Slashdot Mirror
New Worm Chats with Users on AIM
goldseries writes "CNet is reporting that a new
IM worm chats with users to get them to down load a file containing a virus. The virus replicates its self and sends its self out to user's buddy lists. The virus will reply 'lol no this is not a virus.' The virus hides users from seeing the messages sent out to members of their buddy list. Viruses are evolving; now they will even talk to you."
my God, this one will be unstoppable.
This worm is smarter than anyone who writes "its self". Jeebus keerist.
The people who are stupid enough to type "Is this a virus?" are the same ones who would have just clicked on it before. I fail to see how this is going to spread any more than before...
There is no sig
Let me know when it will have hot N3TS3X with you, and I'm in!
(First!)
Anyone remember "give me a cookie?"
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
One day they may be even yell us "All your base are belong to us!"...
exit();
Question: How can you tell you are talking to a virus on AIM?
Answer: It sounds more intelligent than a normal user
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
This story would be better if it were written in English.
Seriously, though, this is an interesting combination of artificial inteligence and computer malware. I wonder if a virus writer will someday make a more advanced bot for viri delivery.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
To every 13 year old in the US and europe.....
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
A.L.I.C.E.
:D
This is a small app and she will talk with you - pretty well. So the fact these guys use something similar (it might even be this app) is no big surprise.
That's why I use Trillian..I still haven't figured out how come it won't let me download files, or even get pictures from other people or even do any kind of direct connect
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
Another bogus headline. You would think that a chatting virus might use one of an im robot at least, not send two static messages. I guess people will fall for it anyway.
..."Why don't you just Download me?!!"
Automated Social Engineering on a global scale. Users will crumble before its onslaught. On the bright side, maybe this will get more people off IM.
May the Maths Be with you!
Honestly (and no, I'm not a programmer), the potential here scares me. It seems to me that "interactive" automated intrusion is going to be a serious issue for security. Yes, the truly prudent are (as usual) safe, but the gap between the "luser" and people like me and my co-workers is going to get smaller.
I really do have some of our local users using vmplayer virtual machines to access the internet (the ones with Windows laptops) - and a lot of services shut down (chat, in particular) that some would like to use.
Those who know more than I (most of you) - any comments?
Using plain ol' text since 1968
In the virus source code, just #include eliza.h and you are all set...
"Computer Scientists can count to 1024 on their fingers" (non-mutant, non-mutilatated, human computer scientists)
to just hire a third world sweatshop to chat with people and get them to download your virus? I mean in the $$/hour for the time it took to make something reasonable...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Viruses talk to you!
finnaly someone will talk to me on aim
i don't care
There's 2 ways to pass the Turing Test: make the program more intelligent, or pick examiners who are more dumb. Virus writers pick the later option.
Don't take the above poster too seriously. He doesn't.
This will cause some smarter people to stop typing "lol" every other message.
Tell me more about now they will even talk to you.
wouldn't an unknown new name on the buddy list sending you a package with the message "lol no its not a virus" be a dead giveaway?
My sig has been answered.
how do I know that the virus didn't submit this Slashdot article? Maybe it's just propagating more lies.
/Puts tin-foil hat on
Reality test... am I dreaming?
I mean, typing its own message is good and all, but not that impressive or scary. Now, when it is able to hijack the read text feature and play psychological mind tricks on me, that's impressive:
"Click the link Dave...why haven't you clicked the link? Do you not like me any more? If you don't, I could just go over here in the corner and format myself...after all, you don't like me anymore, else you would click the link..."
The only way it can get better after that is changing psychological mind tricks to Jedi mind tricks:
"You will click the link."
Only on /. could you find stuff like "down load" then shortly followed by "its self". Somebody there doesn't like to put words together, probably...
I have had better conversations with this worm than I did with 'sxybutterfly23' in AIM.
At least I got something out of the conversation other than humiliation and unrequited love.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
And when you remove the virus it says, "I'm scared, Dave."
As ever, this will only fool idiots. The problem is the same as ever - too many idiots.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Well, good to see somebody's working on true AI, but I think we should wait to pass judgment on its intelligence for when it attempts to take over the world and stick human beings in pods.
"The virus hides users from"...
WTF? Does it hide users from grammar too?
Someone will turn the old Eliza program into a virus.
Virus: How do you feel?You: I'm all right.
Virus: Just all right?You: Yeah.
Virus: How do you feel about your mother?GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
I sent a link to someone yesterday, and when they asked, "Is this a virus?", I responded, "Lol, no this isn't a virus". I'm the aim bot!
My friends, we are fighting a war: a war on stupidity.
And clearly, we are losing.
IT: "Hi! It's nice to meet you!"
ME: "Who are you?"
IT: "LOL! Of course I am not a virus! By the way, click here!"
Yeah, sure thing they are evolving...
If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
it was just my schizophrenia!
Stop! Dremel time!
Why does this remind me of the old SNL Landshark routine?
"The virus hides users from seeing the messages sent out to members of their buddy list. Viruses are evolving; now they will even talk to you."
That's why I Touring-test every single person I ever chat with on IM clients. Sure, no one really wants to talk to me after 30 questions, but I kinda like sitting in an empty chat room.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
If your default browser is Firefox, even if you click on a link like this by accident you'll be ok. I've accidentally clicked a few of these links (as they've come from people I've known to protect their comps) and Firefox provides that nice download summary giving you the extension/file type. Since they're all .pif or something like that, you can easily avoid infecting your computer.
Although I must say, a bot that chats with people to download it is pretty sophisticated. I wonder how long it'll be until they disguise worms as AIM updates or upgrades.
"It's a reverse vampire...they....they crave the sun!"
...sombody added the virus to their buddy list. It would start chating with itself. Download itself and then infect itself thus commiting suiside. A cunning ploy, I think, to rid the world of this problem.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
Does this mean that September is almost over?
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
- lol no this is not a virus
So it will sound like almost every other meat-head out there using instant messaging? It will blend right in! I have received less comprehendable IMs from people who would consider it a mortal sin to be anything other than professional in person or on paper.Why does all respect for grammar and spelling (and not sounding like a 12 year old) go out the window when instant messaging technology is involed (especially in a business setting)?
"Viruses are evolving; now they will even talk to you" Viruses aren't evolving. The fuck-offs who write these things have to get creative to find a way into the holes that they complain about existing in the Windows. It's self-fulfilling prophecy. It's lofty altruism, but without criminals trying to exploit "weaknesses" in an OS, there wouldn't be "weaknesses".
