SPYWARE. Look out.

[OnlineStageGear]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

[ QUOTE ]
I've dealt with some in the last few months that neither Ad-Aware, Spybot, or HijackThis could kill.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, I have run across many computers like that. It embed's itself somewhere in your PC and keeps re-installing itself every time you remove the syware files it creates. Nasty stuff. Some versions of Bullseye Network with that stupdid Shopping Buddy is one. If you see that "Shopping Buddy" with that F-IN little dog icon, you can almost bet you have a format & reload in you future.

There are a lot of deceptive pop-up windows you will run across and not even know it. You think you are clicking the "X" on top to close the window, but infact you are not. You are actually installing the program. The best way to close them is to right click them on the task bar or hit Alt+F4 with the pop-up window on top.

Matt

[hippietim]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

[ QUOTE ]
Yep, I have run across many computers like that. It embed's itself somewhere in your PC and keeps re-installing itself every time you remove the syware files it creates. Nasty stuff.

[/ QUOTE ]

This won't happen to your machine if you aren't running as an administrator. If your user account is comprimised it is still possible for a virus/spyware to resurrect it's ugly head for your account only but it can't do it in a such a way that it an administrator could not remove it. All of the machine-wide hooks that viruses and spyware use to keep themselves around are inaccessible to a normal user account.

[xenophobe]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

I run Firefox as my browser and Thunderbird as my email clients. I run AVG Antivirus, Spybot S&D, and AdAware and have my firewall.

The only time I can get infected with is if I do something stupid, like download and run something from an untrusted site, or open a bad attachment in an email.

I've only had two accidental infections, both my fault, in over 10 years on the internet.

[OnlineStageGear]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

I would say 1/2 of my customers are still running 98/ME and a lot of the XP customers I have don't want to set up multiple users. And yes, even as an adminstrator there is syware that can't be removed.

Matt

[hippietim]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

[ QUOTE ]
And yes, even as an adminstrator there is syware that can't be removed.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe you misunderstood me.

There is nothing a normal user can do to the system that an administrator can't correct. A normal user account simply does not have the privilege to change any machine-wide configuration.

On the other hand, if an administrator account is comprimised then you are correct, a virus can do whatever it wants because it is running with the credentials to make changes that have machine-wide impact.

[hippietim]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

[ QUOTE ]
I would say 1/2 of my customers are still running 98/ME and a lot of the XP customers I have don't want to set up multiple users.

[/ QUOTE ]

It is unfortunate that folks are still running Win98/Me these days. There is really no way to secure them since the file system and registry are not secured.

As for not having multiple accounts on XP, that too is unfortunate - it really is the only way to be secure. This is true on all OS's.

[ApeDosMil]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

change to linux or *gasp*

buy a mac.

I really want one.

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

How do I set up a second account on my bedroom PC (Windows XP)? I'm currently running as the admin account when Windows XP boots up. I've never given it a second thought but it's better to be on the safe side than sorry.

[hippietim]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

The simplest thing for you to do would be to create a new administrator account and change your current account to a limited account. If you are currently logging in with the account name Administrator then I'd do the opposite (IOW, create a new limited account). So if you are running XP Home or Pro in a home environment this should do the trick.

To create a new account:

Start
Control Panel
User Accounts
Create a new account
<enter the name of the account>
Next
<on the pick an account type page choose the "Computer administrator" or "Limited" option as appropriate>
Create Account

To change an existin account:
Start
Control Panel
User Accounts
Change an account
<pick the account you want to change>
Change the account type (it may say "Change my account type")
<on the pick an account type page choose the "Computer administrator" or "Limited" option as appropriate>
Change Account Type



That's all there is to it.

Note that your My Documents/Music/Photos etc. are now different - each account gets it's own set of folders. You can share things between accounts easy enough though if you really need to.


Keep in mind that when you want to install software, patch software, install updated drivers, etc. you will need to switch over to your administrator account to do so. Windows Update can be setup to automatically apply updates regardless of who is logged in.

A lot folks that run in this mode are tempted to use the "Run As" right click option available with most programs to launch them running as a different user account - this is not secure! If you want the gory details I can provide them but suffice it to say this is not a great choice if you can avoid it.

Also, it's very important that you actually have passords for all of your accounts - particularly all accounts that are administrators. Otherwise if someone can get your IP address they can potentially have some serious fun with your box if they can guess your user name - 5 bucks says most folks here don't have a password and their user name is their first name.

[Ace]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

[ QUOTE ]
I spoke to Tiffany last night and she told me the same thing.... [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

Oh yeah.... Hey Fett, Don't click on that crap, Bro! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]
I actually MET a girl named Tiffany on the internet. We were together for maybe a year and some change. The thing was I met her while looking up some Coroner. We talked about metal for awhile, then she told me to quit calling her "dude" cause she was a chic. We talked about metal for a few months, then she stopped by when she was moving out here to Los Angeles. She was seriously probably the hottest chic I have ever dated. She was a nympho on top of it all!! She and I were together while I was doing LA Metal.

Here's her with her dad:

[Deneb]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

I got a solution. Stop using the internet. Right click that papa.

[PowerTube]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

[ QUOTE ]
Then your users are not running as normal limited users. The only possible way for this to happen is if they have privilege on the machine to write to the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or outside of their user profile directory. The default out of the box security settings for a limited user prevent access to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and random locations on the disk. You need to go look at the permissions you have granted folks. Are they running as Power Users by chance?

BTW, I hope your normal account is NOT be an administrator account. You should have a separate account just for administrative tasks.

[/ QUOTE ]

The public access users are running as Normal Users. Spyware and other things can initialize installation, but they can't complete.

I've actually seen a few annoying programs that install with no admin rights.

[Endrik]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

I had about 200-300 megabytes Spyware [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

Another update. Firefox is still incredibly fast, and I just did my weekly runs of Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy and found nothing. I'm kicking myself for not using Firefox much earlier! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[jackson1]

Re: SPYWARE. Look out.

Firefox? Clint Eastwood, fighter jets, some old shitty movie, right? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

OK, i'll try the browser.