Salon - - WARNING: Virus Hidden In IMAGES - Page 2

Gary Richardson · #16 01-12-2006, 04:55 AM

Love M$ response. Don't worry, all it will do is crash the programme. Yeah that's of no consequence at all is it?

OK, it might not be a critical security risk any more, but it's still wrong and should be sorted. Come on M$ get your finger out.

On a side note, ever noticed that almost all exploits are based on buffer overruns, sloppy cut price programming, these should be removed in the debugging and beta testing process.

Gary Richardson · #17 01-12-2006, 02:36 PM

One of the guys at SWW used to have a signature that said

Quote:

"If you think it's bad now, just wait till Longhorn"

(for those who don't know, Longhorn was the beta name for Vista).

I think that pretty much displays the confidence we all have, that M$ will release even a remotely secure system.

Doug Nelson · #18 01-12-2006, 03:39 PM

I just got a notice yesterday that an important Quicktime patch was released for both Mac and Win versions. It seems that someone could use images to execute programs on the user's computer. I wonder how come this didn't get all the press of the MS version? (tip: update your QT plugin)

Gary Richardson · #19 01-13-2006, 05:26 PM

Thanks Doug.

rondon · #20 01-14-2006, 06:56 PM

I stumbled on to this by accident (I was trying to define "twit") but it's timely... I don't know who these fellows are on the website though.

What they have is a broadcast mostly about the wmf vunerability and one high strung fellow claims it was an intentional back door left by microsoft that was discovered by an evil Hacker forcing microsoft to respond with a fix.. I'm only 2/3 of the way thru the audio broadcast as the phone bumped me

and I am redownloading... but it spoken simply enough so that I am catching most of it..

BTW IrfanView was mentioned... my favorite viewer

look for the link here,

http://thisweekintech.com/

PS Twit is: This Week In Tech.

rondon · #21 01-15-2006, 08:39 AM

what did surprise me was later I realized these are the folks from the old screen savers show at least some of them. Leo Laporte never struck me as a sensationalist he was the moderator.

I think they only refered to the NSA once and that set off warnings in my head too. But you do know we are in a scandal over on this side of the pond because of the goverment spying on the internet eh? There are claims that they went much further than 1st reported.

I could easily believe Microsoft left that back door on purpose and not for the generous reason given by this Steve fellow. As he said though if a Hacker stumbled on to it microsoft would have had to quickly invent a cover.

as for the who shot Kennedy jab... many of us will go to our graves wondering about that one.

I would rather have debated the merits of the audio file without your antics (laughing faces and all) but then thats how you are.

Gary Richardson · #22 01-15-2006, 09:22 AM

I can confirm Chris's knowledge of this exploit pre 28th Dec, as he mentioned it indirectly in a PM to me before that date.

Sorry, the audio file is too large for downloading on dial-up, so can't comment on the contents.

But most software developers leave backdoors into their programmes (although this practice is becoming less popular than it once was), add to this a number of backdoors and facilities added unofficially by the programmers, and it's easy to see why security is only a relative term. (For those doubting the existance of "extra curricular" facilities, see www.eeggs.com for a list of "Easter Eggs" embedded in many mainline programmes).

rondon · #23 01-15-2006, 09:24 AM

I haven't formed an opinion but are you even aware there is a scandal?

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ne...pping&ie=UTF-8

rondon · #24 01-15-2006, 09:26 AM

I'm on a phone modem too! it's only Audio.. if you just let it download for 20 minutes or so you can start listening.

rondon · #25 01-15-2006, 10:20 AM

Stonercreek started this thread regarding the threat of viruses in graphics.. The Audio relates to that and only refers once quickly to goverment involvement. I think it explains the problem well... This is no Easter egg.. and would appear intentional.
That is the message...

rondon · #26 01-15-2006, 11:51 AM

A month or so ago in another security thread I offered RestoreIT as an alternate and you jumped on that in a simular fashion.. You don't discuss anything , you've decided to rant (repeating yourself) about an off topic here.

The topic is the vunerability and I thought the audio link explained it well for us novices.

rondon · #27 01-15-2006, 12:38 PM

The topic is the vunerability and I thought the audio link explained it well for us novices.

Cameraken · #28 01-15-2006, 01:21 PM

Come on Guys. You’re all making sensible points. So let’s keep it that way.

I noticed a patch for Windows 98 (I think it was at Steve Gibsons Site) Does anyone know if this should be installed? (I use ME at work).
Is ME at as much risk?

Ken

Cameraken · #29 01-15-2006, 02:15 PM

Thank You Chris.

Ken.

rondon · #30 01-15-2006, 07:01 PM

Following links around I've found he does 6 hours of radio a week among other things... this link is to the archives all broken down into one hour segments..

http://leoville.tv/radio/pmwiki.php/Main/AudioArchives

With a phone modem I've downloaded 1 hour to listen to while downloading the next..

I think I may have ran into his radio show once on an aborted mission to tune into web radio without enough bandwidth.