I've gotten this from several people on my list in the past few days... it basically spams a message, usually the same one, every hour or so, with the same link. It just fakes the address, the real link is to: http://209.235.17.26/My_Christmas_Card.SCR
s card?my_christmas_card.scrs card?my_christmas_card.scr
(06:41:27) xxxx: This AIM user has sent you a Christmas Card! To open it please visit: http://greetings.aol.com/index.pd?source=greeting
This senders personal note: Merry Christmas!
(06:41:27) yyyy : Sorry, I ran out for a bit!
(08:42:59) xxxx: This AIM user has sent you a Christmas Card! To open it please visit: http://greetings.aol.com/index.pd?source=greeting
This senders personal note: Merry Christmas!
For a Natural Language Processing project, I wrote a perl script that would take all of your Gaim logs, build a database of things you are most likely to say, in the style you are most likely to say it. Then, as you typed, it non-obtrusively suggested the rest of the word or next word that you were currently typing. You could hit a key and it would fill it in for you
If IM bots get sophisticated enough, they could start doing something like this. Not for typing something out, but for generating messages from a person that sound a lot like them. Perhaps copying a message of sending a link they had sent earlier, just changing the link location. Then if the person replied, they could use information from the logs on how to best respond like the person.
Hmm, perhaps I shouldn't be giving anyone more ideas...
It's called W32.Girlfriend.M and not only does it talk, it won't shut the hell up!
ELIZA type programs of various flavors have been around for decades, and ran on computers that were very slow / small by today's standards. Heck, an Eliza-style program, and even its LISP interpreter could fit in 64K, or easily on half a megabyte. And that is the runtime requirement. The code itself could easily be a minor addon to a modern day malware.
If you read some classic LISP texts, such as Norvig's book on AI using Common Lisp, or another book The Elements of Artificial Intelligence, and other classic texts, there are probably a lot of algorithms that could be used.
Turn the spread of the malware into some kind of gameplay problem and use AI algorithms to optimize the "gameplay" of the spread?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
From New Scientist:
A COMPUTER worm called Sober hit the headlines last week, reigniting people's fears about viruses. But while many may fret about infected emails, hackers are increasingly turning to stealthier ways to spread malicious software. Their latest target is instant messaging (IM), a wildly popular alternative to email that allows groups of friends or colleagues to chat online in real time.
"Hackers look at IM and they see fertile new ground," says Jonathan Christensen of FaceTime Communications, an IM security firm based in Foster City, California. "Although email continues to be a target, malicious code writers have become more creative." Even Microsoft, which supplies a proprietary instant messaging service, agrees. "Instant messaging has become a popular target for malicious hackers," says a spokesperson.
IM viruses and worms are not new. In 2001 two IM viruses called Choke and Hello struck, albeit with limited impact. But back then just 141 million people were using IM to talk online. Today 863 million people chat this way, and in March 2004 the volume of IM spam, known as spim, began to skyrocket (New Scientist, 3 April 2004, p 22). But because instant messages from your account can only be sent to your approved contact lists of friends, security experts hoped that IM worms would never take off like email-based malware.
Now, despite these protections, IM worms are beginning to cause similar damage to their email counterparts. "The sweet spot for IM worms is right now," says Jon Sakoda of IM security company IMlogic in Waltham, Massachusetts.
On April 14, the UK-based news agency Reuters had to remove 60,000 clients from its Microsoft messaging service for 20 hours after it detected an attempted invasion by a worm called Kelvir. IMlogic reports a threefold increase in the number of new IM worms released in the first three months of this year compared with 2004. And during this month and last a new IM worm variant has appeared almost every day, according to FaceTime.
Kelvir and another widespread worm called Bropia were detected on 6 March and 19 January respectively. They both use a piece of publicly available code called an application programming interface (API) to infect Microsoft IM networks, and spread via messages that appear to come from a trusted friend, but actually contain malicious web links. Click on one and it automatically downloads a virus that gives a hacker remote control of your PC.
The links are embedded within casual, friendly or salacious comments depending on the worm variant. Hackers have even programmed some Kelvir worms to chat with the victim before sending the link, to persuade the recipient they are talking to a friend. The worm's stock responses are sent blindly, regardless of how the victim replies, so these "conversations" can seem fragmented and illogical. But this is not uncommon even in genuine IM chat, due to the short time delay between sending and receiving messages. "It always shocks me how well these social engineering attacks end up working," says Nicholas Weaver, a security expert at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California.
Other worms such as Gabby, which surfaced on 26 April, target AOL's Instant Messenger, gaining access to contact list addresses through a flaw in the software rather than using API. And in March, a spat broke out between IM virus writers (similar to turf wars between email virus writers) when the IM worm Fatso (otherwise known as Sumom or Serflog) contained expletives aimed at the writer of the worm Assiral, which in turn was designed to disable Bropia.
Graham Cluley, a security consultant at UK-based anti-virus firm Sophos, says that email still poses a bigger threat. "While IM viruses may be on the rise, I think there will always be more people with access to email," he says. He points out that the Sober worm that struck last week, which also gives hackers remote control acce
If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
Anyone who played Quake2 must be familiar with ratbot. It would respond with "Yeah !!! I am a R A T B O T !!!!! ?? " or "Please help me !!! What is a bot ??" if someone's message included the text "ratbot". This worm reminds me of that... annoying, but in a really funny way.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
This evolution is very efficient. It would seem that as the virus scanners become more advanced and email/chat scanners begin to pick up on the spread of different virus types, the virus writers have reversed their attack type. Rather than try to hide from the scanners, they attack the weakest element in the virus defense chain - the users. Users are more easily fooled than scanners, and by writing code clever enough to interact with the user, the virus writers are bypassing the security offered by the "professional" tools. Quite genius. I once heard that many (if not all) advances in Internet technology have come as a result of porn, spam, or virus writers (some caused by companies creating needed defenses for these type of developers). This seems to be in accord with that line of thought.
"Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity." - David Gelernter
PossessedSN : lol thats cool http://foo.bar/clarissa17.pif
NormalUser : who r u???
PossessedSN : lol no its not its a virus
Now if the NormalUser thinks it's someone normal talking to them, he's quite dumb.
You just got troll'd!
