virus warning: steve smyth

[Fragle]

i know there are a few (but not exactly many...) JCF guys who also check the steve smyth message board from time to time.
as a matter of fact, there's *another* virus issue over there, so stay away from it for a while, ms. a is already working on it.

of course i saw the warning thread over at the nevermore board AFTER i ran into the virus trap
take care

[bibz]

Thanks for the heads up dude. I recently had some sort of worm on my pc that caused alot of headaches, so this is much appreciated!

[jackson1]

fragle, how does one get infected over there?

[Fragle]

i dunno for sure. i was opening the main site when all of a sudden an .xml file started to load, and the windows fax and picture device opened an empty document. moreover, my internet provider freezed up, but other than that i didn't notice any signs of damaged files or spyware. over at the nevermore site it doesn't say anything but warning that you shouldn't go there until the virus has been removed.

[SeventhSon]

fragle, how does one get infected over there?

the bad guys will take advantage of an insecure website and hack a page to put a known exploit that will do a buffer overrun in IE if IE visits the page. A buffer overrun allows the bad guys to install any arbitrary piece of code on your computer.

[jackson1]

Ouch! I wonder how Firefox handles it.

SeventhSon, an insecure website, that's the responsibility of the ISP, right? Like, you can't yourself programme your pages to be secure, true?

[SeventhSon]

Ouch! I wonder how Firefox handles it.

SeventhSon, an insecure website, that's the responsibility of the ISP, right? Like, you can't yourself programme your pages to be secure, true?

edit: mostly true. the page that you author is just data. it SHOULD be neither secure nor insecure. Now ANYONE can author a web page with javascript that takes advantage of a browser exploit, but the trick is to load it up to a popular website undetected. a website is insecure because either the web server itself has a buffer overrun exploit (rare) or more commonly, the administrator's password is easy to figure out. so the hacker can act like the administrator and load up pages that look like real pages but have javascript (or whatever) in them to take advantage of browser exploits.

Most hackers will upload IE exploits to a web site because they'll get more bang for the buck. But firefox and safari (apple) exploits do exist.

Who's responsible? It "depends".

If you have a page up on myspace, yahoo groups, it's them. so you're beholden to them to make sure they are secure. That sucked for people who had boards on ezboard. Similarly, if the ISP has a hosting service where you use their applications to post pages to a site that they manage, then, yes, it's their responsibility.

if someone's managing their own site with their own machines, web server, etc., it's them, not the ISP. The ISP is only providing the pipe. E.g., if ebay.com gets hacked, it's ebay's responsibility, not their ISP.

[jackson1]

Thanks!

[Budman68]

yes, thank you, george, that's good info for idiots, like myself -

[jackson1]

Dave, are you calling me an idiot?

I am though! :ROTF:

[Nuclear Vampire]

That really sucks, especially considering Steve's medical problems. Seems like somebody is being even more of an asshole coz the guy is ill. That board (never visited it so I could be wrong) is probably a nice venue for him to get kind words of support during harsh times, and just plain forget about it while chatting, but some cocksucker had to hack it. Fuckers. People are dicks.