Slashdot Mirror
New IM Worm On The Loose
elfarto writes "Techweb is
reporting that a new worm that spreads via Microsoft's instant messaging client
began badgering users Monday, several security firms said.
Dubbed Funner, the worm propagates by sending itself to all the contacts listed
in the user's copy of MSN Messenger, Microsoft's IM client.
There is an analysis on
Symantec Security Response Site; apparently the worm tries to download stuff
from www.78p.com and adds entries to the hosts
file pointing to more that 400 Chinese porn sites. The worm also sends itself to
the whole contact list as funny.exe so it requires the user interaction to
actually execute it. "
How is this a bad thing?
Geez, who cares. If a dumbass like me thinks that would be ridiculous, I'm sure everyone else in the world would think so too.
Just like everyone urged their friends and family to switch from IE to Firefox, now could be the time to recommend gaim to them in place of their regular IM client. Except, maybe, those who like chinese porn.
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Time to cash in!
Is this why MSN messenger seems to have been down for about 12 of the last 24 hours?
Fourty-two million users worldwide verses far more for AIM. The impact shouldn't be too big, although one has to wonder why people blindly accept and run files in the first place. It boggles the mind.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
Guess my workday tomorrow has been planned out in advance. (I have dumb users.)
I'm dissapointed that MS hasn't done a big enough push to get people accustomed to running as a limited user, versus running as Administrator all the time. This is the main reason why linux/OSX are more 'secure' -- programs like these would execute as user, not as root, given the OS's both discourage people from runnin their every day tasks as root. If the users who get this funny.exe were not running as Administrator, their system wouldn't get infected. The app may be able to propagate itself, but a quick log off/log on would kill the virus.
-]Phreak Out[-
"..and adds entries to the hosts file pointing to more that 400 Chinese porn sites"
First good reason i hear to switch to Windows.
host www.78p.com
www.78p.com has address 1.10.5.89
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
Wow. We've gone from viruses pretending to be porn in order to do funny things to your computer to viruses pretending to be something funny that give you porn.
And they don't run as Admin anyway, so the worm couldn't even infect them if they did click it...
And Microsoft will surely release a prompt fix to address this issue...
So I don't see what the problem is here. :-)
Ohhhh... I see the plan... we slashdot 78p.com, thus limiting the 'worm's damage!
Good thinking, guys!
Just doing my part. ;)
It should be 'more fun', not 'funner'.
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(Flat screens and Desktop PCs too)
Well, if you are running as root, well, the answer to your question is EVERY OS. Run your desktop as root, and it'd take me 5 minutes to write an executable that will hose your whole system.
The fact is, Windows has a solid, well implemented, priviledge system. The second fact is that they gave this up in favor of app compatiblity (crappy programs that expect to write to the windows directory just to run, versus to user directories) and ease of use. This is biting them in the ass, and they are working on getting people away from running as Administrators. Just not as heavy a push as I'd like.
Disclaimer: I work for a company, but I don't speak for them.
Is the worm author most benovelant guy or what ?
China rewards porn snitches
1)run windows 2)get infected 3)receive list and fwd to the chineese authority 4)profit!!
Python script to convert photos into "artsy" portraits: http://p2pbridge.sf.net/pyPortrait/
The problem with Windows and these worms is that you do not explicitly have to give execute permission to the file in question. It's just recognized as an '.exe' file by Windows and treated as an executable.
The kind of people who would execute this file, are the same kind of people who wouldn't know how to give some file execute permissions if they were running a Unix-based workstation (probably even OS X).
Switching to GAIM wouldn't help here. All the worm is using MSN Messenger for is as a carrier for the file; there's no particular security hole involved. It's no different from sending a virus attached to an email.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
"pointing to more that 400 Chinese porn sites"
How do they know that all 400 are porn sites? Did someone actually sit down and visit every one?
Also, are they hiring?
But i would NEVER open something they sent me called funny.exe. I know about their senses of humor.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
actually gaim handles AOL, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo!, IRC, and Jabber.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
A worm that spreads via IM? Or a worm that spreads via stupid dumb-ass users who don't know better than to run a .exe they weren't expecting to receive?
One day, with a bit of luck, people opening attachments/files/emails/whatever like this will be considered much the same as people eating strange pieces of food that they find in the street.
For those in the support side of the field, remember that as long as there are stupid people (and there always will be) security vulnerabilities will always be a poor second cousin to humans. The bulk of your support calls won't come from clever little worms that capitalise on obscure security flaws in a product, they'll come as a result of idiots thinking that "nakedwoman.exe" is actually something they want to see.
Yet another reason we should embed cattle-prods into keyboards... "wow, some stranger sent me some naughty pictures of herself! Pity they're archived, I'll just double-click and let them extract themsel *zaaaaaaaap!!!*"
You got it back words. In general, switching to Gaim won't help, cause it isn't any vulnerability in particular being spread. However in this case it would help, because if you set your little sister up with Gaim and she ran the funny.exe one could assume it wouldn't be able to spread itself further (funny.exe not familiar with Gaim).
Even better, set your little sister up with Linux and not have to worry about all the other crap funny.exe will do.
Linux isn't the only desktop alternative
FreeBSD
OpenBSD
NetBSD
DragonFlyBSD
Music is everybody's possession.
It's only publishers who think that people own it.
Fuck Beta
~John Lenno
and you forgot poland, as well.
Methinks this might have something to do with the recent ban on porn in China...
When I was still doing phone cable modem support (I'm the network engineer now) I spoke with more than one person that said they opened the attachement in their email because they wanted to see if it a was a virus. This thing will spread like that goatse.cx guys ass.
Why couldn't someone write a worm that infected IM clients on Linux. Damn, don't you get it? Any box that isn't physically isolated from the rest of the world is vulnerable. Linux and GAIM are both less vulnerable only so far as people don't target them.
Why switch to GAIM? If you were using the regular MSN client, you'd be up quite a bunch of money - 400+ chinese porn sites times $240
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Was that when some attention-starved sluts starting showing off their boobs...
You sound like you think this is a bad thing.
Anyway, it's not like IM is a professional tool, it started off as a quick way to send little messages and grew. Think about the main user base teenage kids, folks in their early twenties and geeks. Of course it's a reasonable guess to say 50% of that user base is male. So that's geeky males, student males or males going through hormone hell. Of course it became a requsitie when breasts appeared.