Slashdot Mirror
New Windows Worm Inching Around Internet
helixcode123 writes "The Register is reporting a Windows Worm that
takes advantage of weak default passwords. This
looks pretty nasty, as it mucks with the registry
and disables network sharing." Basically if it finds SMB shares with weak passwords, it drops an executable in the startup folder... for once a security problem that isn't really Microsoft's fault.
I bet they just made a program that tried, "Love, sex, and god".
...for once a security problem that isn't really Microsoft's fault...
Taco: Hell just called. They want you turn back on the heat.
Is the one left open by an Admin who has no business being an Admin....
But (more seriously), doesn't is just scare the hooey out of you that brute force password cracking is now running around as an autonamous virus on the Net???
Yeesh, I get the willies thinking of every user that I've told "you can't use password as the password".
"Please tell me why isn't it Microsoft's fault? "
Please tell me how it's MS's fault that people pick easy to guess passwords?
Also, even those who know better often seem to leave passwords to default if the system shouldn't be accessible from the outside. A typical example of such a system is an ADSL router / firewall. I know several of these whose password is left as standard. Granted, attacking them will be more difficult (and probably cannot be automated like in this case) but once one of the hosts inside is rooted, it's easy to connect to the router from within the LAN and gain access to the rest of the services.
You can't shut us down! The Internet is about the free exchange and sale of other people's ideas!
for once a security problem that isn't really Microsoft's fault.
What!! On Slashdot!! a story that absolves Microsoft of guilt when blind-eyed finger pointing would have been so easy...
Who are you and what have you done with the slashdot editors?!?
--
Dilbert - "If aliens take over your boss's body, is that a bad thing?"
Wally - "It depends on the aliens"
I'd hate to see a worm built with a password guessing algorithm that just used a dictionary attack with a capitalized first letter and '1' appended at the end.
When the admin requires a password that must be at least 6 characters long, mixed case, and contain both numbers and letters, this is the most standard type of password that is generated by users. Easy to remember.
This isn't a problem with Windows, per se. It's a problem with braindead network administration that requires either nothing in the way of password requirements or such outrageously difficult "strong" passwords that users have to write them on Post-Its stuck on the monitor.
Perhaps the best solution would be biometrics?
I have been pwned because my
Because this is slashdot. The fact that your aunt has breast cancer is Microsoft's fault.
St. PAtricks day is this month.
For employees that are forced to change the password monthly picking a holiday from the month is easy to remember...
Give Microsoft a break. Open source software has its own fair share of exploits and worms that take advantage of unpatched boxes. I subscribe to all of the securityfocus mailing lists and I can tell you that I see a lot more *nix than MS activity.
I feel sorry for those that let their hatred of a company clout their perception on information security.
-Lucas
Browsing through my firewall logs, a simple "file://attackeripaddy" in a browser window results in around 80% success using either no username/password, or a simple "guest" username with no password. On occasion, I'll have to throw a "C$" on the end (file://attackeripaddy/c$) but that's only necessary with fools running winNT or winXP instead of win9x. Sometimes it's even obvious that the people with compromised and unsecured computers are spammers...
Banging on my firewall then leaving their own computer open is arguably an invitation to come on in and look around. Leaving a guest account open is a clear invitation to come on in and look around just like having anonymous ftp available is an invitation to enter and at the very least look around. They're both file servers, both well known and documented...
Lock that 80% out of the internet, or even slap them upside the head temporarily, and 80% of the computers whacking away at my firewall will stop. That doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. Stupid/ignorant people who let their computer get used as a DDOS or other worm/trojan client through a basic lack of care don't get any pity from me.
NO CARRIER
"Please tell me how it's MS's fault that people pick easy to guess passwords?"
Please tell me how it's not Microsoft's fault for making both partitions and the system directory shares by default. How the hell else would the worm get access to the StartUp folder? The people most vulnerable don't even know where that particular directory is, let alone how to share it.
Please tell me how it's not Microsoft's fault to make XP users members of the Administrators group by default (the only ones who can access those default shares).
Please tell me how it's not Microsoft's fault that XP doesn't even bother asking for a password for a new (admin!) user account unless the account is made the old-fashioned Win2k way.
The "shiney new" way XP handles user accounts by default is almost as bad as 95/98/Me. By default, all system users are listed at the log-in screen for you to pick. One of them has a password? Move on down to the next in the list. Odds are at least one of them doesn't have a password and yet has admin privileges.
True, no self-respecting XP user would have anything to do with the accounts script in the Control Panel, but the better method of dealing with user accounts is both counter-intuitive ("Performance and Maintenance?" But "User Accounts" is right there!) and practically hidden (Performance & Maintenance -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management (Local) -> Local Users and Groups), at least as far as former 95/98/Me users are concerned.
No, this is a design flaw in XP, part of Microsoft's attempts to dumb down the NT kernel for the home user. Perhaps MSFT wouldn't have to spend so much money on patching these security holes if they instead spent a little capital on trying to educate users a little about (extremely) basic user accounts security. This current "security hole" has been around since NT 3.1 and hasn't been that much of a problem until Microsoft decided to give everybody admin rights by default.
For example, make it really clear to users enabling file sharing that people can and will try to break in if they connect to the Internet, so strong passwords or other security means are really necessary.
It's a good thought, but consider this:
You should be warned that ena*click*
Are you sure that you want*click*
Sweet. My files are shared.
Withdrawal before climax is very ineffective and those who try this are usually called "parents."
Hey! My son Temp123 would take offense at that!
-T
From Technet article 318751 (HOWTO: Remove Administrative Shares in Windows 2000):
And... From 314984 (HOWTO: Create and Delete Hidden or Administrative Shares on Client Computers) (This is for Windows XP, W2K Pro, WinNT4 Workstation)
These get rid of those pesky administrative shares.Just so we're clear, SAMBA is not a protocol. The protocol you are thinking of is SMB (Server Message Block). Samba allows unix users to use SMB. Here's some info.
Life is offtopic.
Any local account without a password in Windows XP is prohibited from remotely connecting to that machine.
Is that case sensitive?
Keep Austin Weird!
"Son, it's time we had that special man-to-man talk about where babies come from. See, your mom and I tried to, uhhh, 'swap location', and everybody knows that to swap two variables, you need a temporary variable*. Well, you're that temporary variable. You just better hope you don't go out of scope soon..."
(*: True in the general case, since the XOR trick only works in certain circumstances.)
"What's your password?" "It's random." "Great, glad you use a smart strategy, now tell me what it is, please." "I told you, it's 'random'" "How can it be random...you have to decide it when you rotate, and of course it's picked at random...so, anyhow, tell me what it is right now... " " it's random....I just told you!!!"
since the worm doesn't try the most common password: ******