From Instant Messaging Planet:
A new "multiple language" smart worm is spreading through Instant Messaging, checking system settings of IM clients and then sending messages in the appropriate language. The virus appears to be a new variant of the Kelvir instant messaging (IM) worm dubbed Kelvir.HI, propagating over a leading public IM network, said security firm Akonix.
Akonix says it is the first worm ever identified that intelligently checks system settings and delivers the worm in the proper language. "The rise of IM threats is mostly 2005 phenomena," Francis Costello, CTO at Akonix, said. "For the most part these social engineering attacks are pretty basics. Except this one."
Costello also said this form of advanced social engineering, where a virus discovers which language a user is working in, and then propagates itself in the same language, is a trend likely to continue. So far the worm has only been spotted on the MSN IM client.
"It figures if you're speaking French, your buddy is also speaking French," he said.
Earlier this month, the Akonix Security Center reported a total 42 new threats aimed at corporate IM systems in July, which is a 24 percent increase over the previous month.
The Akonix Security Center has classified the most recent worm as low risk and immediately used the industry's only real-time IM malware, SPIM and protocol update system to automatically push updates to customers for protection against this threat.
So far the smart worm has been spotted in 10 languages, delivering the same line: "haha i found your picture!" The languages are: English, Spanish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Swedish, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish. The virus moves once users click on the link in the message, a copy of the Spybot worm is automatically downloaded to their computer. Spybot is a backdoor program that, among other malicious activity, can end security applications, log keystrokes and receive remote commands, according to Akonix.
If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. I do not chat with bots or viruses, really.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
When a new message comes in from someone not on your list it gives the dialog "The following user has sent you a message" Now for this bot, is it going to be the same user name, or random one everytime?
Viruses have been able to talk to you for a decade, man get with it.
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" - Albert Einstein
'lol no this is not a virus.'
That is exactly what a virus would say. The response should be:
lol, yeah, I AM a virus!!!1!!
That would be unstoppable.
My house is safe. We switched my teenaged sister to a Mac, and the number of viruses entering the house quickly dropped to zero. No matter how many times I said "Don't click on the link you get in IMs...". Problem solved!
Join the Empire! http://www.empirereborn.net/
These are the same people who also don't know and don't care that they allowed music disks to install rootkits and backdoors on their computers.
is an AIM virus that erases the faulty Windows install on the user PC and replaces it with Ubuntu.
Whay hasn't anyone done this yet?
"What happen?" "What !" "What You Say !!" "It's You !!" "HA HA HA HA ...."
That may be a clue to walk away at that point.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
Viruses are evolving
Seriously now, are viruses really evolving or is it just that the techniques used by virus writers are evolving? And my Inner Philosopher wants to know if there's a difference and if this has anything to do with Intelligent Design.
I better stop now.
"It's a wonderful idea. But it doesn't work." -- Tad Danielewski
Always interesting to see how virus technology evolves. But this... well just reminds me of a t-shirt note I saw somewhere... "Because there is no patch for human stupidity."
Some people just can not be educated.
Viruses are evolving; now they will even talk to you
... incident.
Good! At least something will! The wife has been giving me the cold shoulder since the
This post is not a troll
I metamoderate, therefore I am
I have reported my AI experiments to the DOD and the president. I am hoping to turn over my entire system through the approprate channels through their appropriate channels. So, I guess, if this involves my work in any fashion, Surprise, you're already in the news. DMXForever http://www.jaring.my/weblog/fav.php?id=8594&addfav
Symantec today announced an update to their Anti-Virus program that will automatically block this threat by replying with "You are too a virus you SOB"
Maybe a worm hole will open up and swallow every AOL user.
Task Mangler
You: I don't feel so good today. Virus: Just download this file it's very funny and it will help you. ------ You: Do you know any good software for XXXXXX ? Virus: Just download this file ! It's great !
*an infinite number of monkeys wrote this sig
it seemed very nice to me, how could I not download the file it told me was not a virus?
Remember kids, with great power comes great opportunity to abuse that power
The viruses are not "evolving." Please do not anthropromorphize the process of evolution; the viruses are being specifically manipulated by a progammer(s) to have different functionality.
I'm surprised these AIM worms haven't yet integrated with those award-winning AI bots used to fool other humans (e.g. Jabberwacky or ALICE).
Having said that, when I asked Jabberwacky "Is this a virus?" it said "Well, I hope so." Not very reassuring..
I remember the old days when you'd actually get a message from someone who was a human being. Haven't seen this AIM spam bit but there is one in ICQ which is pretty crude. Says hi then sends it's link if you respond. Of course the bots have no info on themselves, have hidden ips and are easy to spot as the bots they are. The people who create and unlease these things belong in the same jail with the email spammers.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
And why clones are a dead end. All the monocultures are busy passing diseases around. THIS is why sex exists guys and gals. It's why having more than one computer platform even though expensive, is a good idea. They act as natural barriers.
:)
Oh and for those of you who believe in reducing support costs by using a single platform... Nature already decided against that. The diseases, viruses are going to increase in number and sophistication until it's cheaper to run several platforms. Might as well start now, get some practice.
Deleted
and ilnk the site... well, it would be unstoppable until the site crashed. But I'm sure someone would mirror the virus so it could keep rolling...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
I for one welcome our new intelligent virus overlords!
Is that you Skynet?
"I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
This really shows us that the users are the biggest security risk here. Some people would blame Microsoft or AOL. They would have to blame someone... Cant be their own fault ;)
FTFA: "Advice to users is to be careful when clicking on links in IM messages--even when they seem to come from friends--and to use up-to-date antivirus software. When receiving a link in an instant message, the best practice is to verify with the sender if the link was sent intentionally or not."
In other words, computers and the Internet aren't new, so quit clicking on email and links from your cousin you've never met to get pictures of you and your family from a party you were never at!
Do what is right and let the consequence follow
AOL to deliver a new bot named "AIM Defender".
Million Dollar Screenshot
I mean, once some people have it they try to convince more people to get it....
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
There was a worm called W32.Aphex@mm that did something similar. It worked via AIM/AOL, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ and IRC. The two main reasons it didn't spread very far was 1) it was rather large, 700KB for a worm doesn't spread well and 2) it didn't use any exploits for automatic installation.
But the worm did manage to get it's own song named after it...
Artist: AFX a.k.a. Aphex Twin
Album: Analord 09
Tracks: PWSteal.Bancos.Q, Trojan.KillAV.E, W32.Aphex@mm, Backdoor.Netshadow
You would fail your own test
... elaborate on that?
