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Internet Security Warnings
Juha-Matti Laurio writes "Internet Storm Center's Diary reported today: Due to a number of very well working Windows exploits for this weeks patch set, and the zero-day Veritas exploit, we decided to turn the Infocon to yellow. The following Internet Threat Level meters are at level 2/4 because of Windows Plug and Play vulnerability's several exploit codes too: Symantec ThreatCon as a part of global DeepSight Threat Management System saying Increased alertness and Internet Security Systems X-Force with Increased vigilance at AlertCon."
But it's been a while since we've had a good/effective worm.
Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/
Seems to me these color coded systems do more to confuse than they do good. Should I relax if we're at green? Should I be paranoid if we're at Red? Should I even care since I run UN*X rather than Windows? Every day there are at least a few new sploits. Every few weeks there's a sploit that affects me as a sysadmin and requires my attention to preserve the security of my servers and internet-attached LAN. Given this I still don't understand the value in these color coded alert systems. Yellow? What does that mean? Wake up an extra hour early to read the logs? The terrorists can attack just as easily if we're at green than if we are at red. I'm uncertain of the value in the announcements at the airport every 15 minutes to remind me that we're at yellow or orange.
The app could download data automatically using IE and ActiveX, format the data using an Excel Macro, then email results to me using Outlook.
Because I care about security.
On related news, the US puts it's security level color at pink. Again, on related news, Bobby's mom chooses to wear an orange shirt. No need to actually read the security threat -- we have colors for that.
Windows is dying.
.exe. I know far too many people who are e-card addicts, and I am SURE they would have clicked.
Well, it's deathly ill, mostly. The average Windows end user is in a never ending battle against the baddies. They buy their systems at the Best Buy, bring them home, run for a couple of months, and then complain that they can't login.
Then they call me, or someone like me. With disdain, I inform them that I'm wicked busy but I'll do it "this time".
When I get my grubby hands on their machines, they're fubar. It's not for lack of trying either, because there are multiple Virus, Trojan, and Firewall apps, all fighting over the same machine, including the odd fake anti-trojanwares. You know the one's I'm talking about. We've all seen them. "Click here for a FREE security scan!" and then the machine gets YET another bit of evil.
I simply don't know what to do anymore. I clean them up, set up security, knowing - just KNOWING that it's all in vain. Just yesterday, I got an "e-postcard" in the mail, and it was just an overt attempt at infection. There wasn't anything that would trip an AV or firewall in the mail, just an obfuscated link that actually pointed at a crypically named
Toast. Totally goddamn toast. The fact that Windows programs have their execute bit as part of the filename is probably the worst thing ever to happen to an OS. One click, and yet another "svchost.exe" process. No lube, no kiss, no reach-around, just total PC anal rape.
And without a total redesign of Windows or dumping the platform for Apple or Linux, Joe and Josephine User are SOL. Vista is going to be more of the same, as it's going to be simply XP SP3 with more chrome.
Ah well.
If anyone knows anything about a0190313376667.gif.exe, mail me at my alias AT Entropy dawt TMOK dawt com. There's hardly anything on the 'net about it except some German blogs.
--
BMO
Red alert sould be used at each Windows release.
One happy customer :-)
You are correct. We want the infocon to stay at green most of the time and only raise it when necessary. Think about this, if we keep it at yellow all the time, it would eventually lower people's perception of the current threat. Trust me, we do try very hard to only raise it when necessary and appropriately.
Disclaimer: I am one of the ISC guys.
Data: Captain.. Sensors are picking up localized pockets of Upnp activity in subspace transmissions.
Picard: Geordi, can we triangulate the originating source?
Geordi: Yes sir, it's coming from a planetary system 15 light years from our present location. Long range sensors indicate it is...
Picard: Yes, I know... Microsoft...
Picard: All hands, yellow alert. Data, set a course for the source of the transmissions. All hands, to battlestations. Worf, put us to red alert upon enterting the system. We don't want another Code Red Incident. And send out a subspace communication to the Federation, all ships, all systems.. We have engaged Microsoft..
