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MyDoom Windows Worm DDoSing SCO
We mentioned the myDoom Worm just a few hours ago, but more information is available now, mainly that its ultimate goal is apparently to DDoS SCO. You can see some more detail at NetCraft. Obviously SCO has a lot of enemies out there right now, but it's always sad to watch someone stoop to this level.
Within a week, Darl will be equating Linux developers with virus writers - "both are called hackers and both hate me" he'll say and some 'respectable' journalists will report it as true.
1000s Warcraft Gold while you sleep
...they get to give SCO a great fat middle finger
No, not all of us support actions like this against SCO. It does drag people down to their level acting like this, but in the end, frustration does that to people. Not everyone, but some.
SCO has now, for a full 12 months, made threat after threat, claim after claim, that they can't backup, but there's no way to stop them. People get frustrated by their continuous whining.
A fly buzzing around my head annoys me. Usually, I'll slap it and kill it. That's taking me down to far below its level, but it's satisfying. Given several hundred million people annoyed with SCO, I'm surprised more haven't acted this way towards them.
FFS, if you know that a worm forges the sender address, DON'T send bounces to that address. Worms are relatively easy to filter, but the crap from the virus-scanners comes in seemingly endless variations. Some even have the nerve to advertise their anti-virus solution, followed by a copy of the worm-mail, binary attachment included. Yeah right, moron, you just sent a copy of the worm to me and you expect me to buy your anti-virus product???
I asked that myself.
Could be some PCs with badly set clocks. Well, you know those windows users, they don't set their system clocks, have 00:00 blinking on their VCRs, use outlook and click on every fscking single attachements that made it into their mailbox.
SCO's Information Ministry can just point to this and claim more evil Linux users are trying to destroy the software business, etc.
We're right, and we know it. No self-respecting geek would stoop to participating in a DDOS in general, not to mention one against someone/something we consider to be morally bankrupt. We know that we can only claim the moral high road only if we actually stick to the high road... right?
It would be really interesting to find out if it's just some kids behind it, who aren't aware of the difference between right and wrong, or whether it's an entity who has a vested interest in making us look bad...
Get off my launchpad!
Preach on, brother. I wish some sysadmins would get a clue and realize that with viruses spoofing the From: address, there is no fscking point in sending the "you sent me a virus" panic mail. All it does is bother the wrong people.
You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
-- Colonel Adolphus Busch
MyDoom Windows Worm DDoSing SCO
But it's not DDOSing now. The attack is set to begin February 1st and end on the 12th.
The virus affects computers running Windows versions 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP.... The virus also copies itself to the Kazaa download directory on PCs, on which the file-sharing program is loaded.
I'm thinking, wow, whoever wrote this covered all the bases. He/She even got the Kazaa people.
Anyway, why don't ISPs, just for the time being, ban connections to SCO.com? It's not like it's a huge Internet portal or anything, and us geeks who actually need access to the site can just set up a mirror or something.
It does seem odd that the worm has a trigger to stop spreading on Feb 12. If SCO were to unleash a self-attacking worm, wouldn't they likely include such a provision?
--When you buy proprietary software, you don't get better software. What you get is the right to complain about it.
They deserve to have their claims refuted in a court of law, and hopefully they will have to pay damages, court costs, and issue full and public apologies, before going bankrupt. If it can be proved that they deliberately lied in these claims, they also deserve criminal charges brought against them.
Vigilanteeism, however, is just malice operating under false pretenses.
Welcome to my foes list.
Get off my launchpad!
1. The virus makes M$ operating systems look bad.
Actually it's a mass mailer, so all it's doing is making user's look retarded. Again.
2. The DDoS attack goes after every Linux lover's most hated target, SCO.
Well yes, it does. But it ain't going to help our cause at all, is it?
Having said that, I'm going to get me some popcorn and settle down in front of Netcraft >: )
"If being a geek means being passionate about something, then I pity those who aren't geeks." - Pike65
I'd recommend that we on the side of Free Software study the anti-abortion tactics with dealing with such incidents. The first, and most obvious step, is one that was taken last time: immediate and honest sounding disavowel of the actions of the DOSer. Its going to get old for RMS, ESR, Linus, Perens, etc continuously getting out and saying the same thing ("We don't support this, its wrong. We're still right, but the virus writers aren't with us, etc, etc, etc"), but it needs to happen.
