet-based attacks.
It is a virus on my WEBTV/MSNTV device.
:)
After dialing 911, I like to call those 1-900 numbers and order things for myself off of web stores.
P.S. All your base are belong to us! I just networked with a Sega Genesis running "Zero Wing"
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
In order to be able to pass Hayes commands to the modem, you first have to establish a terminal session to the modem itself
.1% of modem users on the Internet are vulnerable, which is probably way too high. If you did have a system set up like this, you'd experience frequent hangups during normal operation.
You are correct.
The problem is that normally "+++" drops the modem into terminal mode.
To keep this from being a problem (whereyou actually want to send "+++") is that modems are *supposed* to have a guard time where "+++" must not be followed by any data for a certain period of time. If any data comes in, they do not drop into terminal mode. This time is called the guard time. The guard time can be set to zero in software, however (if your dialup software is being braindead or is misconfigured), and a few modems (ones that Apple shipped) had a zero guard time by default. So all you had to do was get the remote computer to send *any* data containing +++AT(a Hayes command). This could be accomplished by sending an ICMP echo (ping) packet and waiting for the pong to hit the modem.
I thought this was fixed for just about everyone, but evidently the WebTV guys still have a zero guard time.
This "50% vulnerable" number is absolutely ludicrous. I've had a 33.6 and three 56k modems, and none of them have had a zero guard time by default or set to zero by the two Linux dialers, the two MacOS dialers, or the Windows NT dialer that I've used. I'd say that *maybe*
Setting the guard time to 255 is probably overkill...I can't see it being a problem at much of anything but zero.
May we never see th
...Microsoft officials are looking into how it is able to...control the modem.
I always knew that Microsoft wrote Windows not knowing exactly how it worked, and now they've got a hardware product that they don't understand how to control the modem of. They bring me a good laugh every day.
Wow, who pissed in your cereal this morning?
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Near my 7th year, I became frustrated, started telling people how stupid I thought they were to their face (Usually after the 8th time of explaining something) And generally degraded into the self absorbed irritating prick that I am today.
No, that's not right. It should be self-absorbed, irritating prick. Watch that punctuation! :)
Interesting that this virus comes out so soon after the House OKs Life Sentences For Hackers. If the 911 lines get tied up, and someone dies as a result, can the virus writer be charged with murder?
"If a hack causes death the hacker can never be the only one to blame IMHO." - AVee
I guess in this case it could, unless you want to blame the user for hooking his computer up to a phone line.
Disclaimer: this is Slashdot, so everyone has to shoot their mouths off without knowing what they're talking about, right?
-jhp
/. -- the Free Republic of technology.
One of these days a virus will dial up the Virus Hotline and report itself.
Table-ized A.I.
Since this apparently affects pre-Microsoft WebTV boxes, though, it may be in code from the original WebTV people in Palo Alto. But that was a long time ago. Microsoft owns it now, and has to take the blame.
Is it actually running unauthorized code, or does the exploit just change what it dials?
As noted in an earlier article, if it leads to someone's death -- then a possible life sentence could be handed to the author of this expliotation.
But this is also assuming that it could be proved a life could have been saved if the 911 lines were not tied up due to this bug.
Compare Windows vs. Linux worm-writing:
Windows - Write five lines of code, stick them in an HTML email and wait for people's mail clients to execute it.
Linux - Spend a LOT of time tinkering, examining the source, experimenting, writing one test exploit after another, get one that works. Then release it and have it work against the n% of Linux users running that particular service, that particular version, probably on that particular distro.
I didn't say it was invincible, just that IMO it takes more skill, time, and effort to crack Linux. Why? Because Linux boxes get patched quickly and still tend to be run by people with at least half a clue about security. That means a vulnerability lasts a couple weeks at the most, whereas clueless users and Microsoft's inherently insecure coding practices have opened up the combination of buggy software and systems that go unpatched for years. Hence, Windows = easy to crack. Linux = harder to crack.
It's not a virus, it's a bug.
As someone who supports the damn thing, we're aware of this...umm... "feature". I don't speak for MS, or MSNTV - but the email doesn't spread. It's a one time thing sent by a malicious malcontent to a webtv user.