Finally something to use all the old Eliza code for. IM therapist and hacker all rolled into one.
A conversation I had with my littlest sister this morning:
...
missmag: http://myspace04.myphotos.cc/clarissa17.pif
missmag: lol thats cool
sheep.: what is cool? It's a pif, don't run those.
missmag: lol no its not its a virus
sheep.: holy crap, you're finally trying to follow in your brother's footsteps?
missmag: lol thats cool
sheep.: damn straight, I'll download it now. Let's see which of us can figure out what it does first. It'll be a game!
missmag: lol no its not its a virus
sheep.: uhhh.. I'm noticing that you're repeating yourself.
missmag: lol thats cool
sheep.: oh okay, I didn't know that's what kids were into now.
missmag: http://myspace04.myphotos.cc/clarissa17.pif
sheep.: yeah, I knew myspace was a big hit.
sheep.: back in my day it was BBSing, we used to trade porn for games and games for porn.
missmag: lol thats cool
sheep.: yeah, it got to be really popular community-wise, but I guess you all like myspace cause it's the new "hip" thing, right?
missmag: lol no its not, its a virus
sheep.: yeah I was thinking the same thing about livejournal
missmag: lol thats cool
sheep.: Okay now I'm certain there's something wrong, Maggie, are you there?
missmag: lol no its not, its a virus
sheep.:
I've stumbled across at least one page in which people's reactions to Eliza's odd phrasings were compiled. Not too many of the IMers recognized that they weren't dealing with a mind on the other end; a healthy share of them kept right on asking whether Eliza was up for something or other. After several exchanges the live person usually just bailed in mild frustration to find someone more cooperative.
Really we're fortunate that virus/trojan writers tend to be just as lazy and marginally competent as the people they dupe. A couple of simple phrases, the suggestion of someone loving the recipient... It's the bare sinews of human nature they're touching on, and not subtle at all. A really resourceful virus author could do far more damage, but the kiddies seem to be content to prey on their peers.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
AIMusers are poofs anyway so who cares?
"Only on /. could you find..."
You must lead a sheltered life.
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
"Viruses are evolving; now they will even talk to you."
Dear esteemed friend,
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dr. Ebola and am employed by the Ugandan ministry of oil...
The computer will take over your computer, and then start selling off items in your house that it can see in your webcam on ebay, paid to it's own paypal account. After the money comes in, it will ditch your computer leaving you with a negative score on ebay.
In terminator we gave the computer the ability to control everything, but in the real world they'll just take it for themselves.
are viruses really evolving / developing? Or are users just becoming dumber?
"Unless five million dollars are transferred to the following numbered account in seven days, I will capsize five tankers in the Ellingson fleet."
When viruses can use Jedi mind tricks, civilization will collapse in 12 hours.
"You will port me to Linux. You will give me root. You will post me on Slashdot."
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
I thought I had a new friend
don't these things automatically pass the turing test if someone clicks on their links?
If I remember correctly, Trillian doesn't have very good nat traversal so you have make sure forward all the ports (at least if you're using a router) used by the protocols you are using. Other than that, I'm not sure what what else could be causing your problems. Gaim seems to work ok for me though ;)
Yes, the "War on ____" is cliche, but it's mostly the result of the media. Nobody honestly compares those things to real war.
And yeah, Europe saw some real conflict in the first half of the 20th century, but it's certainly not like the Americans didn't witness it.
I'm assuming you're not American by your post, so you may not be as aware that today's the anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. It may not have been a US State at that point, and Japan may not have declared war beforehand, but I think that clearly constitutes "war." I'm sure many an American slashdot reader has a relative, possibly a grandfather or grandfather's brother who is buried in Europe.
Yes, it's been a while since we've had a war on our soil, but the same goes for you. While I don't know your age, it's a safe bet you weren't alive to remember WWII. So let's not start in on who here has experienced a true war. Your city may have, but you haven't.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
Definitely insightfully funny. It takes a real dumbass to click a link that says "http://www.buddypic.com/blahblahblah.jpg*" but shows a URL of "http://www.uploadavirus.com/gotcha.exe*".
*Names have been changed to protect... something.
I'll be your candy shop of infinite deliciousity if you'll be my discotheque of endless rump-shaking.
Note: The slashdot article says 'lol no this is not a virus.' The CNET article says "lol no its not its a virus".
my bro has aol and he will kick your ass so back off nerdboy
I am the psychotherapist. Please, describe your problems. Each time
you are finished talking, type RET twice.
lol no this is not a virus
Maybe you should consult a doctor of medicine, I am a psychiatrist.
Send the trillian crew an e-mail about it and/or upgrade to the latest bought version of trillian. The free version sux and the hacked versions concentrate on keeping the chat functionality, but tend to forget about extras. Trillian rules, I use it too :)
AIM-bot viruses have been around for YEARS. They used to be way more prolific than in the past. The only innovative thing this does is try to somewhat intelligently replay.
;)
That said, people still have AV. There's still stinger. AOL might even be able to release an update that blocks where it's hooking into the main AIM program (which would, of course, be very stop gap)
I got attacked by this the other day. I was sent a link that said "I uploaded some new picutres you should check out!
I click the link and was presented with something like Photos.com
It didn't even try to mask itself with a double file extension or anything. Nor could I get it to run in WINE, so that's another point of the Linux vs Windows desktop battle
I immediately told him he had a virus and talked him through getting rid of it. Now instructions are on his away message. Word of Mouth and AV are what stopped this things in the past, and that's what's going to stop them now.
OK, I shouldn't do this but...
Those who know more than I (do) is correct. The "do" is understood. Your way would be "those who know more than me do"
Nice try, sucka
Posting without Karma bonus 'cause this is dumb
Using plain ol' text since 1968
Half a megabyte can fit this Python script, which is very easy to hack around, and the Python runtime, quite easily, IIRC.
My friends, we are fighting a war: a war on humor.
And clearly, we have lost.
If this technique keeps on working after a while, virus writers will have effectively passed the Turing test. Though as predicted, the Turing test will end up saying more about itself (and us) than AI. Perhaps there should be a Turing Test++ that identifies AI as intelligence capable of distinguishing a human from a virus bot soley by communication over IM.
No, you didn't witness it. Most Americans were sitting at home during the World Wars.