I honestly don't know what the other successfull tactics are. I need to study how the respectable majority in the anti-abortion movement deals with its nutbags. Can anyone think of other movements with similar problems that we should look into?
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
I think that this is a great opportunity for members of the OSS comunity to "put their money where their mouth is" so to say...
I propose that the we work on a patch for this worm and get it out there ASAP, that way only tin foil hat wearing goofballs will believe we are behind this...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
Or someone who doesn't give a damn about SCO, and merely wants to distract attention away from their real goal of turning millions of end-user PCs into zombies to do their future bidding.
Hmmm... who would be interested in that <cough> spammers <cough> and has an established history of it?
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
So far, since this worm started yesterday afternoon, I have received over a thousand worm emails and erroneous bounce messages (from mail servers who think that just because my address is on the mail that means I sent it).
And I don't even use any Microsoft products.
When is somebody going to file a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft for continuing to fail to address the security holes in Windows? I mean, it's been thirteen years since Michelangelo, and still all it takes for a virus to rape Windows is for a user to double-click on an email attachment.
I'm speaking of all of you who are saying SCO deserves it (and only those people). Do I deserve to deal with this virus BS? I have enough trouble dealing with the spam at my company, now I have to deal with this too. Viruses suck, period. Especially this one, which is forging random "from" addresses. It seems to be using #randomfirstname#@domain.extention - so now on top of the dozen or so viruses an hour I'm getting, I'm also getting bounces that I can't filter because the "to" is random. Don't bother telling me to filter out executables, I already do that. As a matter of policy, I'm the one that checks the filtered "junk" to make sure there were no false positives. It's usually about 500 a day, 1200 over the weekend. Also don't bother telling me to bounce undefined addresses. Not an option. Considering how early in the game it is for this virus, the dozen or more an hour I'm getting will probably turn into a lot more. Whoever put this out there is doing far more damage to innocent bystanders than they can ever hope to do to SCO. SCO will hang themselves eventually - the author(s) of this virus is worse than anyone at SCO.
I do agree with those who are suspicious of the motives - I think the SCO attack is just a front to increase the spread. Some morons will undoubtedly put intentionally infected machines out there, which will be more effective as Spammer relays than as drones to attack SCO. Anyone intentionally letting a machine become infected should have the book thrown at them. It amazes me how stupid very intelligent people can be sometimes.
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
Without probe of who it was that can be construed as libel, or whatever it is called in the US.
If SCO is attacked they should pursue this with the appropriate authorities. I hope the perpetrator is caught, brought to justice and fairly punished.
The OSS community should be completely unambigous about this matter, illegal means have never been supported or encouraged in order to promote the aims of OSS, not only because it is immoral but also completely unnecessary and childish.
I am appalled that the response of many around here is "SCO deserves it". No dear slashbots, nobody deserves that their resources are abussed in this manner, not even SCO. I am behind them in any action they wish to pursue against the perpetrators, but equally I hope (perhaps in vain) that they will not do false claims without the knowledge of whom and why did this.
I am also peeved that people here are not unambigious about the condemnation of this DOS attack. This is not only illegal and immoral but also counter productive and it would be nice to see complete and unambigous condemnation of these tactics.
Do you want to show OSS tactics and aims are reasonable and beneficial? A wonderfule way would be for true hackers organizing themselves and try to identify, shame and denounce the perpetrators of this (or any other) charade.
Only because people have remained silent and unwilling to help the Internet, bit by bit, little by litte, is being taken away from us, but alas, we have not protected it as it deserves.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Any attempt to involve yourselves in this will be viewed as complicit behavior. Do not get this mess associated with Open Source developers in any way, shape, or form. The culture and purpose of worm authors and OSS developers are completely orthogonal and must remain so.
SCO has enough enemies to worry about, and they can point fingers all they want. They do not deserve an olive branch, they did not ask for one -- do not take the bait and proactively offer one. You will lose fingers.
-Hope