Worm masquerades as Microsoft patch
Posted by configure on 18 July 2003 - 16:02 · 2 comments & 633 views
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#1 Posted by Nostalgia on 21 Jul 2003 - 07:09
- Well blow me and call me shorty as if people havent seen the video where Windows crashed in front of Bill Gates and the Live press conference, so this news aint no big deal... it just keeps happening again n again n again ... until one day Micrrrr starts charging for these patches as well.
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#2 Posted by Nostalgia on 21 Jul 2003 - 07:10
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It more of seems like a conspiracy to shutdown P2P servers...
The worm, which for the moment goes by multiple name, including W32.Gruel@mm and W32/Fakerr@mm, modifies a slew of system settings in Microsoft Windows machines and attempts to delete a host of crucial system files.
Like most worms, Gruel/Fakerr propagates via email by lifting addresses from the Microsoft Outlook address book. However, it can also spread through the Kazaa file-sharing network. If the attached executable files are run, the worm modifies the Windows Registry, and tries to erase important system files, including all the .dll, .com, and .exe files in Windows' System32 folder.
While infection rates are currently very low and users armed with updated anti-virus software are protected, Gruel/Fakerr may get some traction because of its disguise. Two of the three variants of the worm masquerade as emails from Microsoft, and carry the subject heading "Microsoft Windows Critical Update".
Coincidentally or not, Microsoft announced three security flaws, including one it rates as critical, on Wednesday, just hours before the new worm was discovered. Users who have noticed mentions in the media of the Microsoft vulnerabilities might take it upon themselves to launch the attached file.
Gruel/Fakerr isn't the first worm to propagate via both email and peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa. In mid-May, the Fizzer worm also attempted to spread by copying itself to Kazaa shared folders.
Designed and developed in-house for use in Clié PDAs, the processor includes an ARM926 core and is capable of adjusting its operating frequency and voltage to match the task in hand, said the company. The technology, which Sony says means the processor draws less power than a conventional chip, has been dubbed DVFM (dual voltage frequency management) and, in the chip announced Thursday, can adjust the frequency between 8MHz and 123MHz.
The processor also includes 64M bits of DRAM, the Clié's graphics engine and the interfaces for the camera and MemoryStick slot, thus cutting down on the number of chips inside the PDA.
A built-in digital still camera with 310,000 pixel resolution is included in the hinge. This can take images up to VGA (640 pixels by 480 pixels) quality. Wireless support for both Bluetooth and WLAN (IEEE802.11b) is included and two small illuminated lights on the right of the display indicate when they are in use. Other networking options include an infrared and USB port.
The PDA has 96MB of memory split between a 32MB bank of SDRAM and 64MB bank of flash memory. After space has been claimed by the operating system and preinstalled software, there is a total of 38MB available to users, split as 16MB of SDRAM for applications and 22MB of flash memory for storage of multimedia files.
Installed software for the PDA, which runs on version 5.2 of Palm's operating system, includes a movie player, movie recorder, photo editor and album, digital music player supporting MP3 or ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding), Picsel Viewer to access Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, and the Netfront Web browser.
It measures 103mm by 86.5mm by 17.9mm and weighs 175 grams. That makes it the smallest Clié yet to be announced by Sony and only 3 grams heavier than the SJ-3 series, which are the lightest Clié PDAs available.
The internal Lithium Ion Polymer battery provides enough power for 14 days use, which Sony calculated by running the information manager program each day for 30 minutes with the backlight switched off. Battery life with the backlight switched on, which draws more power but is the way most people use their PDAs, was not available.
The PEG-UX50 will go on sale in Japan on Aug. 9 and is expected to be priced around ¥70,000 ($593). Plans for overseas sales are expected to be announced at a Sony event on Friday in the U.S. where it will outline its handheld computing strategy.