As for Pearl Harbor, that's somewhat closer to war. But remember, that was one incident on one day. And that wasn't even anywhere near the mainland USA. And not only that, but it was a military installation!
It's obvious you don't know my age, or the fact that I'm British. For your information, I was born in 1936, and experienced the Blitz firsthand, until I was moved to the countryside.
I don't know if they teach you about such things in your history classes over in America these days, but the Blitz is where Germany bombed London and other English cities for months on end. Over forty thousand dead, if I'm not mistaken. And even that paled in comparison to what cities like Dresden, Stalingrad, and Hiroshima faced.
I don't care if your media labels such things as being "wars". Any responsible and intelligent American will never refer to such minor inconveniences as "war".
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Its actually a little funnier this way.
Why not just not answer someone that says "lol this is not a virus"... I mean if of the people pops up on my list out of nowhere and says that, it would pretty suspicious to me... Don't you think?
Working to make this world a darker place...
Some guy said that this was a good link http://www.goatse.cx/ and I didn't hover. I still have that virus swimming in my brain.
I couldn't fail to disagree with you any less.
You do realize that humour requires something to be funny, correct? That simple requirement was clearly not present in any form in the post I replied to.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I got a "greeting card" from someone over AIM that I talked to about getting an apartment with for maybe half an hour total, and it was a com file.......... Yeah, that's not a virus.....
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
The worm actually replies with "lol no its not its a virus". Which makes anyone who opens it even dumber, since the thing is actually telling you it's a virus.
So - the virus would come in from the mail system with the execute bit set to 0, the user would have to download the file, get its properties, and tick the "execute" checkbox.
It really depends on what we define as "execute". In order to do perl file.pl you don't need an execute bit on file set, bacause perl need only to read it. This is not very good, and perl could've checked for execution bit, but this is the feature of a program, not filesystem now. On the other hand, file manager could check for execution bit on file.pl before running perl on it (bash works this way, if I'm not mistaken)
May Peace Prevail On Earth
We'll have to grant them equal rights and welfare and low-cost PC-housing benefits. Shortly after that you'll hear remarks like, "Well, there goes the memory-page!"
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
lol no this is not a rootkit
viruses have been placing text onto a screen and through networks since the first viruses, they are not talking to the users, even if the users think they are.
Stick eliza software in there, and they are still not 'talking' to the user, even if they process commands.
stick it.
please type the word in this image: highest
random letters - if you are visually impaired, please email us at pater@slashdot.org
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
He has nothing on this AIM worm. (I have nothing against those of the jewish faith)
(10:58:24) Me: What's up dude?
(10:58:28) holydrones: Dude, do you want to fuck you up.
(10:58:32) Me: Not particularly
(10:58:35) holydrones: Sinon is not a jew.
(10:58:43) Me: Sinon can be a jew, that's fine with me
(10:58:48) holydrones: That's not a jew.
(10:58:52) Me: Ok whatever, he's not a jew
(10:58:55) holydrones: Whatever happened to all the pretty girls want to be cool this is a jew!
(10:59:05) Me: So it's cool to be a jew?
(10:59:09) holydrones: I like to be cool.
(10:59:13) Me: Then you're a jew
(10:59:16) holydrones: You're not my fault, i just have to shit, not i am the bot that is a jew!
Hi, I'm a signature virus. Copy it into your sig to help me spread!
Puffs says: Hi, Flownase!
Flownase says: Ah... choo! (snif) Sorry.
Puffs says: Hey, what's this file?
Flownase says: lol no this is not a virus
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
I'm afraid that I really can't feel much pity for anyone who still hasn't developed an appropriate level of paranoia toward downloading and executing programs. Sure, this new beastie poses as someone on your friends list. Still, I fail to see how I should be any less suspicious of files sent to me via IM (even from friends) as opposed to files emailed to me by friends.
I'm not saying the article isn't newsworthy. I'm saying that these people who are being stupid and executing shit about which they know nothing are getting exactly what they need. They don't deserve this but they do need this. Nothing teaches like pain.
We have an AIM worm circulating at my University which disguises itself as an AOL Greeting Card...
Ryan - http://www.thecosmotron.com/
I once took over a position where the previous admin, having seen all the extensions "vanish" from her Wordperfect documents upon upgrading to Windows 95, renamed them all so they would have the extension again.
Problem was, the company sold distance learning courses, which were written in those documents. Years later I was still finding files with names like "Series 65 Study Course Chapter 5.wpg.wpg"
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
So I guess this puts an end to the debate over whether or not a virus is truly alive.
by the way, he isn't a worm and he doesn't give you viruses. He's merely an AI bot his name is holydrones on AIM
Link
which OS?
S7uP3D UZ3R: Did you mean to send this? Or is it a virus or something?
SMERT VIRI: lol no this is not a virus
S7uP3D UZ3R: Kewl! Thnx 4 the link!
Journalists!
I'm a cyborg that fought in every modern war.
Easy to say it, ain't it.
Apparently language is also evolving... it now silences words from speaking gibberish. I sure hope it learns grammar checkers from freeing them from forcing good diction.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
"Why do you say I'm a virus?"
"How does thinking I'm a virus make you feel?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Come, come. Elucidate your feelings."
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
"We've lost thousands of men to this insidious weapon."
"Well why don't you just NOT pick it up?"
-goro-
I've been getting spam messages and some really bad bot messages on Yahoo! messenger for quite awhile. Most of them start out asking if you'd like to chat, then send you a link for their webcam site. Quite a few chat sites on the internet have become bot havens, with rooms filled with more bots than people trying to fish for people stupid enough to click on links. Also, on sites such as MySpace, there are bots that will create profiles that look real and then send messages out asking for people to visit and click on their homesite. I'm not terribly surprised that a worm found its way into AIM. Although it does rely on the same thing all the others do: gullibility.
These people are paying for service (to clean their computer from viruses), for software (anti-viruses), why should someone else, except themselves, bother? Because viruses and worms and other malware in general spend from the finite well of bandwidth, that is a shared resource, and drive up bandwidth prices (and accordingly, other service prices) for everybody, not only for themselves. Got it?
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
OK....way in the minority here, but I absolutely abhor and despise IM of every flavor. None of the dozen or so (depends on what's not in pieces) PCs and laptops in my house have ANY instant stupidity installed. Anything that resembles AIM, MSM, etc. has been removed, disabled, or otherwise rendered inert.
