Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft "Swen" Worm Squiggles Into Sight
greenhide writes "As forecast in this story, a new Microsoft worm has indeed wriggled to the surface. The W32.Swen's claim to fame is its professional looking email advertisement that pretends to be a fake Microsoft patch. Earlier viruses have made the claim, but none of them looked this good. It appears to have infected over 1.5 million machines. "
Thats one hell of a virus.
I suggest all Windows users go to http://www.knoppix.net/ and burn the CD.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
of those machines seem to ahve sent it to me :(
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
That's kind of funny, although it seems that this virus requires user interaction in order to spread, so we can't really blame M$ for this one :P
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
The fake update has made it to Windows Update itself. Here is the name: "Recommended Update for Windows Rights Management client 1.0."
Do not download, it's only there to own your system.
I was happy to get this e-mail from Microsoft so I could apply a cumulative patch. I'm usually so bad about patching my system in time, but this time they took the trouble to remind me personally!
No more worries for me!
I was waiting for a slashdot story to tell my why I found 500 'patch' emails in my inbox over the weekend.
Social Engineering + Professionalism + Virus = One Fun Monday Morning
Karma: Can only be portioned out by the Cosmos.
But they claim that it is really a virus. So how can you differentiate between the two?
Gee, since I've never been infected by a virus or worm, and I've been using Windows since forever...
So what you're saying is that you've never connected a Windows machine to the Internet.
Thank got I have no friends. I knew it would finally pay off!
No, it's not just you. Same here. Me too!!! I open every e-mail and run every attached executable, even if I don't know who it is from. And I've never had my computer affected with any virus or worm or trojan or whatever. Sure it crashes now and then, but all computers do, and sometimes I can't find my files... I probably didn't save them right in the first place or forgot where I put them. When it all gets really bad, the kid next door comes and fiddles with it, re-installs my system.. or something like that.. but that's just normal too.. windows has always been like this for me. And it's the best OS around, so thank god I don't have something worse.. like one of those hobby play operating systems!
Someone at Microsoft has a sense of humor. The correct title (as lasted on windowsupdate.microsoft.com) is "Rights Management Services" (RMS).
Greetings. You have been infected with GNU/Swen, a worm brought to you by members of the linux community. In order to get this worm to infect your system properly, you will need to use wget to download gnuswen-config-2.4.6 from one of the usual mirrors. Be careful; this version of the worm is not compatible with versions of gnuswen-config prior to 2.4.4. After you have downloaded the config tools and issued the usual incantations (./config, make, make install), you can configure the worm from any directory simply by typing sudo gnuswen-config -ort [your login id] [full path to your email client]. If you have any questions, be sure to RTFM, the docs are installed at /usr/share/info/gnuswen and all your config files are stored at ~/.gnuswen.
The other day I got a Linux email virus. It was this perfectly innocent looking message, with the subject line reading "Important!". So I opened it, and inside I found the following:
"This is an email virus for Linux users. It works on the honor system. Upon receipt of this message, you should manually forward it to everyone in your address book, then login as root and randomly delete a bunch of files. Thank you!"
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
Three security updates since _JUNE_!?!? Red Hat up2date pestered me until I installed 3 (sets) of updates on the machines this WEEK.
That's one thing that has me thinking about the "dominate OS" argument. Even if one accepts it, and I think that is very arguable, how about the maxim that "The pioneer gets the arrows"? Linux can work out its security issues in greater obscurity.
Thanks, Microsoft, for being the 800 lb. target!
You forgot to add Tiffany's pricing : )
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
Actually, I rather thought it pretended to be a REAL Microsoft patch.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Yes the email looks perfect, but even if I believed it Norton comes to the rescue:
"Norton AntiVirus removed the attachment: Qz.exe.
The attachment was infected with the Worm.Automat.AHB virus."
Ho hum.
Look on the bright side. At least people know how to pluralize "worm."