ARRRGGG! Every XP rig in our building spontaniously rebooting!?! Please help...

[Belwarrior]

Cant even get online yesterday to post about it here..
My dept got it first thing in the morning.. Thank the gods there is a win98 pc chugging along (the only one not affected)

Strangely, trend micro detected it and deleted the main file but could not prevent it from infecting the systems. Almost every single program using the internet hung or crashed.

Symantec didnt even have any info about it while trend already had enough time to post about it. Thankfully using the win98 box i managed to patch the rest..

What the worm-coder left, is a hello msg to his/her lover? and a snide remark to B. Gates

I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!!
billy gates why do you make this possible ? Stop making money and fix your software!!


Cant say i like the way he said it though.. wasted my whole day at work

[GNEP]

Well it seemed to pass me by at home, and I'm all patched up now so hopefully it will stay that way

Did get a couple of phonecalls from friends saying "help" - although one I was most surprised to hear had nearly got all the way there - he only wanted to know whether he had 32bit or 64bit WindowsXP so he could get the right patch. So you see it is possible for a complete non-techie to fault find and fix if this friend can do it (he is not at all techie!)

[Gurm]

You know what REALLY frosts me?

That there are just as many vulnerabilities in Linux, but it's not "cool" or "l33t" or "sexy" to write Linux viruses.

(Not to mention the disproportionate number of Linux users with massive firewalls between them and your virus...)

Just once I wanna see these Lusers get nailed by a REALLY REALLY nasty Linux virus that cripples their systems.

'Course we'd never hear about it. They're too damn proud. They'd wipe all their machines and reinstall from CD's a hundred times before admitting to getting a virus.

Gpar_

[The PIT]

Funny I noticed this with all the patches I Keep downloading.
One day someone will do one day when it'll create enougth disruption.

[Marshmallowman]

I have never ever used a virus scanner in linux and I have never had a virus in linux.(since 95)

I have had 2 on atari, and about 6 in dos/windows over the years.

The whole security/user infrastructure in linux is leaps and bounds ahead of windows. It just the way it evolved, security is a core component. Windows has had it bolted on over the years..

Thats probably why its always been considered a "server" system, and not a "desktop" system since the securtiy tends to be a bit of overkill for the average user.

and windows popularity itself make it a lot bigger and juicier target

[LvR]

First mutation now circulating ---------Aaaaaaarg

[The PIT]

Aaarghh.

Five machines to clean this morning and of course I choose the awkward one to start on. Of course the user hadn't installed any patches at all.
IE through a wobbler and stopped working so I had install Opera to download the full version of SP1. Bingo that worked so I could then install the rest of the updates the machine didn't have.
The machine also threw up a red herring after the virus had chomped on Logictechs wireless keyboard (Itouch.exe). I just disabled that via msconfig as keyboard worked fine without it.
I also noticed that the autoupdate feature of XP was confused. Couldn't arsed sorting that out.
At least the afternoon job took just over an hour to download all the patches that hadn't been installed.
The user had updated the virus checker so the virus re-ineffected the machine rebooted got cleaned out and then re-infected again, rebooted. Pity they didn't apply the windoze patch.

[DentyCracker]

Woohoo. Sorted. In yer face lovesan. Now I can enjoy me 600K broadband in peace. Finally i have broadband.

[High_Jumbllama]

Second Mutation
Hmm Norton was slow again. Mcaffee had this posted a few hours before Norton.

[BuddMan]

This is giving us hell at work....too many people...calling...stop the calling....

[Gurm]

Yeah I forgot to mention that it can sometimes disable certain features of IE. Like clicking on links that lead to Microsoft!

Gpar_

[LvR]

As I was saying!

[High_Jumbllama]

Windows Update is having severe speed problems due to the attacks, but somehow it is still running under all the strain. Downloaded the latest couple for 2K/XP last night to burn them and bring in.

[The PIT]

Sadly the management at our place isn't taking the problem seriously.
On the day of the first outbreak we had to find a working solution ourselves while at the same time answering the phones too worried/angry users.
We had to publish this solution ourselfs to the University web site.
Theres still pc's on our network that our broadcasting the virus. These haven't been forceably disconnected.
No Manager thought of telling our Computer suppliers that they have to install this patch. I suggested we do this this afternoon after I checked this out.
No Manager has considered what will happen when the Students return and plug there machines into the University network.
No Manager has allocated further resources to cleaning the infected machines. Theres just two or one technicians doing it at the moment.
When Staff return from Holiday they too will just switch on and get infected so the outstanding jobs will grow.
No manager has considered educating University staff the basics of updating the machines.

[Technoid]

Seems like a rather normal situation, Pit