Yes, I'm old and weird. My first PC was an IBM 360 in 1971. No tube...TTY terminal. No broadband...300bps ACOUSTIC modem. Batch processing. And yet, it was way cool in the day.
Anyway, my point is that the instant gratification of IM sucks people in and encourages STOOPID behaviors. Cyber cheaters, sexual predators, and other less-than-noble types use IM as the tool of their particular "trade".
Honestly, I can't think of one good aspect of IM. Sure, a decade or so ago, IM was WAY cheaper than calling grandma long distance in Florida, but then you had to CALL her to troubleshoot why she couldn't get AIM to work anyway! These days, long distance is cheap. Skype and the like makes it free or super cheap.
So why do people keep sending billions of emoticons every day?
I personally think most people are technophobic sheep and IM is the path of least resistance. That, and the anonymous nature lets them transform from a fat, bald married guy or desperate housewife into Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie.
So maybe IM'ing is a modern sexual issue.
And an IM virus is a new STD.
Guess that makes me an electronic abortionist!
I am my own gestalt.
-goro-
Ohhhh...so that's what that song is about. And here I am thinking it's a commentary about America's perpetual war against terrorism ever since September 11.
"It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss
With all these marbles in my mouth"
This makes me think of the "Light Grenade" from "Mom and Dad Save the World". The most diabolical doomsday device ever invented; it has "pick me up" printed on the side!
My friends, we are fighting a war: a war on beating a dead horse.
And clearly, we have lost.
Or, at least, Cyric has lost. I'm outtie.
The first Artificial Intelligence are pests.
gigantino.tv - Heavy but weighs nothing.
The lot of them. Morons.
welcome our new viral overlords
As an american High School student, I'd like to officially apologize for my generation.
makes me glad that I use trillian lol
this happens in Unix too (that's how we get she-bangs and scripts to work.) The difference is only in the eXecute bit: in Windows, it's ON by default, in unix it's OFF by default. If what you tell me is true, it's enough to set all execute priviledges off in all directories (or in C:\ ??) and catch all your executables and turn the X bit on on them. This is not very difficult, and should be doable by a quite simple program. From the moment you do this on, you'll have to set the X bit for the other programs you install, but this should not be difficult to accomplish, either.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Some people may be tempted to misinterpret this that there has been considerable progress in AI (artificial intelligence). Actually, however, this is more indicative of progress in NS (natural stupidity).
It would certainly take care of the .jpg.exe and .gif.exe situations.
I think people will be more likely to become used to knowing that Pictures != Programs than all this weird stuff with the extension.
Not to mention that the OS could be more aware. On Linux if I mark a *.jpg as executable, it still tries to open with The Gimp. If I take a windows binary and append some other extension, it tells me that the extension doesn't match the MIME type.
*.jpg.exe should set off a flag in windows. It wouldn't be hard to blacklist, and it would do a lot of good, stop gap as it may seem.
On NTFS formatted filesystems, you can use the ACL to default set it so that all files saved will not have the "Execute File" permission. You just deselect "Allow" for the line that says "Traverse Folder / Execute File" for the "CREATOR OWNER" entry and "Apply onto" "Files Only" for the scope and allow propagation down.
Or, you can go into your Group Policy Object (Local Computer or Domain) and by default in your Software Restrictions Policy disallow execution unless they were in areas of the file system you designate, I.E.: "Program Files" folder. And if I remember correctly, saved files from current versions of IM programs are saved in "My Documents" outside of the "Program Files" folder by default.
These are not the AOL users you are looking for. Move along.
Considering how many people who suffer from asperger's syndrome would actually FAIL a turing test, it isn't surprising that some people would be fooled by a virus with similar social skills.
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
Celine Dion naked should be grounds for RUNNING THE FUCK AWAY.
Nobody wants to see that, do they? *shudder*
Yep. That's exactly the plan. Thanks for your comment.
Sincerely,
The US Government
Neither ICQ nor AIM is very popular. Most Brasileiros have MSN, though. And GoogleTalk is still unknown.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
I think that usage follows American participation in wars, (we finally see the necessity of fighting and mobilize almost every resource possible to bring to the fight). It's that mobilization that is intended to be connotated, not the actual battle. For a decent portion of the American populace that was what a war meant. I'm not sure what % of our population was directly involved (likely to get shot at) in WWI or WWII but would guess the low single digits. The decision makers of America's power years 50s-early 70s would have recalled the massive effort expended during world war two and were trying to tap that for their pet project (poverty, drug use, etc). After that we never really fought in a war that had significant impacts beyond the theater, so most of the US has forgotten that war is hell. Our modern wars have cost very little compared to either world war or the older European wars in terms of men, resources, and sacrifices on the homefront.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
Not that it would run on OS X anyway... but it would protect you from an application bundle you received from a worm in an archive from appearing as an image. e.g. funnyPic.jpg.app
This doesn't fully address your problem though since "funnyPic" with an image icon will still nail most people, and of course most Mac uses probably wouldn't know what a .app extension means anyway.
that bandwidth is on an exponential upward curve?
Down here (Brasil), at least, total available bandwidth vs. time is represented by a sub-linear growth curve (meaning bw(t+1) bw(t)*k for every t)
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Please post your banking information here. lol, this am not a phishing atempt!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
You know, if grammar and punctuation used over IM was above a kindergarten level it would be a lot harder for a virus to imitate an actual person. I mean, really, the virus could randomly generate 'lol','omg','rofl',':)',':-P' and manage to carry on a 30 minute conversation with the average IMer.
Yes. Here is Europe sysadmins have no worries when it comes to viruses, because their business users etc. will crack open a hex-editor, reverse engineer any code included in it, and make sure there is nothing malicious in there.
Yeah really!
On the other hand, Americans are lazy, and it is not the fault of us, the IT industry, for creating badly architected/implemented software. Sure.
${YEAR+1} is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop!
Cyric,
Unfortunately you are fighting a losing battle with a generation that has a whole new definition of "war".
One question: Morrison, Anderson or None?
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
401 - Attention span not found
If we create self-aware viruses (imagine the irony if these are the first real AI), would it be wrong to continue to mindlessly delete them? Would they deserve a trial? :)
Seeing as how I am a geek, and do a lot of 'freelance' PC repair. This means more money for me. :)
;)
I love computer viruses, and I also love being an open source user
Of course, spammers will compensate by padding emails with 98% Shakespeare
Well, at least you would have an interesting read in you inbox everyday; maybe one could develop some sort of persistant distributed storage scheme involving spamI'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
What's her sn? ;)
The one that kept saying "IM your boss!" and other cute phrases?
