[ILUG] Off Topic

[Kevin Dunleavy]

Niall O Broin wrote:
> Doesn't sound like a Melissa variant to me. Sounds like a fairly simple
> trojan accompanied by a little social engineering. Opening an unknown document
> and letting it run macros is bad enough, but if you're stupid enough to run an
> unknown Windows executable . . . . . .

Agreed. I'd just been explaining it to someone less technical than the
inhabitants of this list<g> Technically it's different, but on the
social engineering level, it works just like Melissa. Melissa also
relied on people opening an e-mail attachment from what appeared to be a
trusted source (or at least from a known address). In that case it was a
.doc file. In this case it's a .exe file. (It's also the same modus
operandi as the Happy99 worm that caught a bunch of people in our
office.)


>> The story seems to be that they only screw with Microsoft products.
>> How long before that includes linux boxes? :o)
>> Kevin

>Reason as always is that a hypothetical linux virus would have to get root
>whic is no trivial matter. I think Bliss tried some common exploits to get
>root but I'm not too sure - someone correct me? Anyone who does run an
>emailed program program as root deserves what they get for been clueless. 

My understanding was that Melissa (being macro based) didn't do anything
that a user on a hypothetical linux box running "Microsoft Office for
Red Hat Linux 9.4" wouldn't be allowed to do anyway. It only sent mail
(with an attachment) by reading the users address book.

Expecting a gentle Bar-B-Q featuring "missing the obvious" ;o)
Kevin