Worf: Yes Captain.
Picard: Data, we did test our monthly Microsoft patches on the first Tuesday of the month, correct.
Data: Negative Captain. Unfortunately, there were exploits in the wild which take advantage of the weaknesses in the Upnp service installed on the ship's computer, and the Federation threat level was raised, so we did not test them.
Picard: Damn Microsoft. Alright, let's be careful. We don't know yet what we're dealing with. Maximum Warp! Engage!
Slashdot.. Land of nerds, trolls, and FlameBait..
I think the threat level was raised to blue...
But what does this mean?
STOP: 0x0000000A (00000595 00000002 00000000 8010da41)
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Slashdot.. Land of nerds, trolls, and FlameBait..
More often than not these days, the real tough buggers have randomly generated process names. Here's how I clean a machine:
.
.
.dll that is registered and can't be removed. Never fear! Write down the .d
Tools required:
Process Explorer(procexp) from http://www.sysinternals.com/
autoruns.exe from the same, or hijackthis.exe from http://www.merijn.org/
Any good virus scanner(McAfee's Enterprise scanner is decent. Use a simple scanner if possible, not a scanner/firewall/spam filter/personal servant. It will be generally be faster and simpler.
Ad-Aware from http://www.lavasoft.de/
LSPFix from http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm/
Updated Stinger from McAfee http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
Experience enough to know valid windows processes and files.
Have all of this on a USB drive or CD. Will probably fit on a 64mb drive, unless your virus package is bulky.
Boot to safe mode
Start Task Manager or Proc Explorer and kill anything that doesn't look good, or everything that you know isn't part of windows. You could go to Control Panels:Admin Tools:Services and stop all services first, this will narrow the field.
Run Stinger, just let it scan memory and running apps. Don't wait for it to do a full system scan.
Run Ad-Aware, do the same. Just trying to ditch bad things that are actually running.
If you've gotten this far in 15 minutes, the machine probably isn't in too bad of shape. Dump all temp files, c:\temp, c:\winnt(windows)\temp, c:\documents and settings\username\local settings\temp, c:\documents and settings\username\local settings\temporary internet items
Update virus definitions and do a full scan. Latest SuperDAT from McAfee or Definitions from Symantec or whoever you use, should also be put on the USB drive or CD.
So, virus scan didn't deal with it, or couldn't stop/remove it? This is where it gets tricky and completely manual. This is the point where most people give up, since you really need to know what should be where in Win2k/XP/2k3. I'm really not thinking of 95/98/Me, if those are hosed just wipe it clean and move to XP home for $99-199
Run HiJackthis and look for gremlins. This tool really requires an eye for what is supposed to be there, but pay special attention to startup objects and BHOs(Browser Helper Objects aka evil Internet Explorer plugins)
Add/Remove programs. Go through it with the client. Anything they don't recognize, or know they don't need, ditch. This can be risky, since people forget, but compared to a reinstall . .
Now for the real manual part . .
Run lspfix and check for foreign entries. There are normally 2-4 LSP's present. I usually only do this if there are persistent network failures.
Check Hosts file at c:\winnt(windows)\system32\drivers\etc\hosts There really should only be one entry in here, for 127.0.0.1 localhost. You may have already checked this with hijackthis
Browse to c:\winnt(windows). Sort by date. On a default install, the file modify dates are going to be a long time ago. If you see anything from within the last few months, get suspicious. Ignore log/text files, but don't ignore those without an extension. Do the same for c:\winnt(windows)\system32 This can be a bit trickier, there are way more files in system32 than winnt(windows), but the same rule generally applies. Anything from the last 3-6 months is suspicious.
Do the same for c:\program files Delete any empty folders that your previous uninstall didn't remove. You should have an idea what is supposed to be here, after doing Add/Remove programs, so hack and slash the folders that you don't think belong.
In one of these deleting sprees you are sure to find something bad that won't let itself be deleted, usually a