I'm extremely paranoid right now, help me out

I'll save all the talk for the end and get to my question right now:

if your computer has been "exploited" by being unpatched, and then you update your computer via Windows Update and install the patches, is your computer still "exploited"? Or did the patches fix and get rid of the "exploits"?

Ok, now own to my talking.

I notced spoolsv and someother program tried to ask for internet access via ZoneAlarm when i turned on my computer the other day, this never happens. so automatically my paranoia button went off. i went to windows update and got the recent(OCT12) patches. still felt paranoid b/c i noticed that Firefox is connected to localhost evertytime i open it(using TCPView to see my connections) and also noticing ingreslock and knted too. I dont know if this is because of the new patches or something bad. ran stinger, avast and spybot, everythings good. i just feel paranoid maybe i'm overreacting and the connections were b/c of the new patches. thats why i asked my first question, cuz i was unpatched for a cpl of days, so saying i were 'exploited' would it still be there when i installed the patches. thanks guys

 

If you have been exploited, and you patch said holes, you could still be vulnerable if a malicious app is on your PC. With that said, there is nothing wrong with spoolsv trying to access the network, as it supports network printing. However, there is no reason to let it if you arent using network printing. Localhost is yourself...127.0.0.1 would be another way of looking at it. If FF is conencted to it every time you start it up, what is your homepage set to? If its set to a default page that resides on your hard drive, it would connect to local host when starting up.

As for ingreslock and knted...thats beyond me. I'm sure someone has answers for that.

Paranoia sucks. Been there, done that. Although unpatched for a few days, don't forget you had a firewall, ans (assumably) an antivirus. Those alone are going to provide good coverage during your 'unpatched' moments.

 

thanks

yea, i notice whenever i install the updats the connections are different. like i used to be able to see who i was connected to through yahoo, then i couldnt now i can with the latest updates.

all the scans went well so thats good and i did block the only two connection attempts i got so maybe its all good. i think i'm just paranoid cuz you never know nowadays

thanks again

 

Firefox normally "talks to itself" from one port to another (randomly selected) on your machine. If you block this "loopback" traffic it will reduce the performance of the browser.