Windows/NetBIOS pop-up Spam:

bofus writes "This article from Wired News presents a new way to deliver unsolicited advertising content - the MS Windows Messenger service. It appears that the client software hasn't been widely distributed yet, but it's probably only a matter of time before a free clone is circulating. This method could become the delivery method of choice for all kinds of unsolicited junk, given the number of unsecured PCs out there. On the flip side, if you run a relatively secured machine and have some sort of firewall, this probably shouldn't concern you."

Comments

ahh nuts!

[Quasar1999]

I wasn't sure how to take this message...

Hello, would you like to get laid? Call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx

alas, now that I know it's spam.. my hopes have been crushed... :(

Re:ahh nuts!

[blonde rser]

I wasn't sure how to take this message...

Hello, would you like to get laid? Call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx

alas, now that I know it's spam.. my hopes have been crushed... :(

Of course I meant it. But you never called :(

Secret Weapon

[PaddyM]

When my friends and I would play Starcraft, the winpopup was my secret weapon ;)

Good article, real funny

[LittleBigScript]

"I have customers who call me back and tell me they love it and it generates hundreds of calls right away," said Kovacs, who noted blah...blah...blah..

That sure is a funny way to say "death threats."

"The girls of the internet. Ooh, I'd go online with them anyday!"
-Homer Simpson

Re:Good article, real funny

[Zaiff Urgulbunger]

Would it help me with my plan to insult every intelligent being in the universe?

And will it let me do it in alphabetical order?

net send

[mrgrey]

I get really bored in my NT4 Server class one day and wrote a small stupid batch file that utilized the net send command.

:one
net send %1 "crapflood of info"
goto one


It was kind of amusing to watch. People would click the OK button on the message and as soon as it went away another popped up. The best thing is the beep that accompanies the message. Oh the assinine joy....

Re:SPAM

[Jucius Maximus]

This is so much more up close and personal than e-mail spam.

All it will take is a few pr0n campaigns through this thing, and backlash will be quick to follow.

You might be able to increase the intensity and speed of the backlash by sending a pr0n ad to a machine conennected to a WiFi network during a powerpoint presentation to stockholders or upper management. (teehee!)

net send slashdot "First post!"

[Nintendork]

Don't tell the spammers that there's already a utility that can abuse the messenger service. There is no such thing as the net.exe command line utility.

Only "positive" feedback?

[gpinzone]

"I have customers who call me back and tell me they love it and it generates hundreds of calls right away," said Kovacs.

What about the thousands of calls that go something like, "YOU MOTHER F*CKER!!! STOP MAKING THESE F*CKING POPUPS COME UP WHEN I'M PLAYING COUNTERSTRIKE OR I'LL F*CKING RIP OFF YOUR F*CKING HEAD AND F*CKING SH*T DOWN YOUR F*CKING NECK!!!!!"

Sorry, I don't have anything else to say. The stupid lameness filter is censoring my post for yelling.

Re:The Solution

[TheGreenLantern]

Clearly you do not see the wisom in HAHAHAAHA!!!1! WINDOZE SUXORS!

Next /. poll:

[techwolf]

Windows Messaging is...

( ) An Instant Message client
( ) A method of sending popups
( ) An Email Client
( ) My own worst enemy
( ) Cowboy Neal's Little Secret

Re:Concern me?

[TheBrownShow]

Why don't you OS Zealots use it to spam all the MS users out there and inform them of how they're a plague upon humanity!?

Re:Least of your problems.

[zulux]

Close off ports 137 and 138 on any WAN connections. Of course, any competent windows network admin already knows this.

I can't find a port setting on my NT Lan Manager - what are you talking about?

Are you useing that TCP/IP thing? That's for hackers on the internet.

You should be useing NetBEUI - now that's a stable protocall, made by the fine folks at Microsoft. Not one of those "Internet" (read: hacker) protocalls made by one of those unwashed UNIX people.

I've heard the MSN is going to move to NetBEUI - so I know it's the network protocall of the future!

If you can't use NetBEUI - at least give Banyan Vines a try. Works great with our Windows for Workgroups!

Stay away from OS/2 - thats bad Mojo. Amiga people like OS/2 so I know it's bad.

Heh, we've been getting this..

[stratjakt]

One of our gateway boxes is terribly insecure, and gets these pretty much every day now.

