Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

New Worm Chats with Users on AIM

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the talking-it-up dept.

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."

9 of 577 comments (clear)

  1. The next generation by QuaintRealist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  2. The newest front by sammy+baby · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The virus will reply 'lol no this is not a virus.'


    My friends, we are fighting a war: a war on stupidity.

    And clearly, we are losing.
    1. Re:The newest front by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My friends, we are fighting a war: a war on stupidity.

      It's sort of like natural selection for computer users, except somebody else keeps coming in and fixing their computers...

    2. Re:The newest front by Gadgetfreak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You know, honestly, we've been fighting stupidity for quite some time now. 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. There's a general lack of desire to be intelligent or self-reliant. With advancing technology, more and more people begin to fall behind... it's getting to a point where people just aren't smart enough to take care of themselves.

      --
      "No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
  3. Re:Eliza Virus? by meringuoid · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Let me know when it will have hot N3TS3X with you, and I'm in!

    The frightening thing is, that would probably be pretty easy to code. The net is full of freely-available pornographic stories; extract a whole bunch of phrases from those, use an Eliza-like system to select the right one for the circumstances and incorporate elements of what the user just said into your response...

    You could write up a pretty effective cybersex bot, and you could program it to offer to send across 'cam pix' once in a while. Which would, of course, be virus-ridden.

    Better yet, once you've written it you could have it communicate with sad lusers via SMS at, oh, 20p per message. And make a killing. Excuse me, I have an Eliza-bot to hack up with some pornography. bbl, d00dz.

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  4. Re:lol no this is not a virus by tpgp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Windows needs to be fixed so that executables renamed as PIF are NOT executed. God that's stupid.

    How about fixing windows so that it uses execute bit in the filesystem, rather then the extension of the file to decide whether to execute something or not?

    --
    My pics.
  5. Re:lol no this is not a virus by tsa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple also hide file extensions by default. It's amazingly annoying, but I never here anyone complain about that, only about MS doing it. Weird.

    --

    -- Cheers!

  6. Re:lol no this is not a virus by Jaruzel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, PIFs are now legacy.

    On 2000,XP and 2003 DOS apps settings are now held in two places, the registry and inside the .LNK file (the actual shortcut).

    However, PIFs are still supported execution-wise in the OS to maintain backwards compatiblity - something that *shuold* have been eradicated/managed-out with XPs SP2 and all it's 'security' updates - something along the lines of:

    'You've have tried to run the file CelineDionNaked.jpg.pif, this may not be a legitimate application. Choose Run to run the file, Delete to delete the file, and Update to convert to a Windows XP icon.'

    -Jar.

    --
    Together, We Can Make Slashdot Better. I Do NOT Mod ACs. - Check Me Out
  7. Re:Turing tests by wk633 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Turing test is turning out not to be a test of artificial intelligence, but of human stupidity.