Worm poses as porn-purging program
Jim Lee Jr.
Cuss and discuss, Winkooks.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/18/baba_worm/
Worm poses as porn-purging program
By John Leyden
Published Tuesday 18th January 2005 17:21 GMT
A new mass-mailing worm which tries to scare naive users into running it
by saying pornographic content has been found on their PCs has begun
doing the rounds. Users are told that adult material on their PC can be
hidden by running an attached program called "Evidence Cleaner",
actually the Baba-C worm.
Baba-C turns the frequent trick of offering malware posing a
XXX-material on its head by offering to remove adult content from
Windows PCs. The end result is much the same though. Users duped into
running Baba-C further the spread of the worm and open up backdoor
access to their Windows system.
Although there have only been a small number of reports of the Baba-C
worm, vigilance (and update anti-virus signatures to detect the worm) is
never a bad thing. Emails sent by the worm (screenshot) typically arrive
with the subject: "Important! XXX sites found on your computer!"
jfizer
people who will launch any application emailed to them. These same
people would do the same thing if they had Macs.
Snit
on 1/19/05 10:13 AM:
> In other words, once again, this is a worm/trojan that exploits dumb
> people who will launch any application emailed to them. These same
> people would do the same thing if they had Macs.
Can you point to this *ever* happening on a Mac?
I am not claiming you are wrong, just hoping to help you understand that for
Mac users the risk of this is negligible - where as for Windows users it is
a frequent risk.
--
I am one of only .3% of people who have avoided becoming a statistic.
jfizer
wrote:
>"jfizer" <jfizer> wrote in post 485tu05h2kknirlha...@4ax.com
>on 1/19/05 10:13 AM:
>
>> In other words, once again, this is a worm/trojan that exploits dumb
>> people who will launch any application emailed to them. These same
>> people would do the same thing if they had Macs.
>
>Can you point to this *ever* happening on a Mac?
>
Can you point to this *ever* happening on Windows where it was not the
result of a Dumb User (tm)? Or do people who dont launch random crap
emailed to them have nothing to worry about?
Yes there are issues with the Windows as a platform. But these are due
to applications and not the core OS (outlook and IE being the main
problems). However a smart user can get around all the issues without
any effort. Hell, most people I know never used IE and Outlook before
it became a pandemic, there are better products out there (I just wish
firefox or somthing would get enough support for ActiveX to run
OWC11).
>I am not claiming you are wrong, just hoping to help you understand that for
>Mac users the risk of this is negligible - where as for Windows users it is
>a frequent risk.
If enough people use Macs it will happen. If you are a sad little
person living in your parents basement writting worms as a means of
lashing out at the world for canceling Futurama, which would you
target, Windows (~90% of the market) or Mac (~4% of the market)? This
stuff is not about the OS security. If a person wants to launch an App
they will, unless the OS forbids them from running applications.
Snit
on 1/19/05 11:13 AM:
> On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:58:08 -0700, Snit <SN...@CABLE0NE.NET.INVALID>
> wrote:
>
>> "jfizer" <jfizer> wrote in post 485tu05h2kknirlha...@4ax.com
>> on 1/19/05 10:13 AM:
>>
>>> In other words, once again, this is a worm/trojan that exploits dumb
>>> people who will launch any application emailed to them. These same
>>> people would do the same thing if they had Macs.
>>
>> Can you point to this *ever* happening on a Mac?
>>
>
> Can you point to this *ever* happening on Windows where it was not the
> result of a Dumb User (tm)? Or do people who dont launch random crap
> emailed to them have nothing to worry about?
Again, I am not looking at blame - I am looking at a very simple fact: On OS
X, this is not a high risk... essentially no risk at all (though I still
encourage people to be careful). On Windows it is a real and common
problem.
You can blame whoever you want. The reality is, though, that this is a
*huge* advantage for the Mac.
> Yes there are issues with the Windows as a platform. But these are due
> to applications and not the core OS (outlook and IE being the main
> problems). However a smart user can get around all the issues without
> any effort.
Please explain what you mean by a "smart user". If you mean a technically
savvy user with experience, you and I may not be in much disagreement here.
> Hell, most people I know never used IE and Outlook before
> it became a pandemic, there are better products out there (I just wish
> firefox or somthing would get enough support for ActiveX to run
> OWC11).
I suggest Firefox for my Windows users... and usually Thunderbird...
>
>> I am not claiming you are wrong, just hoping to help you understand that for
>> Mac users the risk of this is negligible - where as for Windows users it is
>> a frequent risk.
