[ILUG] From the register. XP machine rooted in 200 seconds.

[John Madden]

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On (01/12/04 11:26), Ken Gilmour didst pronounce:
> There's no point really in testing the vulnerabilities in old service 
> packs... Although i do hate windows, i at least make an effort to update 
> service packs etc as soon as i see them available. The same could be said 
> for a Linux machine (in fact, it's said that Redhat 7.3 had more security 
> holes in it's default install than Windows 2000 at the time). If you 
> don't update your stuff you're more prone to attacks... it doesn't take 
> a scientist to realise that!
> 
This is _WAY_ OT, but anyway....

While I agree that users _should_ make a concerted effort to stay
up-to-date, this doesn't, or sometimes _can't_ happen. For example, I
received a "broken" Windows XP machine recently to fix and update. To
start with IE was completely borked, and wouldn't run javascript at all.
This meant that windowsupdate wouldn't work. By the time I received it
and updated Norton AV, it found 3 different worms on the machine (2
copies of 2 of them). I manually installed IE6 to get it functioning
again so I could update. (Aside: while I was doing this I checked
windowsupdate.com with w3.org's html validator -- 11 errors, then
checked microsoft.com -- 25 errors!).

Anyway, cutting a long story short, after updating IE and adding patches
from windowsupdate, any attempt to install SP2 failed. The machine
_still_ doesn't have SP2, mainly because I didn't want to spend a day
and a half re-installing the OS, apps and patching it.

Lastly, a lot of Windows users in Ireland still use dial-up, where a 
download of a 200mb+ service pack, if thought about, usually isn't done
simply because it takes ages to do.

- -- 
Chat ya later,

John.
- --
BOFH excuse #157: Incorrect time syncronization
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