WebTV users can forward the email to each other, but the origination is obviously non-webtv since such things are impossible to create on the pitiful excuse for an internet access device.
I toggled a toggle and buttoned a button, but when I got done, I was done doin' nothin'.
Really? Is there a patent on the delay after "+++" to enter command mode? Is that why some modems don't impliment this (absolutely needed) feature?
Yes. That someone was called Hayes Corp... they were big bullies back in the early modem days... back when I got my first 2400baud. By the time I making the choice between Kflex and x2 when 56k came out, Hayes was a dirty word and you couldn't even buy their stuff anymore. (Retailers weren't selling them, at least not around here.)
I guess they're a pretty good example of how you can get short term gains from patenting offensively simple details, but in the long run you lose because you've pissed the whole world off. When was the last time you heard of someone buying a Hayes product??
Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all the unhappy people.
NT :)
God is real unless declared integer.
The wording's loose enough that it could be branded as terrorism. That'll get you the death penalty.
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
Choose using computers.
Choose hanging out on Slashdot.
Choose knowing enough about the patent system to make a lawyer blush.
Choose not having a girlfriend.
Choose your hand every night.
Choose Linux, and its politics.
Choose videogames, LAN parties, XL shirts, and big screen TVs.
Choose a career in the IT field.
Choose bitterness.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
So.. if we call the webtv support line and ask for help, will they help? Give them a fake number and phone number and let them know that you've been notified of a hold in webtv that makes it dial 911. Lookup a google image search on BSOD and report to the guy every so often the content of the image... good times. Just remember: act dumb!
I thought (it has been a while) that most modems could be configured to ignore the +++ command and only drop carrier if the DTR (Data Terminal Ready) line was lowered? I seem to recall that &C1 and &D2 set this behaviour.
The MS Support phone number is supposed to spell out 1-800 GO-WEB-TV but it can also spell...
1-800-HI-WEB-TV when the user is on IRC
or if the user has been watching porn...
1-800-HO-WEB-TV
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
Talk about efficient AI...Microsoft probably didn't look at that code after stealing it, heh... "hello 911, this is the Box reporting Microsoft frauded my owner for selling him overpriced underfeatured and buggy hardware, thank you."
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
Never send a set-top-box to do a PC's work... and one serviced by Microsoft no less!?!?
izm
It's a complex argument.
Laws gets passed against hacking.
Lessee...
Microsoft has a flaw in their program. It doesn't exist as a problem, until some hacker pushes them to fix it. Therefore if hackers did not exist, it wouldn't be a problem, right?
So let's pass a law - hacking bad. The law gets passed, because of these bad programmers (I think we're talking hackers, but I digress.) Things like this causes the ball to roll much easier for their lobbying group.
*OR*
No one finds the flaw, *whew*. We don't have to fix it unless there's a real problem...that would *kill* my chances of moving up...
Now, what we should *really* be asking, is it an error being generated by flawed Microsoft code? Maybe Joe was working a little late, got sloppy, and when someone clicks *here* it generates a strange string in an e-mail, causing problems. (Or some programmer in their employ who was miffed with...?)
Someone's mentioned that MSNTV is a closed system - do we have faith that Microsoft would actually disclose its own error? That would be the *only* way the win/win condition does not occur, ie, bad press existing only for Microsoft.
-Jimmer
Without noise you cannot filter truth. -DKM
and not very original either - maybe it should call Microsoft tech support instead.
--- Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit? | Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
I'm sure the microsoft hater fan boy thought it would be funny to focus the blame on MICROSOFT THE EVIL EMPIRE while placing lives at risk.
...always playing catchup
Nice job! We all apreciate the idea you came up with. I personally have accomplished a better task by posting this message on the loserboard then he accomplished in all his high and mighty coding.
Linux for the masses!
F U
Thought this was appropriate..
"I've heard WinXP removed the cmd/command prompt."