>
> If enough people use Macs it will happen.
Perhaps, but that is irrelevant. The fact is that for Mac users the risk is
negligible... and that is most certainly not the case for Windows users.
> If you are a sad little person living in your parents basement writting worms
> as a means of lashing out at the world for canceling Futurama, which would you
> target, Windows (~90% of the market) or Mac (~4% of the market)? This stuff is
> not about the OS security. If a person wants to launch an App they will,
> unless the OS forbids them from running applications.
Does not change the fact that the Mac has a huge advantage in this area.
--
Picture of a tuna soda: http://snipurl.com/bid1
Feel free to ask for the recipe.
Snit
abc-16949C.1...@28-76.newscene.com on 1/19/05 2:14 PM:
> Which is what most of these things are. Dumb users are dumb users,
> regardless of what computer they are running.
And yet no malware on OS X has lead to even 1 in 100,000 e-mails being
spread around the globe. Or even 1 in 1,000,000. Heck, not even 1 in
1,000,000,000.
Windows: well, malware there has lead to 1 in 10 emails from time to time.
And it will again - this is not an isolated incident on Windows, but a
recurring event. As are other problems with malware.
People can make any excuse they want - even change the topic to security
updates and market share - but the reality is a user of OS X is much, much
less likely to be hit by malware than a Windows user.
Andrew Templeman
> "jfizer" <jfizer> wrote in post oe8tu0h7n0qr99541...@4ax.com
> on 1/19/05 11:13 AM:
>
> > On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:58:08 -0700, Snit <SN...@CABLE0NE.NET.INVALID>
> > wrote:
> >
> > Can you point to this *ever* happening on Windows where it was not the
> > result of a Dumb User (tm)? Or do people who dont launch random crap
> > emailed to them have nothing to worry about?
>
> Again, I am not looking at blame - I am looking at a very simple fact: On OS
> X, this is not a high risk... essentially no risk at all (though I still
> encourage people to be careful). On Windows it is a real and common
> problem.
>
> You can blame whoever you want. The reality is, though, that this is a
> *huge* advantage for the Mac.
>
Also if Bob User on windows with 'display file extensions - OFF' (this
seems to be default on recent copies of WinXP) is sent an email with
attachment
"Hi Bob, this is a picture of Mary" att:"Mary1.jpg.exe"
and he clicks[1] on it, it will run and do whatever it wants with the
user authorities of Bob (usually an adminstrator on Win XP Home, Win
98/ME - what can't you do).
while George McUser on
his iMac G5 receives an email with... well how do you create an
executable attachment that the user thinks is a picture and will execute
with a click[1] on Mac OSX?
A std application isn't able to be emailed 'as is' - it's a
folder/directory.
[1] [double click may be required depending on email client]
Snit
> In article <BE13EDC0.1BAB6%SN...@CABLE0NE.NET.INVALID>,
> Snit <SN...@CABLE0NE.NET.INVALID> wrote:
>
>> "jfizer" <jfizer> wrote in post 485tu05h2kknirlha...@4ax.com
>> on 1/19/05 10:13 AM:
>>
>>> In other words, once again, this is a worm/trojan that exploits dumb
>>> people who will launch any application emailed to them. These same
>>> people would do the same thing if they had Macs.
>>
>> Can you point to this *ever* happening on a Mac?
>>
>> I am not claiming you are wrong, just hoping to help you understand that for
>> Mac users the risk of this is negligible - where as for Windows users it is
>> a frequent risk.
>
> Again, only because there aren't enough Mac users to make the effort
> worthwhile.
You seem to be in agreement and then immediately trying to theorize as to
the reasons why.
"Why" hardly matters - at least not to most users. "What" matters a great
deal, and we seem to be in agreement that the "what" of the OS X experience
is superior, at least in this area, to the "what" of the XP experience.
I would say that this one thing is a valid reason for many people to not use
Windows...
>
> Now, if Apple sells 50 million or so mini Macs.........
>
> Mike
--
Picture of a tuna milkshake: http://snipurl.com/bh6q
Sean Burke
If you're dumb enough to respond to snit, you're probably dumb
enough to click on a spam attachment that promises to remove
smut from your harddrive.
-SEan
Snit
x7sm4vp...@bolo.xenadyne.com on 1/20/05 7:19 PM:
I notice your insults, but see nothing from you in this post even remotely
on the topic of the greater risk XP users have in regards to malware.
What about spewing such insults pleases you?
--
Look, this is silly. It's not an argument, it's an armor plated walrus with
walnut paneling and an all leather interior.
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