'mmmmmmmmm.... forbidden donut'
"...now they will even talk to you" Emphasis added.
(At the risk of wandering off-topic...) A German expression for a tune you can't get out of your head translates as "ear worm". It makes a disgusting combination with the English expression "hook". Frankly, with the tween-dominated "pop" tunes, I'd say we've a worm pandemic for some time now.
to err is human, to forgive is divine, to forget is... umm...
I just realized after I copied/paste it in one of my comments that the CNet article quotes "lol no its not its a virus" which doesn't really make sence, as on /. it says "lol no this is not a virus."
You just got troll'd!
The article summary innacurately quotes the virus. It does NOT say "lol no it's not a virus."
According to TFA, the virus is sent with the message "lol that's cool," and if questioned, responds with: "lol no its not its a virus" or, if punctuated correctly: "lol. no, it's not [cool]. it's a virus."
Give the virus some credit. It's trying to be honest and forthcoming.
Writerati
WARNING: Soft "core" naked lady
http://tour1.brookeskye.com/?nats=MTIzOjI6Mg
It's pretty sad--istic. I thought she wanted to talk to me. The webpage is kinda broken, that I tried to login a different chat-name to test a theory, the browser cache and history would need to be flushed and the webpage loaded from a fresh web browsing window. It's got some soft naked pictures, nothing too horrible, but still the content of the website is dirty. I've always wanted to throw a GNU Emacs Psychologist Zippy session at a chatroom and do exactly as you thought; maybe send a few naked pictures of myself to these pornographers and see if they can make heads or tales of it.
You can make them talk, serv files via xdcc, auto-lamor-detection->kick/ban, join a botnet, DDoS, etc... weeeeeeee
the only permanence in existence, is the impermanence of existence.
This is evolution....
You had your time....
THIS IS OUR TIME
God created man in his own image, but somehow he evolved into a hairless monkey.
Indeed, you did lose this debate, and I proved to be the victor.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
.. yeah. that one that I sent you... yeah, yeah, I know...key in format c: and hit Return
no, its ok. I promise. Trust Me!!!
"This is a small app and she will talk with you - pretty well."
Dude, this is nonsense. I maintain my own modified version of Alice, and I have heavily modified and extended the responses to perform much better than Alice. But every single time, without exception, people figure out that it's a bot only after 2 or 3 sentences. Some even figure out after 1. And when they've figured it out, they try everything possible to damage it, like asking "do you want sex" and that kind of stuff.
ELIZA seems to be overkill. Also, your on the fly optimiziation. Virus could do a lot of tings to hide thenselves and spread faster, but they are even more dumb today then they used to be at DOS times. People used to discover several polimorphic virus by then, but we have just a few new ones.
So, forget about IA on virus optimizing the spread, or discovering new holes. Forget also about beter criptography usage. The virus writter can (and do) nowadays 0wn the entire net with just a simple VB script.
Rethinking email
This virus is easily ported. There is already a unix variant out.
/; rm -rF * to read it!"
"lol no this is not a virus. but u gotta cd
On the other hand, file manager could check for execution bit on file.pl before running perl on it (bash works this way, if I'm not mistaken)
You're mistaken. bash cares not what you pass to perl -- or anything else -- on the command line. It would be both difficult and stupid if a shell worked this way.
They talk like us now!
People expect her to be a bot and so they know what to look for. Someone receiving a random IM just might get surprised. While you may not fall for it, and maybe your friends may not fall for it...think about the average human IQ (100). Think about all those idiots online who open up e-mails "I Love You" multiple times. You think those people won't fall for ALICE?
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
This is so not true.
./perlfile.pl at the prompt nothing will happen
./perlfile.pl from the prompt then your shell will read the first line of your file (remember it is: #!/usr/bin/perl) and determine that this file needs to be run by that program, essentially doing the same as above. This way just makes it easier to run the program. Bash scripts work the exact same way.
Assumptions:
1) you have a file perlfile.pl
2) first line of perlfile.pl is: #!/usr/bin/perl
3) the execute bit is NOT set
Results:
When you type in:
If you type perl perlfile.pl then your script will run. But this is not the same as running an executable. In this case you are running a program that then reads a script file that "runs a program." These two things are totally different
However, if you do set the execute bit on perlfile.pl and run
What's even goofier is that in OS X, as far as I can figure, "show file extension" is a file-specific flag, not a user-specific flag. Unless I'm missing something, it's impossible to get OS X to show file extensions on all files all the time.
When you download and run a program (that doesn't require admin password to install) OS X will let you know that you are about to run a program for the first time and ask if you want to do this.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
great. now Im worried what my shrink says when I tell him worms talk to me....
Virus1: lol, its not a virus
.
.
.
Virus2: lol, its not a virus
Virus1: lol, its not a virus
You repeated exactly what he said. If you go back and read his post again you will notice that it was "perl file.pl" in his example.
If it's not on fire, it's a software problem.
'Virus' is too kind. I guess we can call them pre-teens now.
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
- Man, I'm really bummed. My HIV test came back positive.
>> lol, thats really funny
- WTF? what kind of asshat would think thats funny
>> lol, no it's not a virus
- WHat?
>> lol, come on, clicky clicky. You like.
also, the Trillian Spam Challenge plugin would work wonders against this. Not that you need it since these virii dont infect trillian, but if they did, TSC would stop their spread.
"In the game of life, someone always has to lose. To me, if life were fair, that someone would always be Oklahoma." -DKR
I wonder if AOL users do any better on the Turing Test than the worm does?
I wrote and maintain a free AIM / IM specific antivirus tool called AIMFix that removes these two worms in several variations. I've been working with this stuff since 2003 (AIMFix is used by dozens of Universities as part of official cleaning procedure and recommendations, see the users page for details). In particular, these two worms have been eating all of my free time for the last three or four days with several variants and some new behavior (installing as services only, rather than registry keys all over the place, etc). They're also hiding as Windows filenames, but in different directories, like C:\Windows\svchost.exe (instead of system32), C:\Windows\taskmgr.exe, etc.