No, Microsoft didn't remove the CMD.EXE or COMMAND.COM prompt from Windows XP. But Windows XP has reduced functionality, in many ways, not just in the command line. The command line is a big embarrassment because of its limited capabilities, but at least in Win 95 it worked. With every version since then it has worked less well. (There are two kinds of command prompt, and, according to Microsoft employees, the differences between them are not documented.)
The command line prompt sometimes begins to display short file names. Microsoft employees say that Microsoft has no fix, although someone not connected with Microsoft did make a work-around.
Cutting and pasting into a command line program often puts successive extra spaces before each line. Microsoft employees say that there is no plan to fix this.
The fast paste mode that is in Windows 98 is gone in Windows XP. Microsoft employees say there is no plan to fix this.
When using the command line interface, Windows XP doesn't always update the time. After several hours, the time reported to command line programs can be several hours in error.
There is a DOS program called START.EXE that can be used to start other programs. But it does operate the same way as in other versions of Windows. It starts a program, but cannot be made to return control to the command line program as previous versions did. There is no technical reason for this; it is just one of the shortcomings that are allowed to exist.
People often say that DOS has gone away. But Microsoft still calls the command line interface DOS, and in Windows XP Microsoft has added new programs for configuring the OS that work only under DOS.
Sometimes when you press a key while using Windows XP, it is seconds until there is any response. Apparently there is something wrong with the CPU scheduler in XP, because there are a lot of complaints about this in the forums and MS people have said that they are working on it. On one particular fresh installation of XP, on an Intel motherboard with either a Matrox G550 or an ATI Radeon video adapter, it requires 18 seconds to display a directory listing of 94 items. This is apparently related to a bug in the video software, not the adapter drivers.
Something is wrong with the Alt-Tab display of running programs under Windows XP. If there are a lot of programs, not all of them are displayed. The order jumps around in a seemingly random way.
Although articles often say negative things about Microsoft, I've never seen an article that fully documents how bad the situation really is. Microsoft's management is so bad that the company has become self-destructive. For example, Windows XP is spyware. Here is a list of ways Windows XP connects to Microsoft's servers:
1. Application Layer Gateway Service (Requires server rights.)
2. Fax Service
3. File Signature Verification
4. Generic Host Process for Win32 Services (Requires server rights.)
5. Microsoft Application Error Reporting
6. Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer
7. Microsoft Direct Play Voice Test
8. Microsoft Help and Support Center
9. Microsoft Help Center Hosting Server (Wants server rights.)
10. Microsoft Management Console
11. Microsoft Media Player (tells Microsoft the music you like)
12. Microsoft Network Availability Test
13. Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service
14. MS DTC Console program
15. Run DLL as an app
16. Services and Controller app
17. Time Service, sets the time on your computer from Microsoft's computer.
18. Microsoft Office keeps a number in each file you create that identifies your computer. Microsoft has never said why.
19. Microsoft mouse software has reduced functionality until you let it connect to Microsoft computers.
These are just the ones I know. There may be others.
So, if you use Windows XP, your computer is dependent on Microsoft computers. That's bad, not only because you lose control over your possession, but because Microsoft produces buggy software and doesn't patch bugs quickly. For example, as of July 7, 2002, there are 18 unpatched security holes in Microsoft Internet Explorer. This is a terrible record for a company that has $40 billion in the bank. Obviously, with that kind of money, Microsoft could fix the bugs if it wanted to fix them. Since the bugs are very public and Microsoft has the money, it seems reasonable to suppose that top management at Microsoft has deliberately decided that the bugs should remain, at least for now.
It seems possible that there is a connection between all the bugs and the U.S. government's friendly treatment of Microsoft's law-breaking . The U.S. government's CIA and FBI and NSA departments spy on the entire world, and unpatched vulnerabilities in Microsoft software help spies.
Windows XP, and all current Windows operating systems, have a file called the registry in which configuration information is written. If this one (large, often fragmented) file becomes corrupted, the only way of recovering may be to re-format the hard drive, re-install the operating system, and then re-install and re-configure all the applications. The registry file is a single, very vulnerable, point of failure. Microsoft apparently designed it this way to provide copy protection. Since most entries in the registry are poorly documented or not documented, the registry effectively prevents control by the user.
