Somewhat related to this thread, I recently was the recipient of two email
messages that changed my default homepage address and added some urls to my
favorites. I think it ran like a virus from the preview pane in my outlook;
I am not that knowledgable about html and java to figure out how it worked,
but I didn't see any obvious hyperlinks in it to double-click on. So I
can't rule out there was something I did to launch it, but it appeared to me
all I needed to do was scroll down to it with the preview pane open. As I
didn't see any harm could happen (the attacking program only wanted to force
me to visit sites) we fooled with it for a couple hours trying to learn what
mechanisms it used to run. I couldn't unravel the source that we could see
in the email. Cleanup required emptying Temporary internet files, erasing
history, erasing cookies, erasing the favorites it installed, emptying the
temp folder, and erasing the offending email message. Isn't there a setting
in outlook for disabling html messages from running these kinds of
processes? Do you have to avoid using the preview pane entirely?
Tom Turak
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 5:18 AM
On 18 Dec 2001, at 11:25, Tom Billiodeaux wrote:
> I have forbidden anyone to visit Warez sites.
> That seems to be the most likely sources.
On 19 Dec 2001, at 15:28, Laurie Hand wrote:
> Thanks, Tom. I had never heard of Warez, but will block it upon
> your recommendation.
Laurie:
"Warez" is not *a* site or service. It's a slang term for hacked,
cracked or illegally copied commercial software, which is sometimes
made available via web sites. (It may be distributed by other means
as well, such as Usenet.) Tom suspects that one or more of his kids
was tempted by the offer of "something for nothing".
Note: In addition to usually being an illegal violation of
copyright, cracked or hacked applications are a great way for those
of less-than-honourable intentions to distribute viruses and, more
especially, trojans....
David Gillett
Do you want to signoff PCSOFT or just change to
Digest mode - visit our web site:
http://freepctech.com/pcsoft.shtml
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