Just a rant... autorun...

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niky

niky

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I don't know whose gut-damned insanely fantastic idea it was to prepackage a feature into windows that automatically opens and runs any virus-infested, trojan-loving piece of malware without a user prompt or intervention... and they even made sure to make sure that there is no way of disabling it without hacking straight into the registry file.

Windows XP is a piece of stinking, horse-violating fertilizer... honestly... I haven't had this many virus related problems since Millenium. I just can't wait to unload my laptop and get onto a Mac. I don't care if Vista is a million times better, and that I'll have to relearn all my Photo-editing scripts on Photoshop (I currently use COREL Photopaint, as some of the scripts and tools are better) but I'm completely fed up... again... with my Windows PC.

I'm typing this from my Linux netbook... I've been trying to repair my borked registry for the past six hours. I'm at the end of my rope. :grumpy:
 
Umm, I disabled auto play long ago through Windows XP without going into the registry... Are you referencing for disc drives and usb ports? Because files I download don't run at all till I tell them to...

And I haven't had virus issues... And I just use free stuff to protect my system.
 
Me too... my problem is that even with autoplay set to manual (ask first before doing anything) I still got this trojan. Traced it to the wscript feature. Funny, I thought I'd already erased all the windows components that provided backdoors for malware... System Restore kept replacing it, apparently, every time I disabled it... so I finally cloned Notepad, replaced wscript with a notepad clone, and voila... every time a VBS wants to run, I can see it first, and decide if I want to run it with wscript... which is now renamed "wscript piece of something or another..." :lol:

This is what comes of having to trade data with people through flash drives (not everyone has bluetooth) at meetings.
 
Sucks. I never use System restore because when things go wrong, I just re install Windows.

Still, I'm not nearly at high of an exposure rate since I don't have random people giving me flash drives all the time. It is amazing how many people never bother to check for viruses or anything.
 
niky
I don't know whose gut-damned insanely fantastic idea it was to prepackage a feature into windows that automatically opens and runs any virus-infested, trojan-loving piece of malware without a user prompt or intervention... and they even made sure to make sure that there is no way of disabling it without hacking straight into the registry file.

Windows XP is a piece of stinking, horse-violating fertilizer... honestly... I haven't had this many virus related problems since Millenium. I just can't wait to unload my laptop and get onto a Mac. I don't care if Vista is a million times better, and that I'll have to relearn all my Photo-editing scripts on Photoshop (I currently use COREL Photopaint, as some of the scripts and tools are better) but I'm completely fed up... again... with my Windows PC.

I'm typing this from my Linux netbook... I've been trying to repair my borked registry for the past six hours. I'm at the end of my rope. :grumpy:
Click to expand...

This "usability" feature has been built into Windows for ten years now, to compensate for people too stupid to open My Computer, open the CD Drive, and look for something appropriate to run. And it is a convenience, so long as the developers don't put some ludicrous Flash animation in that takes 20s to load and 60s to run.

The fact is, it's not the OS's fault that the malware was written, it was the malware author's, and the user's for not appropriately configuring their system security. All malware parasites itself onto features of the OS. As Windows becomes more secure, the malware authors will become more inventive at co-opting actual features to their own malevolent ends.

Let's not scream and scream until an operating system becomes more akin to airport security.

And how come you're only suffering from it now? The conficker virus has been out for months, as has the patch to disable autorun. Are you not maintaining your system?

And I hope you're not running Firefox on your netbook. What with its 100-bug year in 2008, and its critical vulnerability rating this week, to wit:

The Sans Institute
(1) CRITICAL: Mozilla Products Multiple Vulnerabilities
Affected:
Mozilla Firefox versions 3.0.7 and prior
Mozilla Thunderbird versions 2.0.0.18 and prior
Mozilla SeaMonkey versions 1.1.14 and prior

Description: Products based on the Mozilla codebase, including the
Mozilla Firefox web browser, contain multiple vulnerabilities in their
handing of a variety of inputs. A specially crafted web page or script
could trigger one of these vulnerabilities, leading to a variety of
exploit conditions. Most severely, a specially crafted web page could
result in memory corruption leading to arbitrary code execution with the
privileges of the current user. Attackers could also exploit the errors
in the PNG library, used by the vulnerable browser, to execute arbitrary
code or crash the browser. There is also a same-origin error which can
be used to read sensitive information. Technical details for these
vulnerabilities is publicly available via source code analysis.

Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Click to expand...
 
