Harry Potter Virus

[Jack Scribe]

Just heard about this on the morning KTLA news. Since many GA members are Harry Potter fans, I thought I'd pass on the info about this verified virus. Here's a link for more details. http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0...5006301,00.html.

[BeaStKid]

Just heard about this on the morning KTLA news. Since many GA members are Harry Potter fans, I thought I'd pass on the info about this verified virus. Here's a link for more details. http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0...5006301,00.html.

Wow, guess we'll have to be more careful!

 

The BeaStKid

[xander]

Wow...that's horrible! I know HTML, JavaScript, ActionScript and VB...doubt that's anything close to the complicatedness of that baby!

[Andy]

I'm impressed.

 

and I hope to hell it works on macs and linux as well. They aren't virus proof, no-matter what anyone says. and they can transmit them as good as any street hooker.

[Drewbie]

Wow, that's evil hehe.

[Ieshwar]

Seems like the work of HP-Haters. I can't believe they used such evil ways. Pricks!

 

You think Church is involved in all this? I mean, "HP corrupts the children and brings them on the way of witchcraft". I heard about it.

 

Ieshwar

[rknapp]

I'm impressed.

 

and I hope to hell it works on macs and linux as well. They aren't virus proof, no-matter what anyone says. and they can transmit them as good as any street hooker.

 

This is true. The trouble is that hackers want splash damage. Since Windows is the most common OS, there are more virus', trojans, and worms for it.

[Raro]

One of the more annoying security vulnerabilities of just about any computer out there is that they trust anything physically associated with the computer, including not only the hardware, but also removable media like CDs or USB keys. For example (on windows at least) if you insert a CD (or in some cases a USB key) into your computer with a file called "autorun" on it, your computer will automatically run "autorun", without asking your permission, or even letting you know what's going on. Whatever's in this file will be done to your computer, before you can stop it. If it's a virus, you'll get infected. The upshot is that you should be careful about stuff that you physically put into your computer. (As a side note, Sony caused an uproar last year when someone realized how much software they were hiding on music CDs in the name of fighting piracy, software that essentially gave Sony complete control over your computer should they want it; it took the public several months to notice, in part because people had thought Sony was trustworthy, in part because your computer's assumption that anything physical is trustworthy is so deeply embedded in its logic.)

 

Raro

[xander]

That's a very good point. I can't believe that Sony was doing that! What was it intended for? To keep people from copying music off the CDs or from copying them period?

[glomph]

and I hope to hell it works on macs and linux as well. They aren't virus proof

 

Of course they're not. Ten or so years ago, for example, there were some WDEF viruses that affected Macs, as well as MS Office macro viruses that were cross-platform. And obviously if you run Windows on an Intel Mac under Bootcamp or any of the virtual environments such as Parallels, it's just as vulnerable as if you ran it on a PC.

 

There still has not been a virus in the wild that would affect OS X, but there will be some day.

 

and they can transmit them as good as any street hooker

 

True, but not as well as a PC can. Mac users need to be careful about sending files to PC users, because they might be infected. That's the main reason to run anti-virus software on a Mac. However, the PC virus won't run on a Mac, and therefore can't spread itself from the Mac. A large number of worms and viruses spread by infecting Windows email hosts and sending themselves to people on the address list. Random addresses on the list are spoofed as the "sender," so if the spoofee is a Mac user, someone might erroneously think they got the virus from a Mac.

 

Most troubling is your wishing viruses and worms on other people of any sort.

 

The trouble is that hackers want splash damage. Since Windows is the most common OS, there are more virus', trojans, and worms for it.

 

Well, maybe, but since any script kiddie can make a Windows virus, what bragging rights go with doing that? Wouldn't it be more impressive to write the first virus that will in fact (and not just in theory in the lab) infect Macs running OS X? And now that about 14% of laptops sold in the US are Macs, the argument from obscurity seems outdated, if it ever was valid.

 

Windows used to by default leave practically everything open to malware, all sorts of ports open, and give root level of permissions to .exe files and the like. Vista, for whatever good or bad things one might say about it otherwise, has supposedly tightened up a lot of the security holes.

[glomph]

You think Church is involved in all this?

 

No. Voldemort, or maybe Moriarty.

[Matthew]

One of the more annoying security vulnerabilities of just about any computer out there is that they trust anything physically associated with the computer, including not only the hardware, but also removable media like CDs or USB keys. For example (on windows at least) if you insert a CD (or in some cases a USB key) into your computer with a file called "autorun" on it, your computer will automatically run "autorun", without asking your permission, or even letting you know what's going on. Whatever's in this file will be done to your computer, before you can stop it. If it's a virus, you'll get infected. The upshot is that you should be careful about stuff that you physically put into your computer. (As a side note, Sony caused an uproar last year when someone realized how much software they were hiding on music CDs in the name of fighting piracy, software that essentially gave Sony complete control over your computer should they want it; it took the public several months to notice, in part because people had thought Sony was trustworthy, in part because your computer's assumption that anything physical is trustworthy is so deeply embedded in its logic.)

 

Raro

 

Although it's important to note that you can disable autorun capabilities of these items. It's not too visible on Windows XP, but Windows Vista makes it pretty simple (at least the business versions I've used) as the thumb drive threat is growing quickly.

 

When I worked as a security specialist for the government, officers would just stick their thumb drive in top secret laptops to listen to their music. Unfortunately that thumbdrive was then automatically also classified, and it would be at least 10 years before they'd get it back.

[xander]

Well, maybe, but since any script kiddie can make a Windows virus, what bragging rights go with doing that? Wouldn't it be more impressive to write the first virus that will in fact (and not just in theory in the lab) infect Macs running OS X? And now that about 14% of laptops sold in the US are Macs, the argument from obscurity seems outdated, if it ever was valid.

I was thinking that as well, and you know that someone is out there right now trying to do it. I think Apple better stop airing those commercials about "there were 14 thousand known viruses for the PC last year, blah blah blah," because you know when the first big Mac virus comes, it's gonna hit hard, and then Apple is gonna look like a big idiot, lol.

[glomph]

when the first big Mac virus comes, it's gonna hit hard, and then Apple is gonna look like a big idiot, lol.

 

Maybe. More likely word about it will spread a lot faster than the virus. And if Apple patches something in a day or two that makes the virus not work, then they'll look like heroes and not idiots. It's a lot easier to deal with one virus than 14,000.

[Andy]

*Points out that there already was a worm for OsX. More than a year ago.*

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_virus

[glomph]

*Points out that there already was a worm for OsX. More than a year ago.*

 

I couldn't tell from the article if the worm actually got out into the wild. Even if it had, it doesn't sound like too much of a threat, since it sounds like you have to go through a two-step install and give an administrator's password to get it to work, and then it might infect only Cocoa apps within the same subnet.