Note that Microsoft does not support making functional complete backups under Windows XP. Look at Microsoft's policy about this: Q314828 Microsoft Policy on Disk Duplication of Windows XP Installation . Only those who work with Microsoft software will understand the true meaning of Microsoft's policy. Since almost all programs use the registry operating system file, if you cannot make a functional copy of the operating system you cannot make a functional copy of all your application installations and configurations. There are other software companies that try to fix this, but they don't work well, and Microsoft can, of course, break their implementations, as they have often done with other kinds of competitors.
Because the configuration information for the motherboard and the configuration information for the are mixed together in the registry file, the registry tends to prevent you from moving a hard drive to a computer with a different motherboard. That's another implication of the above Microsoft policy. So, if you have a motherboard failure, and a good complete backup, you may not be able to recover unless you have a spare computer with the same motherboard.
Note that Windows XP Professional can support only ten simultaneous incoming network connections. If you want more than that, you must use Windows 2000 server, and pay much, much more. (There is no Windows XP server yet.) Many businesses have very light network traffic; they just move files from staff member to staff member; they really don't need a dedicated server computer. The staff computers could easily handle the load except for this artificial limitation.
Apparently because the Windows XP GUI comes from Windows 98, Windows XP has the same problem with desktop icons that Windows 98 has. The icons sometimes flicker. Sometimes they move themselves around, particularly after the user switches monitor resolutions. Also, sometimes the taskbar settings un-configure themselves, as they do in Windows 98.
Only technically knowledgeable people know how to avoid signing up for a Microsoft Passport account during initial use of Windows XP. The name Passport gives an indication of Microsoft's thinking. A passport is a document issued by a sovereign nation. Without it, the nation's citizens cannot travel, and, if they leave, won't be allowed back in their own country. In Microsoft's corporate thinking, the company seems to be moving in the direction of believing that they own the user's computer. Most people are both honest and intimidated. Apparently about 95% do whatever they are asked on the screen. They give their personal information to Microsoft. They don't realize that, if they feel forced to get a Passport account, they should enter almost completely fictitious information, since the real question is not "What is your name and address", but "Can we invade your privacy". The honest answer to this is "No, you cannot invade my privacy", and the only effective way to communicate that is to give completely fictitious information. Since it is the educated people who have computers, Microsoft is building a database of the personal lives of educated people. Microsoft knows when they connect and from what IP address (which tends to show the area), what kind of help they ask, and information about what they are doing with their computers, including what music they like. It is not known, and there is no way to know, how much Microsoft or other organizations make use of this information, or their plans for future use.
Not only has Windows XP definitely gone further in the direction of allowing the user less control over his or her own machine, but with Palladium, Microsoft apparently intends to finish the job: Microsoft will have ultimate control over the user's computer and therefore all his or her data. Even now, under Windows XP, a recent security patch requires that the user agree to a contract that gives Microsoft administrator privileges over the user's computer . The contract says that if a user wants to patch his or her system against a bug which would allow an attack over the Internet, he or she must give Microsoft legal control over the computer. See this article also: Microsoft's Digital Rights Management-- A Little Deeper . You may need to be a lawyer to take apart the crucial sentence. "These security related updates may disable your ability to copy and/or play Secure Content and [my emphasis] use other software on your computer" legally includes this meaning: "These updates may disable your ability to use other software on your computer." Note that the term "security related updates" is meaningless to the user because the updates have no relation to user security. So, the sentence effectively means that Microsoft can control the user's computer without notice and whenever it wants. That kind of sentence is known in psychology as "testing the limits". If there is no strong public complaint about this, expect to see more and stronger language like this.
This Register article shows the direction Microsoft is going: MS Palladium protects IT vendors, not you . Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and Microsoft is well down that road. See this ZDNet article, also: MS: Why we can't trust your 'trustworthy' OS .
Microsoft's self-destructiveness does not mean that the user should be self-destructive. There is no need to apologize for using Microsoft software. The correct solution to abuse is persuading the abuser to stop being abusive. Once I posted to a Slashdot story a link to an article on a web site of mine. By far the majority of visitors from the Slashdot story used Microsoft operating systems. Rather than feel embarrassed because Microsoft is abusive, action needs to be taken to prevent the abuse. If you are against Microsoft abuse, you are not against Microsoft; you are more pro-Microsoft than Bill Gates.
