New Massive Botnet Building On Windows Hole

CWmike writes "The worm exploiting a critical Windows bug that Microsoft patched with an emergency fix in late October is now being used to build a fast-growing botnet, said Ivan Macalintal, a senior research engineer with Trend Micro. Dubbed 'Downad.a' by Trend (and 'Conficker.a' by Microsoft and 'Downadup' by Symantec), the worm is a key component in a massive new botnet that a new criminal element, not associated with McColo, is creating. 'We think 500,000 is a ballpark figure,' said Macalintal when asked the size of the new botnet. 'That's not as large as some, such as [the] Kraken [botnet], or Storm earlier, but it's... starting to grow.'"

Comments

Idiots

[IceDiver]

Don't people use auto-update?

Re:Idiots

[moniker127]

Auto-update is really annoying, especially if you don't have a very good connection. Its one of the first things I disable when I do a fresh install of XP.

Re:Idiots

[Henry V .009]

Here, let me turn it back on for you. There. Don't bother thanking me, I've already debited your bank account for my time.

Re:Idiots

[Hal_Porter]

I don't know why people complain about Genuine Advantage. If you buy the software it is unlocked. If you pirate it it will still work, even though it knows it is pirated, but it won't work 100%. I.e. pirate copies are partially locked.

Genuine Advantage would be better if they had a sense of humour about it. Like instead of black screening pirate copies they could shrink the desktop slowly surrounded it by a dirty border and have photorealistic DirectX 10 cockroaches in the border. When you unlocked the workstation they'd scatter, but you still see the odd leg or antenna poking out from the edge of the monitor. Every so often one would run across the screen when you were hard at work. Hell, maybe you'd let people crush them with the mouse pointer but it would leave a nasty yellow blob on the screen. The longer you held out against buying a license, the more bold the roaches would become, and the more hit points they would have.

Essentially Microsoft discovered a way to make people RAGE! by accident with Clippy. They should put that knowledge to use annoying pirates and making everyone else laugh at them. Most people have a fear of being mocked for being cheap, they should put that fear to use.

Re:Idiots

[corsec67]

You no doubt have a home router that does a form of NAT, which acts as a firewall for all intents and purposes for incoming connections, so your statement about not running a firewall is false.

Yeah, he would have to patch everything within 4 minutes to not have an infection.

Re:Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Because it's not connected to the Internet?

Re:Idiots

[aliquis]

Find out if your credit card number has been stolen on the Internet!
CC # __________________ Expiration date __/__

Re:Idiots

[INT_QRK]

One of the things that drove our household completely away from Windows is that as three of my daughters one-by-one traipsed through their college years, every few months (sometimes weeks or days) I'd have to fix their oft' gunked, crippled, or pwnd computers. The first and most common problem I'd have to confront would be the tons of adware slowing their system to a crawl, which at some point killed or subverted the antivirus software (evidently the preferred collegiate attack vector). Then, about the second really bad incident, one usually involving the appearance of a mysterious new admin account with theirs eerily downgraded. My epiphany at some point was that the registry is actually a giant Petri dish for malware spores. Anyway, once so totally pwnd, the only sure-fire cure would be to reload Windows from their OEM disks. About the second or third time this occurred, MS would reject the **always legal** reinstall as not "genuine." As my last raw nerve snapped at the insanity of it all, my solution would ultimately be to slick their drives and install Linux. This would carry them safely through their Junior and Senior years. However, when it came time to for them replace their computers following graduation, they all ended up buying Macs. Problem solved either way.

Re:How is first ppost formed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Weak. In the good ol' days, a first post troll would have picked up on the words massive and hole and made a Goatse joke. You are a disgrace to the once proud troll race.

ancient joke

[FunkyRider]

Reminds me an ancient joke:
Windows is same as whores: They both have massive hole and full of viruses.

Botnet, starting to grow

[PPH]

Do you want a larger, firmer botnet? One that all the ladies will love and other guys will envy? Here's how to enlarge your botnet quickly and easily.

If your botnet stays up for 6 hours or longer, please seek the help of a physician.

Re:Botnet, starting to grow

[ockegheim]

Denial of Service to one's botnet can be disheartening.

use norton

[delvsional]

I use Norton, Mccaffee and AVG Grisoft all at once, oh wait nevermind. I don't use windows anymore.

Re:at least he's not a house negro

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow.

Simply wow.

I mean, I haven't seen a collection of stupidity like this in years, and I read Stallman's articles from time to time.

Please, get yourself spayed before you breed.

Everybody, SING ALONG!

[Chris Tucker]

"Botnets, spammer's botnets!
What kind of boxes are on botnets?

Compaq, HP, Dell and Sony, true!
Gateway, Packard Bell, maybe even Asus, too!

Are boxes, found on botnets.
All running Windows, FOO!"

I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.5, here.

Why, yes. I AM a smug bastard!
Thanks for asking.

Re:Analogy

[Anonymous Coward]

Is a computer more like a gun or a rosebush? I guess that depends on whether it is running Windows or Linux.

Wait... which is which?

Re:How Do They Survive?

[slydder]

Bob,

I agree 100% and that is exactly why I started WIPOC (World Internet Providers Organization Counsel) back in the early 90's. had a few ISP's/Hosting Companies interested.

However, a majority of them were like "why? this will all be gone by the beginning of 2000 anyway. They will get it all under control".

Well, hate to say it but "I F*CKIN TOLD YA!"

You CANNOT always push responsibility for your problems onto others. and believe me. it's your networks so it IS your problem.

rant done. nothing left to see here. enjoy. ;)

STOP Using Microsoft Windows

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it about time DHS declare Microsoft Windows a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD)? "Stop palling around with terrorists," says Governor Sarah Palin.