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Windows XP Flaw 'Extremely Serious'
scottott wrote to mention a Washington Post article with the news that the security hole we mentioned on Wednesday has widened. Computers can now be infected just by visiting infected web sites, or looking at images in the preview panel of older versions of Outlook. From the article: "At first, the vulnerability was exploited by just a few dozen Web sites. Programming code embedded in these pages would install a program that warned victims their machines were infested with spyware, then prompted them to pay $40 to remove the supposed pests. Since then, however, hundreds of sites have begun using the flaw to install a broad range of malicious software. SANS has received several reports of attackers blasting out spam e-mails containing links that lead to malicious sites exploiting the new flaw, Ullrich said."
"Mac and Linux computer users are not at risk with this attack, even if their computers run Microsoft programs such as Office or the Internet Explorer Web browser."
Amazing!
Guys, you keep posting that same story about a serious security flaw in Windows.
When is a Windows flaw ever not extremely serious?
Would someone tell me if the "just by visiting an infected site" link, is a link to an infected site, or an article about the infected sites?
It's a good thing most savvy Windows users know not to ever visit web site links they don't trust. Hey look - it's a web site about goats! Neat!
Come on people!!!
I do tech support for 60+ machines at work...
The one user that refused to use firefox...
called me a week ago.BEGGING..Her computer had started TALKING
(i.e. audio advertisements in english)
The people in the other cubicles were claiming for an EXORCIST for the biatch.
* Also availiable in "Redmond Cherry"(tm) flavor.
Dude, that cherry was popped a loooooong time ago. And it's been used repeatedly since then...
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
I dislike MS as much as anyone else on Slashdot; however, is this a Windows XP flaw or is it just an Internet Explorer/Outlook flaw? Unless I missed it when I read (okay, skimmed) TFA, the article implies that Windows XP is the problem. Looks more to me like it's an IE/Outlook flaw.
I run Firefox and Eudora on XP in addition to Zone Alarm, Ad-Aware, Spybot, and McAfee AV. My wife uses Firefox and Thunderbird. IE is used only on those web sites that require it (which are very, very, very, few) and I uninstall Outlook from every PC. Will I be infected just because I'm running XP? I highly doubt it. I'm not saying that it's impossible, but my doubt factor is nearly maximum. That does not downgrade the severity threat. After all, Firefox, Thunderbird, and Eudora are in a very small minority of Windows users' favorite applications. Believe me, I love to see Microsoft dragged through the mud when possible, but let's at least keep it realistic.
This clearly is a slow news week. The anti-Bush-administration people are making an issue over an NSA web cookie and now we're blaming an entire operating system for application flaws. (I know the whole argument about IE and Outlook being integrated into the operating system, but I still don't see this as an operating system issue if other apps on the same operating system are not vulnerable.)
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
Windows XP Flaw 'Extremely Comical'
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Well someone please help this patient back to his room?
..to add a new mime-type definition to the Windows defaults..
Identifier: X-Application/WinTrojan
Name: Windows Trojan File
File Extension Pattern: *.wtf
~ Better a freak than a sheep. ~
Look, Mr. Softy has become the richest outfit on earth by understanding the fundamental truth: people are sheep.
You can lead those sheep to water, but it's going to take an enema to spare them from death by dehydration, oral methods carrying too great a drowning risk.
I guess that may have sounded negative.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Sys Admins have a new way to keep their users' windows machines up to date. Simply enocde your updates into a WMF file and place it on the intranet home page.