These Microsoft policies mean that any government which wants to be independent of the United States government, and any government which represents itself as controlled by the people, cannot use Microsoft operating systems, or other Microsoft proprietary systems.
ATDT18004693288
I never post to slashdot, but I love to read along. After reading this, I had to say something. I only tested 3 or 4 of your claims on my Windows XP box, and found them all to be untrue. Many of the claims sound completely untrue based on my experience with XP. I'm not saying that problems don't exist, but you seem way over the top. Testing your copy paste claim in a dos window only takes a second. I'm amazed that whomever rated this note neglected to verify its validity also.
I recall once trying some obscure open-source dial-up package (can't remember the name I'm afraid) which for some reason had the (unconfigured) default phone number as 99999...
Now, 999 is the UK equivalent of 911.
Just typing the command caused it to dial...
Wouldn't it be better to forward the e-mail to Micro$oft instead...
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
At parties, every so often I say I'm a greengrocer. Trust me - people are much more interested in it than with the answer "I'm in computers", and you also don't risk the dreaded "yeah, I've got a problem with my computer. I just can't get it to...<insert MS Word function here>".
Cheers,
Why isn't MSNBC reporting anything about it? They usually jump at the chance to prove they are unbiased even though (MSNBC is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC)...
I'm a 2000 man.
Educating the public won't fix this. Only Red-Ass Baboons with VCRs flashing 12:00 use WebTV. A bios flash won't work. Again, that's to complicated for the RABs. All WebTV baxes need to be smashed into bits. Maybe RABs can be convinced to do that.
How ya like dat?
There are two others with three digits. 411 is directory assistance. 611 is the number to call for phone system problems (you figure out the logic in that one...).
So, the creator of this prank could tie up lines that someone needs it for a real, life-threatening emergency, instead of playing a funny prank. I hope they nail his/her ass to the wall.
Virg
Wouldn't the first line of defence be to unplug the thing from the phone socket?
yeah, but 411 would have cost the webtv owners money because phone companies typically charge a $0.35 surcharge for DA calls?
</tongueincheek>
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
Consider this: this exploit has been around for more than a decade. Also, not all modems are affected by this. Also, it's fairly easy to fix this hole in the modem's init string, so even if you have affected hardware it's a simple fix to disable the escape sequence.
Now, considering these three points, and most strongly the first, the case can easily be made that due diligence was not used. I have little difficulty believing that somebody working on this project in Redmond ran a BBS at some point in the past (BBS operators know about this because schmucks would knock your board out all the time if you didn't compensate for it). Therefore, it was either willfully ignored for some reason, or nobody tested it who was qualified to test systems that use modems to communicate.
In either case, they're at fault.
Virg
If a criminal by some coincidence owned one of these webTV boxes, could he/she possibly expose themself to a probable cause search? In other words, if I killed a person and the five-o were too lazy to get a search warrant, (and somehow knew I had a exploitable modem) couldn't someone from an outside source have the box dial in and make the call to 911 so the poilce now have a reason to enter my house?
Sollt Ihre name nicht "gutentag" sein? Was bedeudet "guttentag"?
Virg
The article is very short on details, but if it is what it seems to be, it's just an old modem exploit, not hacked code. The idea is to send a ping with "+++ATH0" and then a modem command to dial 911 in the ping data. When the system responds to the ping, it sends back the data (including the escape string). Since the outgoing data goes over a dialup link, the return ping gets handed to the modem, and the modem sees the +++ATH0 in the data stream as an escape sequence/command sequence and responds by doing what it's told (in this case, hanging up and dialing 911).
It's bad, both to do such a hack (tying up 911 is very bad) and to have a modem that's not init'ed to prevent it, but it's not really a code hack.
Virg
As of TUESDAY NIGHT Microsoft issued a patch against this.
Turns out it's NOT a virus, it DOESN'T propogate.
Where's the love?
Yea what about that classic tune?