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Fizzer Worm Uninstalling Itself
boredMDer writes "According to a recent update on the Dshield.org mailing list, apparently the Fizzer Task Force has gained control of the Geocities webpage from which Fizzer updates itself. From an IRC-Security mailing list: 'We have also postted a Fizzer cleaner to the actual URL that the bot downloads its updates from, as a self extracting and running executable.' The Fizzer-uninstaller posted there creates the file '%WinDir%\uninstall.pky', which then causes Fizzer to remove all of its registry keys. Looks like the Fizzer worm will soon come to an end."
The fizzer worm information minister soon after came forth to announce that the site had in fact not been taken over, and that the fizzer worm was more fertile then ever.
When will people learn that if you're going to download program updates, you should use public-key cryptography to sign the updates?
If you're going to write a worm, do it right.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
as a compassionate human being i find this outrageous
to use the innate homing behavior of a wild natural creature like this virus against it...
to warp it's natural instincts to find home into the means by which it kills itself displays a craven lack of respect for computer worm/ virus entities
do not these strange and wonderful beings deserve our respect and encouragement? is there no natural sanctuary of a subnet on which these beautiful beings can live out their imperative to reproduce? unburdened by the ill wishes of mankind?
is there no compassion on the internet?
outrageous
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Im SURE this must violate the Fizzer EULA somehow, in fact FizzerCorp has set their legal department to work on this right now!
True ravers don't need drugs
so i think it is morally wrong to kill them all. who are we to decide which new e-species lives and which dies ?
(see star trek for more on this topic....)
I mean seriously, this article just SCREAMED for a title like Fizzer Fizzels Out, or something like that. I don't blame Slashdot, I blame DShield.org for their lack of insight to use good reporting techniques such as headlining...
...didn't get a hold of the Geocities page...Otherwise there would be 120398123 people un-happy with a "free-trial" of Norton AV on thier desktop right now.
-Rob
It would have been smarter for the worm to verify a signature on the code it downloads (a la Xbox) so it couldn't be disabled in this way. Trusting a particular Geocities URL is just silly.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Fizzer uninstaller:
format c:
I don't see any adverse effects.
Because, if you walk without a rhythm, you won't attract the worm.
Viruses should put EULA's on them! I mean how many times do you see them posted to bugtraq, or disected and discussed. This is a clear violation of the copyright the author has on the code!
Of course, I'd love to see that author try to sue someone over it.
Cracker: He stole my virus.
Judge: I award you $1000 in damages, and 20 years in jail.
Next let's take over the MS Update site and put REAL patches on there. Then when the client updates his system, he won't be installing more holes.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
In the words of genius cartoonist Gary Larson,
... Everybody knows that! ... But look: Four wrongs squared, minus two wrongs to the fourth power, divided by this formula, do make a right."
"Yes, yes, I know that, Sydney
FizzerCorp is too busy to sue. They are trying to prepare their defense to say that in fact fizzer does _NOT_ contain SCO code.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
Oh, that's a great idea! How about a flashing red popup window, that says "Your computer may have a VIRUS! Punch the monkey to remove it!"
...Would you click it?
their update site converts all those machines to Linux?
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Hmmm... yes, it seems as though this is opening a can of worms...
Sorry, I couldn't resist it.
I lay awake last night wondering where the sun had gone, then it dawned on me.
They should have taken over this one ;)
.sig
-- this is not a