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WINE: A New Place for KLEZ to Play?
An anonymous submitter sends in this cautionary tale about Wine being maybe a little too good at emulating Windows. Update: 10/23 21:05 GMT by M : Better links: mirror 1, mirror 2.
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Nice thing about WINE is: it can be shut OFF, then there is no environment to flourish in. ("/usr/local? Hell, I'm trying to find C:\windows\system")
JoeLinux
I don't think so. I think it's pretty amazing that this could occur within Wine. I'd be VERY pleased if I were a Wine developer.
It's a linux implementation of windows apis. IT really shouldn't be suceptable to virii like windows is. I would really like to know more about this (the article has already been slashdoted)
procrastination is a way of life aka i'll think up a sig later
Understand some people don't have enough bandwidth to handle a thorough /.'ing. Sooner or later, the site is goign to stop responding simply because you run out of effective bandwidth. Also understand not everyone can afford what they talk about.
Wine is supposed to run Windows apps... a virus is a Windows app as any other... If the Wine user is running Outlook what else he can wait for? The vulnerabilities still there...
There are a lot of smart, knowledgeable people out there who don't want a $500+/month hosting or bandwidth+power bill.
Sujal
politics, food, music, life: FatMixx
between being able to set up a server that can take a Slashdotting and being able to afford a setup that can take a Slashdotting there is quite a difference (esp. in your bank account after you get the bandwidth bill...)
-- the cake is a lie
2 words: static webpages.
I know for a fact that if my ass was getting slashdotted, I'd be setting up static webpages faster than you can say "holy fucking shit where's my bandwidth?" I personally make a static archive of all my dynamic pages automatically just in case something like that happens. The problem lies in the fact that slashdot doesn't archive sites, nor do they give any type of notice before bringing the hordes of lamers from all over the internet to that site's front door. That's a "bad" thing.
I wonder if anyone's brought a lawsuit against slashdot(or their parent company, OSDN) for effectively destroying their servers.
It's a security bug, a security hole, just like the ones in LookOut, and it ain't a Wine problem. This one belongs on bugtraq.
Someone can know what they're talking about, but still have a slow pipe. Someone can be an expert -- even at networking issues -- and find working with web servers (especially huge overkill-behemoths like Apache) to be uninteresting. Someone can have something worthwhile to say, and have no idea that they're about to be Slashdotted.
I think it's really funny that you think a "hardware guru" should know (and care) enough about web servers to take a slashdotting. You have an unusual concept of hardware.
Is it really such a big surprise that something based on Bill's produce quickly turns into vinegar? Storing it somewhere cool (Linux) isn't sufficient to make a good wine, you know.
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
Microsoft is a big monopoly which BUYS ALL OPOSITION!!!!!
A true monopoly would mean Linux and MAC OS and all others would not exist.
monopolistic != monopoly
This is relatively tame.
...and this is one of the few times where my sig doesn't apply.
As much as I hate saying this, I fear it's going to get a lot worse. As/If Linux gains popularity on all systems, including desktops, you can expect there are going to be a lot of disgruntled windows people out there who will become unemployed because they can't grow with technology. I'm expecting to see a lot of linux software start getting messed with and drastic increase of linux trojans and viruses.
don't believe me?
Look at how much software has been backdoored lately- bitchx, ssh, and sendmail. That's a BIG FUCKING DEAL. As we continue, expect the crosshairs to be levelled towards us. There's gonna be a conspiracy. I'm not making any accusations, but keep in mind that the opensource movement is putting pressure on a group of companies that aren't exactly known for their ethical behavior.
of course I know I'm probably just a paranoid nut, but hey, that's a good thing to be in our field..
Looking for Book Reviews? Check out Literary Escapism.
This isn't just limited to WINE, it can hit real Linux mail programs too if anyone ever writes a Linux/ELF virus attachment. Repeat after me, kids:
Executable MIME types have no place in a mail program!
None, never, no way. Mail program doesn't matter. OS doesn't matter. No mail program should ever, under any circumstances, execute anything attached to an e-mail message, period full stop. You should only execute things from people you trust, and one attribute of e-mail is that you don't even know if the From address is the real sender so how can you trust the message?
Alas, if only WINE ran Visual Studio so I could get my MCSD without putting WinXP on my box..
Finding God in a Dog
In my case, for example, consider this: having done this for a few years now, I can set up one Linux or BSD based machine as a great web server capable of fully loading a T-1 or larger data pipe. Static pages, images, streaming software, dynamic pages, the whole nine yards. Could probably do a passable job setting up a set of machines to act as a transparent site even if it took setting up a small cluster of machines to handle the load (images on one machine, data on another, apps, etc. on the main web server, email somewhere else, etc.). I won't say that I could do it with half my brain tied behind my back, no sleep in a couple of days, one hand in a cast, or some big brag, but it's just not that difficult once you have done it a few times and hung around the security conscious folks enough to learn what it takes to secure a machine or set of machines from malicious outsiders. [Give me a couple decent developers and together we'd could make any site you wanted really scream in just a few days].
With my average or better web server setup skills, does this mean I am using my own server setup? No, and I don't plan to any time soon, because none of my skills can prevent a wonderfully configured site from getting /.'ed because the bottleneck isn't usually in the machine, but the size of the data pipe connected to it.
Consider this as well: I usually locate my sites at one of a few good web hosting companies that have good co-location points and massive datas pipe to/from their server farm(s). So the server and the data pipe can handle it, if I want. However, for most sites I set up, I don't want or need the risk of getting a surprise high dollar bandwidth bill because /. or similar is suddenly pointing at my site and hogging all of the hosting company's bandwidth? No. Do I want have or want to spend the money to set up my own data center? No.
Why not? Because IMHO one of the best things about the 'net is that it gives many people who would not otherwise be "heard" a place to give voice to whatever message they deem important. One of the worst things about the net is that some people confuse tech savvy with message, just as the previous poster did.
Do I have something worthwhile to say? Occasionally. Should you respect what I or another writer has to say, when it is worthwhile, no matter what bandwidth they have available to them? I hope so, and for myself I would rather listen to and support the person with one wise voice pushing text messages on a slow data pipe than spend my time and money on a thousand fools pushing worthless content on a fat one.
...Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
and we all know that EVERYONE runs NT right? There's no single user environment for Windows anymore.
No more windows 98, ME or setting someone as administrator in any version of NT, 2000, XP.
I'm glad we cleared that up.
If you're running linux, you have multiple users. Those users by default can only delete their own files.
Suppose you set up KMail to use python as a "viewer" for .py files. Would I treat python running a script that isn't chmodded +x, as a python bug? I don't think so. Hmm.
The real problem is foolish decisions about setting up external viewers. I no longer blame WINE.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Guys, its a joke. Someone emulated it just as an excerise.. Its not really a danger to Linux. :)