It's usually selling "diplomas from prestigious non-accredited Universities, based on work experience. No testing or coursework required"

I guess not locking down the box, they just assume we'd be stupid enough to fall for it.

Every once in awhile I'll do a
"NET SEND * ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US"

Noone here has a clue what it means or where it came from.

Dammit!

[futuresheep]

Now that this is out, my NET SEND pranks in IRC won't be as much fun anymore!

Anyone remember Code Red?

[ncc74656]

I configured Apache to pop up a window on an infected machine every time my server received an attempt at compromising it. It exploited the hole created by Code Red to pop up a message on the infected server. /default.ida used a server-side include to call Lynx with a URL that caused this command to execute on the infected server:

net send localhost "Your webserver has been infected with the CodeRed2 worm. You have a security hole so big that you can drive a Mack truck through it. You should fix it before some script kiddie comes along and takes advantage of it. Remove root.exe and shell.exe from c:\inetpub\scripts (or wherever your CGI scripts live, though c:\inetpub\scripts is the default location)."

Damn...if I had thought of it (and if I didn't think Internet advertising is evil), I could've made a mint off all of the lusers who let their servers get infected with Code Red! If I had figured out how to do something similar with Nimda, I could've made an even bigger killing!

(Details of my adventures with Code Red are up here. The live counter is gone now because my rusty SQL skillz resulted in MySQL thrashing away for more than a minute to generate four numbers.)

New 'switch' ad idea..

[stratjakt]

"... and then my computer was like beep beep beep and I was waist deep in a Nigerian money-laundering scheme!"

(Ellen Feiss parodies are destined to replace underpants gnome business plans.. Do not resist)

Re:Simple fix...

[TheTomcat]

So what's next? Spam on my HP Printer [digitaltrust.it]?

I've sent messages to random printers before. Back in the days before Napster, there was a P2Pish search engine that scoured the net for open SMB shares. People would often share their whole C drive (retardedly), but the most fun was to send messages like "I'm running out of ink. I'm running out of ink. I'm running out of ink. I'm running out of ink. (etc)" or "You should reall secure your machine.." to remote printers shared to the world over SMB.

S

Net Stop Messenger in San Francisco

[billstewart]

Here in San Francisco, messengers not only do the Spandex pants and bicycle helmets, but also usually have tattoos and metal rings on their faces. I hadn't heard of anybody using nets to stop them, though....

The only time it's really a problem is Critical Mass.

Probably not the case here

[billstewart]

In this case, it doesn't sound like the spamware lets the spammer relay their traffic through another machine - it's probably coming directly from them. Slapping them may actually be fun - here you are, some poor slob who bought a package telling you how you can M8ke Munny Fast! by promoting your 1-900-sex-spam line, you start this thing up on your PC, and now you've got 500 popup windows on your screen telling you to stop bothering people, plus one more saying that all your base are belong to them.

Re:Simple fix...

[Rev.LoveJoy]

for the purpose of spamming...err, sending cute messages to co-workers.

Don't you mean 'sending messages to cute co-workers?'

-- Cheers,
-- RLJ

But what about the small penised people?

[Zaiff Urgulbunger]

There is someone, somewhere, who is sitting in front of their computer thinking...
Their mind has wandered...
SEX...
Sex with the (wo)man of their dreams...

oh, how wonderful life could be... but alas no, not for this poor soul. For they only have a tiny small penis.
And right then, at that very moment just as their dream is being crushed by their own insecurities, up pops Windows Messaging Service:

++ INCREASE THE SIZE OF YOUR PENIS!!!! ++

++ New pill adds 3 inches to your cock! ++

How right it would be for them at that moment, to give this poor poor person some hope in life?

So my question is "Who are we to judge the rights and wrongs of this 'Mass advertising/marketing/spamming' product; a product that might give hope to just one or two of the thousands of millions spammed?"

That said, personally I couldn't give a rats-arse about some spotty virgin geeks' lack of sex - but hey, SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE must actually buy these products. Find that person, kill them, and the whole spamming problem is solved! Surely?!!
---
Lots of love, Zaiffy baby!

Re:Simple fix...

[|<amikaze]

Sadly, I sent goatse to a friend of mine who had his printer shared up globally. He later called me, asked me if I had printed a giant gaping ass on his printer, and then asked me to help him fix it.