Get your Windows 2000/XP patched up (1 Viewer)

[John_Berger]

I had to laugh my butt off. A local TECHNOLOGY company had to shut down yesterday because of the virus slammed just about every computer in the office with a few hundred employees! Jeez! You'd think that a technology company would have a FIREWALL running!

I recently joined the unemployed. Maybe I should send in a resume stressing my network security experience.

It's amazing what one security exploit can do.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Well, I haven't been hit, so I'm still smiling. I did hear on the news that 90% of PC's use Windows, and about 50% of those will get it.

I think that MS should close that site up on Saturday - and I am wondering if this thing wasn't made up by Peter Norton himself!

Glenn

 

[John Watson]

Although it didn't apparently didn't affect older MS operating systems, I couldn't help but notice on the patch link that MS doesn't mention Windows 98 any more, just ME.

My Windows 98 may have been affected however (I lost connection for no reason 3 times thru a 12 hour period), and the Help Guy at the ISP suggested it was the Internet being clogged by all the folks trying to get patches, etc.

Anyway, spurning a system introduced only 5 or 6 years ago, with a "huge installed base", is just another reason to have MS brought to heel for the chaos it creates.

BTW, are Internet Businesses or Newsletters perhaps affected, so they will not be as accessible for awhile? My Langa Newsletter didn't come.

 

[John_Berger]

are Internet Businesses or Newsletters perhaps affected, so they will not be as accessible for awhile? My Langa Newsletter didn't come.

Anyone with an Internet connection running windows who (A) is not behind a firewall and (B) did not patch their systems will likely be hit. So, it is a possibility that the company who makes the newsletter you're referring to (or any organization that relays mail between you and them) got hit.

 

[John Watson]

A few minutes after making my last post, I was reading a newspaper story on Lovsan, and the following statement was contained in it : "The original version of the worm came with a message to Microsoft's co-founder and Chairman :

‘Billy Gates, why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software'"

This story is on the front page of today's National Post, a Canadian newspaper delivered across the country.

If true, this pretty amazing.

Perhaps because the mods agree this thread should not have been buried out of sight in the Computer forum, they could retitle it with MSBlast or Lovsan, to get greater attention.

 

[BrianB]

If true, this pretty amazing.

So the virus writer has a sense of humour. What's "amazing" about it? Microsoft issued a patch for this very issue over three weeks ago on July 16th. They can't be held responsible if people don't keep their own software uptodate...

 

[John_Berger]

If true, this pretty amazing.

Why? All of these trojan horses and viruses are taking advantage of security problems that, quite frankly, shouldn't have been there in the first place. All of these things are done (A) maliciously, (B) because the torjan/virus broke out of what was to be controlled containment, (C) to see how far the program will replicate, or (D) to prove a point. This one was probably a combination of (C) and (D) with more emphasis on (D).

 

[John Watson]

Its amazing to me to see on the front page of a major paper, the succinct version of the view that : Microsoft inflicts endless patches, upgrades, "new" systems, without ever giving us a reliable and understandable home system.

Please don't assume the vast majority of home computer users are technically proficient. One bad experience with "easy" downloads, that stop something else from working, is often all it takes.

A lot of people like me are weary and apathetic about computer problems, and the money-spinning antics of monopolistic OS providers and IT security professionals who sell us solutions to problems that probably shouldn't exist in the first place.

A few weeks ago there was thread here about Bill Gates "Philanthropist". I suggested among other things that the best gift he could make to humankind would be a stable and manageable OS.

 

[John_Berger]

I suggested among other things that the best gift he could make to humankind would be a stable and manageable OS.

No, I'm not going to do it. I'll keep my Microsoft-bashing in the Computer area. I'm going to behave.

must ........ resist ......... temptation ..........

don't ......... give ........... in .......... John .........

Gaaaaaak!!!

 

[Zen Butler]

My laptop got hit yesterday with this little bugger. The removal tool was pretty easy though. Nothing like that KLEZ nightmare was.

 

[Cees Alons]

The problem here is - and it's also why I have nothing but contempt for the "creator" of that virus - that the weakness was discovered and then a proper fix published (BTW, that's why I don't have the virus - all my PC's had the fix installed on July 17th) by MS, along with some necessary information.

The brilliant creator acted on Microsoft's own message and made that worm. Oh, come.