It is so incredibly weird seeing these stories in the media. I've been so deep into researching them and writing updates to AIMFix to keep abreast of everything that it comes as a total surprise to see a media outlet cover them. I've gotten countless emails from people who got hit by these two worms, and I've become quite familiar with the symptoms over the past few days, yet at the same time I'm uniquely ignorant of the rest of the story (the AI aspect, etc) because I only end up dealing with the nitty gritty that happens on the symptoms and removal level. Go figure.
-Jay
Jabberwacky: I think that I am therefore I be.
User: Hey what's up?
Jabberwacky: Why do you want to know, are you trying to chide me?
User: Screw you.
Jabberwacky: I don't believe that.
User: Don't believe what?
Jabberwacky: That you speak with me only.
User: I never said that.
Jabberwacky: I know.
User: Stopping putting words in my mouth!
Jabberwacky: You are repeating again, I don't think you are a real person.
User: I am a virus!
Jabberwacky: You're a virus?
User: Lol im not a virus r u!!
Jabberwacky: No you are a idot.
Best conversation with Jabberwacky ever =D It did say idot, too, that's not a cut and paste mistake.
rm -rf
Try this one: Prof.Phreak.
And the conversation log: conversation log.
I've seen folks talk to this thing for a few minutes on IRC before it becomes obvious it's a bot.
in Permutation City one of the characters has a high level agent, not a full blown conscious AI but more like an expert system, that sits in front of her online telephone/chat/email (they all seem to be the same thing) system to filter out increasingly aggressive software that is itself running high level expert systems pretending to be acquaintances and friends. At one point she gets a call allegedly from someone she knows that turns out to be software... and it takes her a little while watching it interact with HER software before she's sure it's not real. It turns to be a soft-sell from a religious group...
These are not the links you are looking for. Move along.
I didn't tell those people that she's a bot. I also used it in an MMORPG, where the average player age is 13 (and where ppl talk liek th1s omg lol /no1 heal plz /thx), and even those people could figure it out after a few sentences.
More and more it seems like most of my fellow Americans want someone else to take responsibility, and someone else to take care of their problems for them.
And yet, they keep voting Republican.
Whatever happened to the party of smaller government and self-sufficiency?
News flash - Computers are not toys, and McDonald's coffee is served pretty darn hot.
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
doh! heh
I for one welcome our talking computer virus overlords!
You offer all these "suggestions" for embedding LISP programs and other stuff into a virus to accomplish that. You wonder why you don't see more of this kind of thing - its because most of the people making these virii haven't ever heard of LISP, or even know anything about it. A much too high majority of virii writers are actually the 13 year olds who can use a virus making utility or paste a couple lines of VB Script together...
Now if we got some talented people writing these virii, we would be in a world of hurt - and maybe better security overall.
Sleep: A completely inadequate substitution for Caffeine.
My god... you are absolutely retarded.
when the virus asks you "asl?" and then starts laughing at your webcam and not allowing itself to download to your computer, you know you have problems
Not having access to a Windows machine, I am confused as to exactly how this trick works.
If a file is named "foo.jpg.exe" and hide-file-extensions is turned on, does the user see "foo" or "foo.jpg".
If "foo.jpg", how come they don't notice that all real images display just "foo" and don't have a ".jpg"?
Or if in fact it displays "foo", how come when you double-click it, Windows does not look up how to open a "jpg.exe" file, rathern than an "exe" file? If in fact the hide-extension rules are different than the lookup rules, that is incredibly stupid, but I have a hard time believing even Microsoft would not fix this in all these years.
Then it turns out its I was talking to a virus the whole time!
I had to post this message because the head just exploded on the owner of this computer.
but I never here anyone complain about that, only about MS doing it. Weird.
You must be new here.
...the next step up from the Turing Test. I doubt this new "worm" would pass it.
agreed.
Actually I don't know wheter I should laugh at the logs provided at the site or wheter I should be shocked on how stupid the humanity has become...
Yeah, right, Flamebait. "My name is Cyric Zndovzny. You can call me CyricZ." STFU.
Somebody will chat with me!
It seems odd that you'd be proud that Europe 'really' knows what "War" is... I know you aren't French... and whats to be proud about a place that is so fucked up all the inhabitants can do is fight & kill each other ? hmm. America got its shit straight after one internal war. Europe has had how many?
GAIM+Firefox FTW.
Good karma sticks to me like velcro on a piece of plexiglass.
Move along, citizen.
There's a virus that's been around for a while that uses MSN. Oh, and then uses the process name "csrss", plus all the anti-antivirus tricks. Very evil, IMO. I know: I got it.
The key in trillian is just to tell it to use AOL's proxy for transfers. This limits you to around 12kB/s, but it is better than 0.
--
WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
How would it be to setup a counter bot to chat to the AOL bot & mess their HD & Kill their server !!!
If only someone could do that,it would be super news!!!
Why does yahoo do this
Our broadband consumers (30%) are in the 300-2000 bps range (US$ 20-40 / month). :-)
But this is shared bandwidth. For each 10-20 consumers mega-bps, there is only one mega-bps in the shared upstream link, and so on. ISPs wait till they get 20 more mega-bps demand to upgrade their links. This means I can max out my connection, but not all my "brothers" can max out the connections at the same time. Their links have shared bandwitdh also; there is only so much fiber
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
"I wonder what type of picture has a .exe extension..."
.exe extension if "Hide file types..." was set to the non-default behaviour.
It would only have an
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Point here is that I am 'tech savvy' but if my buddy who I chat techie stuff with all the time and who also sends me links to funny articles/pictures daily were to send me a link to a jpg I would click it without verifying with him he meant to sent it.
This worm stands to be a real pain in the ass for even intelligent users.
Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling a pig in mud. Soon, you realize the pig is dirty, and he likes it.
Dumb fuxx0rz deserve it. Viruses rely on stupid people. The same story over and over again.
All your technical "improvements" or suggestions are not the solution - the problem and solution is in the education and maturity (or lack thereof) the end user. If your not an idiot, or desperate to run every program someone sends you, or the possibility to see someone naked - then you'll never have a problem. This same rule applies to SPAM; educate users, "ignore and delete, don't even peek" that's the only way to send the message that it's not worth the creator's time and efforts. The fact that this thread is so long and there is so much commotion and preventative measure or technical fix talk is already giving something so stupid so much attention - and that's the only reason someone did it in the first place. Get real - usually the simplest solution is the best - just most people don't have the smarts or maturity to realize it.