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?
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 with you, but you know, my users a t work will run ANYTHING...
Users can be psychotic sometimes...!
-]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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Rate free iPod offers: RateTheOffers.com
(Flat screens and Desktop PCs too)
Let's see, the average persons friend sends them a file called funny.exe. The average person really enjoying the kind of crap that their friend's send them online, executes funny.exe (which by the way will show up as just "Funny" on the average computer as extensions are hidden by default) gets infected by the worm, notices they get a ton of pop ups, porn sites, all kinds of junk and their computer runs really slow, blames the manufacturer of the PC (Gateway, Dell, IBM, whatever.) Never realizes it was an issue with MSN to begin with, continues on with their life promising to never buy another computer from Gateway, Dell, IBM, whatever. I've seen it happen so many times. My uncle even blames me for the crap that gets installed on his computer (usually while I'm not there, as I live 300 miles away) and doesn't really thank me when I install ad-aware and get rid of the junk (thinking whatever he just did on the computer made everything work right.)
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.
You are seriously underestimating the general cluelessness of the average computer user. I think it could be named "worm.exe" and a lot of people would still run it.
The knowledge (or lack thereof) of the average computer user is the real reason that security is such an issue today.
No, worm.exe won't spread nearly as fast as virus.exe...
Oh well, what the hell...
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).
...because a TON of windows software won't run or install if they do?
Seriously, they would have 19 gazillion support calls the next day.
In my experience the main cause of applications failing to run as non-admin user is copy protection on games.
Frequently, these start up a service when they run. It would be very hard to make these work as non-admin.
Personally, the first thing I do when I find a game like this is download a no-cd patch/crack. Then I can run it unprivileged.
There are exceptions; the last icq client I tried won't even run as 'power user' and must be run as administrator.
The developers of this sort of rubbish need electric shocks applied to their genitalia every time someone gets infected through their crap application.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
You can still do a lot of harm using a regular user account. Deleting a user's files (often more valuable than the software, which can be reinstalled), propagating over the network, to name a few. You can also try to exploit local vulnerabilities to gain full privileges, or trick the user into giving them to you.
And don't think loggin out and back in would solve the problem; you just install in the user's logon scripts rather than the system boot scripts.
Apart from protecting other users' files, non-privileged accounts don't add a whole lot of security. And on Windows, it hardly works anyway. There are many things that should work for regular accounts but don't, and other things that shouldn't but do.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
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.
Gotta love how insulting generalizations are "Insightful" around here when you're referring to a MS product. Just because some MSN users are ignorant, does not mean all of them are.
That's like saying "All Linux users are elitist snobs", just because there's some jerks mixed in out there.
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
Everything except a virus checker...
*sigh*
and you forgot poland, as well.
"Gotta love how insulting generalizations are "Insightful" around here when you're referring to a MS product. Just because some MSN users are ignorant, does not mean all of them are."
Not only are MSN users ignorant, most Joe and Josephine users are that ignorant *in general*.
I just spent 3 hours today cleaning up a machine that had upwards of 60 trojans and other malware on it. One of which was a keylogger. It was amazing that this machine ran at all.
Does the owner of said computer have any clue about how all this malware got there? Nope. He's got 3 kids, though, that all use the same computer. I
He is ignorant, in the truest sense of the word. He is also *typical* of most home computer owners. People these days expect their machines to simply work, like toasters, because the interface hides the real complexity. I have been trying to educate him, and it's been a battle.
But regardless of that, MSFT has never done any User Education itself. Bill prefers it that way, and that's a shame. Keeping the users ignorant allows MSFT to Blame The User when it comes to exploits (You Failed to Upgrade!), allows them to force DRM down their throats, and basically allows the company to run roughshod over its customer base, without complaints.
So yes, MS users are ignorant. They simply do not know better, and their precious vendor, Microsoft, is aiding and abetting this ignorance.
So what are *you* doing to educate your users?
--
BMO
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 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."