Two Year Old Internet Explorer Vulnerability Finally Investigated

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by dlb, Sep 7, 2010.

  1. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    dlb, Sep 7, 2010
    #1
  2. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    DavidGP, Sep 8, 2010
    #2
  3. Spad

    Spad MajorGeek

    Very true - no program or OS is 100% safe from virus and malware attacks. Even the vaunted Mac operating system isn't invulnerable . . . it's just not a big enough target for the bad guys to mess with.

    Were Apple and Microsoft's positions reversed, people would be trying to make up clever names about how crappy and unsafe Macs are . . . :-D
     
    Spad, Sep 10, 2010
    #3
  4. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    I totally agree with you, the security issues with various OSes is blown out of proportion to the % of users per OS, what many folk dont understand or even know is that the majority of servers around the world are Linux servers, and its these that are infected to start with, that then infect Windows bsaed PCs.

    So Linux is attacked as its the predominent servr OS and Windows as the premominent client OS.

    Firefox is starting to attract more attention now as its gained a good foothold % in the browser market. As an alternate thought, smart phones like iPhone, Windows Mobile and Google Android based phones are now starting to see new emerging malware for those devices as we us them more in our daily lives to surf the net and do shopping and banking, thus a new area for malware criminals to exploit.
     
    DavidGP, Sep 10, 2010
    #4
  5. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    I read somewhere online recently that in the numerous "hacker fests" that take place (like the Black Hat conferences in Las Vegas), that when they have a "can you hack in to this" contest, the Mac systems usually fall first! before the Microsoft-based systems. To back that up, I heard the exact same thing on one of those IT/PC radio shows (it wasn't KimKomando but was similar in content and focus). Locally, we have a show on the radio on Saturday mornings called "The Cyber Jungle" and they talk about this stuff all the time, and they have mentioned (more than once) that the Mac OS is less secure than Vista/Win7, and is even less secure than a fully patched and updated WinXP. As stated above, the main reason Macs are so "secure" is because of their small market share.

    Personally, I don't think the servers are necessarily 'infected' but they become the host of the infection, and it's then passed along to Windows PCs. It's like if you get the flu virus on your finger by shaking hands with someone who just sneezed in to their hands (YUK!). Your finger doesn't get the flu, but as soon as you wipe your eye, or pick up a cheeseburger for a bite, or pick your nose, you introduce the virus into the host (your body, which is the metaphorical Windows PC) and get sick that way. If you shake hands with someone else, the flu gets passed to them, but if you wash your hands before eating that cheeseburger, you won't get sick. In this scenario, your hands are the Linux servers (kind of? :confused). I think you guys know what I mean.
    LOL
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2010
    dlb, Sep 15, 2010
    #5
  6. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    To be a host you have to be infected?! with the virus, you maybe a carrier and not display symptoms (as in your analogy) but you are infected, and that is the problem in many webmasters think Linux is immune, hence the prevelance of Zombie/botnets that have infected Linux servers to then spread malware to Windows PCs as both use TCP/IP which is how malware can get in and out of the various ports.

    Windows Server software is not the predominent software in use in servers, Linux varients are, which is like same for home users in that Windows Client is more used than Linux or OSX, same as iOS is more used on phones than that of Android or WinMo, hence in this scenario, Linux Servers, Windows Client and iOS being the respective predominents OSes in those markets it stands that they are the ones to be attacked, crooks will always spend the money to develop and pay malware writers and hackers to infect the most common used software.


    Another few links
    http://www.securecomputing.net.au/News/174186,botnets-exploit-linux-owners-ignorance.aspx
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/12/linux_zombies_push_malware/
    http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/linu...ly-is-over-gentoo-ships-backdoor-updated/2206
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware


    I was at a conference a few years back when a few malware experts where talking about this as a big issue that is in part being ignored by many webmasters as they think Linux is immune so are not taking the appropriate security measures or updating the OS.

    Windows and IE will be a well attacked peice of software for many years to come, but just dont become complacent as Firefox and Linux are in the targeting sights.
     
    DavidGP, Sep 16, 2010
    #6

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