Chris, Conficker exploits MS08-067 through SMB which microsoft released a patch for a while ago (I'm sure you sysadmins can remember rushing to patch your systems). I guess a bunch of sysadmins didn't patch their system which resulted in mass infections. Gotta watch that patch Tuesday haha.
-Josh On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 3:12 AM, chris yarger <[email protected]> wrote: > http://www.esnips.com/doc/77f2f674-d359-4811-82df-01536c43a914/XP-CRASH > interesting song regarding xp > > On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 5:46 AM, Gary Brown <[email protected]> wrote: >> That is a tall order. Especially when your target audience is admin's with >> no formal training, of which there are more and more every day. >> >> It all comes down to education which, in any form (formal or self learning) >> is time consuming. I think most of us will pursue our goal, say opening an >> FTP site on a home PC, only as far as it takes to get it working. There are >> plenty of tutorial sites on the internet that will show you an incomplete >> solution. They may have a warning or two but they may not. That, coupled >> with the "it can't happen to me" frame of mind, makes for a situation where >> the warnings may be ignored anyway. >> >> I'm really not sure if there is an answer to your question that could be >> implemented. Of course if you could rewrite the internet... :) >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: chris yarger >> To: [email protected] >> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 9:28 PM >> Subject: Re: Yet another reason to stay away from Windows >> how can we be of help to the average ignorant windows admin? to keep them >> from opening such vulnerabilities unknowingly? >> >> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 9:20 PM, Gary Brown <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> I can attest to the anonymous FTP blunder first hand. About 4 years ago a >>> Win XP box became a SPAM generator for about 9 hours. I learned my lesson >>> though. I lock down everything now. >>> >>> Speaking from experience, Linux makes it harder for average users to >>> expose the system because you have to learn how to make the services >>> available (by reading a lot material) and in the process you become aware of >>> the dangers whereas Windows makes it easier to stumble through making >>> services available without learning anything in the process. >>> >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Thorley" <[email protected]> >>> To: <[email protected]> >>> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 1:16 PM >>> Subject: Re: Yet another reason to stay away from Windows >>> >>> >>>> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 1:04 PM, chris yarger <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> With things like this happening in windows why not keep to linux? >>>>> >>>>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/20/sheffield_conficker/ >>>>> and >>>>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/20/mod_malware_still_going_strong/ >>>> >>>> Or, why not at least hire a competent IT staff. In both of these >>>> cases, it seems to be a problem with either IT security policy or >>>> implementation. I have had two Linux servers compromised in the past >>>> 10 years. One was due to foolishly allowing (or failing to not allow) >>>> anonymous ftp. That resulted in a rootkit and a fresh install of the >>>> OS as a fix. The other compromise was due to a user whose password >>>> was the same as their username. The onsite admin (really customer >>>> service rep who knows how to log in to the server to do simple tasks) >>>> had set the password from the root account. The result was that the >>>> server then became an IRC server for connections from Romania, among >>>> other things. >>>> >>>> Poor IT is poor IT, regardless of the OS >>>> >> >> >