My netbook is running Linux... not really concerned about vulnerability... and I run no-script.

My beef is that I already locked down my system the way I want it, and I'm just pissed that something actually slipped through the cracks. I even do the Windows updates... this attack hit me right after my last update, which was... (breathes)... a security update.

Didn't know about the autorun disabler... should have been looking it up, but I got lazy. I'd been planning to disable it manually for months, but got discouraged when I found that there was no handle within the "civilian" area of Windows to deactivate it. That's a lack that's extremely annoying. It's like putting a courtesy light in an automobile that you can't turn off in the daytime... or worse, installing an automatic, motion sensitive faucet without an "off" button or valve for when the sensor goes haywire. :lol:

I know... I know... it's way histrionic... but I'm just pissed, is all. I just can't believe anyone would write a program that would allow registry editing without user intervention.
 
Do you have an on-access virus scanner? I always have Avast! in the background as a safety net, even though I haven't had malware in over seven years. Sharing flash drives with people you don't know is risky business.
 
System Restore? wuzzat? :lol: It helps to leave it on, just in case I erase something I might actually need.

I know the people. I just didn't know how bad their anti-viruses were... :grumpy:
 
If you turn off System Restore and then turn it back on, you wipe out all your previous restore points, along with whatever evil they've been saving for you. You can then proceed forward with normal usage.
 
Theres another way with sony VAIO and XP, don't remember what its called but it completly reinstalled XP for me without CDs or anything else.
 
Many PCs these days come with a "Recovery" option, which reloads the PC to factory condition, wipes the disk and puts it back to how it came out of the box.

A good last resort.
 
I could do that, but I'd have to go looking through the internets for the drivers to obscure equipment that I don't have anymore...

Windows works now. And I'm happy to leave it that way... but I'm going to set aside one day at the office to removing all the crap that has been added on to it over the years.
 
wfooshee
Many PCs these days come with a "Recovery" option, which reloads the PC to factory condition, wipes the disk and puts it back to how it came out of the box.

A good last resort.
Click to expand...

Does that actually fix any Registry problems? I was told "No" so I never did it.

Plus, I would have to back everything up to an external HDD, wouldn't I? What would I include in that? I understand photos, music, videos, web links and such, but what else?
 
niky
I could do that, but I'd have to go looking through the internets for the drivers to obscure equipment that I don't have anymore...
Click to expand...

Unless the obscure equipment is something you added, the recovery option sets up everything the machine came with.

Solid Lifters
Does that actually fix any Registry problems? I was told "No" so I never did it.

Plus, I would have to back everything up to an external HDD, wouldn't I? What would I include in that? I understand photos, music, videos, web links and such, but what else?
Click to expand...

It restores everything to out-of-the-box condition, so yes, it "repairs" the registry.

Keep in mind, I'm not talking about the Windows Recovery Console, I'm talking about a boot prompt like "Hit F11 for recovery" which will then take you through a dialog to make sure you understand that it's a complete data loss.

The Windows Recovery Console, or a Repair installation, is good for replacing missing Windows files, but does no other fixes or deletions, so it wouldn't remove malware.

As for what needs to be backed up, your My Documents, Favorites, My Music, any data files you keep elsewhere. If you have multiple logins, then the same folders for their profiles.
 
Windows repair install is a good option. Existing malware is effectively disabled since the registry entries pertaining to Windows and startup are reset. I used repair installs to decrudify XP machines that were too far gone for a simple virus sweep and malware removal.

You also keep your data.
 
wfooshee
Unless the obscure equipment is something you added, the recovery option sets up everything the machine came with.



It restores everything to out-of-the-box condition, so yes, it "repairs" the registry.

Keep in mind, I'm not talking about the Windows Recovery Console, I'm talking about a boot prompt like "Hit F11 for recovery" which will then take you through a dialog to make sure you understand that it's a complete data loss.

The Windows Recovery Console, or a Repair installation, is good for replacing missing Windows files, but does no other fixes or deletions, so it wouldn't remove malware.

As for what needs to be backed up, your My Documents, Favorites, My Music, any data files you keep elsewhere. If you have multiple logins, then the same folders for their profiles.
Click to expand...

I've got most everything critical backed up. I want to try it, but I'm very hesitant. It means I would have to download 5 years worth of updates which would probably take all weekend!

I think I'll wait for my new PC build before I attempt this.

Thanks for the help, though! 👍
 
Well after you start windows as its original condition just grab the service packs first then get the small updates.
 

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