It's extremely difficult for a computer programmer to think up in advance all the malevolent uses someone could wish to make of the programs you try to have meet their legal specs. "Errors" like this one will always stay unfortunately.

Microsoft have a problem there: they have to tell us why we need the patch, and on the other hand, some morons start using that information right away (well, "right away" is a bit too kind, he/she needed three weeks). So what should they do?

Cees


PS

Jeez! You'd think that a technology company would have a FIREWALL running!

I even would think they would apply published patches. At least within a few weeks.
C.

 

[MickeS]

This creator was so "brilliant" he even managed to create a faulty virus. Everything indicates to me that the rebooting problem was not intended, but is in fact a bug in the virus, and that the virus was just meant to do a DoS attack on Windows Update this Saturday.

The whole message in the virus reads

I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!!
billy gates why do you make this possible ? Stop making money and fix your software!!


My guess is that it's a stupid but clever immature guy who barely knew what he was doing. And trying to mask it as a way to get MS attention is laughable, since they had already fixed this problem.

I really hope they find the guy. :

 

[John_Berger]

I even would think they would apply published patches. At least within a few weeks.

Hence why I had to laugh my ass off. I'm sorry, but that company deserves a great big "LOSER!!" So, everybody turn towards Harrisburg, put the L sign on your forehead, and yell "LOSER!!" as loud as you can.

Ready?

On the count of three...

 

[John_Berger]

Everything indicates to me that the rebooting problem was not intended, but is in fact a bug in the virus, and that the virus was just meant to do a DoS attack on Windows Update this Saturday.

I disagree. This is a brilliant way of REALLY getting the point across. It's one thing to create a distrbuted denial of service attack. The vast majority of people won't even know that their system is being used for it.

But start shutting people's systems and servers down because of a simple RPC call?? He just gave more attention to the problem of Microsoft's apathetic view towards security than any e-mail virus could ever have hoped. Of course, he's royally screwed if he (or she) is ever caught, but that's the price of fame.

 

[MikeAlletto]

I even would think they would apply published patches. At least within a few weeks.

Thats what I don't get. The admins at these companies had a month to evaluate whether the patch did something harmful or not and still waiting until it was too late. It just proves that there are still people working out there that don't deserve the jobs they have.

 

[Danny R]

This virus is absolutely flooding our network. I turned on a machine today that had been off for the past two weeks. I verified it was clean and started to install the patch. Prior to finishing, it had already been infected, less than 5 minutes of uptime. Wow. Luckily I was able to kill the mblaster process before it could shut down the machine so that the patch could finish.

We had about 20 infected machines. Of these, only two had absolutely no patches installed prior. Others have a mishmash of some patches as users periodically updated, but didn't do so consistently.

Depending on the patch level, it seems that some computers let you set it up to automatically download patches, and others are manual only. Can someone give me instructions on finding out how to force automatic installs every evening?

Are there any tools out there that lets an admin set up these settings remotely on XP machines in his network?

 

[Greg*go]

My girlfriends father confirmed that I am indeed a "keeper" after he found out I helped her download the patch yesterday.

Something even funnier is that he works for the city water dept, and he had the only computer not hit with the worm because he is still using an older OS. As it turns out, when they came to his office, he told them to give him 1 reason why he should upgrade to XP, when his old OS was working just fine. Since they didn't have an answer, they didn't upgrade his PC. So he had the only operating PC in the entire office yesterday.

 

[Greg*go]

Danny,

If you right click My Computer, and go to properties, you can set up the PC to check for updates as offten as you want under the "automatic update" tab. I'm not really a computer aficionado, so I don't know if this can be done remotely.

 

[AllanN]

I though I had the virus to, and I was surprised because I keep my PC up to date with the latest patches, virus definitions and im behind a hardware linksys firewall. My machine kept rebooting and was slow as dirt when it finally come up. Eventually it would not boot at all. Found out that my less than 6 month old hard drive died. Its still under warranty and that is what backups are for.

 

[MickeS]

He just gave more attention to the problem of Microsoft's apathetic view towards security than any e-mail virus could ever have hoped.

But they had already provided a fix for this. He's kicking in open doors. He didn't give any attention to MS problems, only the problem with users who don't keep their software up-to-date.

If this "brilliant" guy had actually intended for this to happen, he would have put that message across the screen in bright letters on every computer, I'm sure...