Microsoft has posted a security advisory (912920) on the previously reported “awakening” of the Sober worm, expected January 6th.
Systems that are infected with Win32/Sober.Z@mm may download and run malicious files from certain Web domains beginning on January 6, 2006
Further they give the following note….
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There’s a good review up of both Kubuntu and Ubuntu over at Desktoplinux.com. The writer doesn’t seem to find either a perfect fit. Ubuntu is Gnome based, Kubuntu is KDE based. The versions reviewed are 5.10
Ultimately the writer suggests Suse Linux 10.0 or Xandros as a desktop workstation, Mepislite or SimplyMepis for a new user and OpenSuse for a server-based linux OS.
I’ve been tinkering with placement of Google Search boxes on the site. These days, with a google search box in Firefox, I don’t think about the convenience factor of putting it in the page too much, but…. At one point I had the box in the sidebar and it did strange rendering things for Internet Explorer, I think the new placement(s) shouldn’t give any problems.
The unofficial WMF exploit patch now has multiple locations to download from. They’ve apparently run into some bandwidth problems at the main site. Sunbeltblog has an alternate download location, Sans is hosting a download here (direct download link)
If you’ve visited here in the last few days, you’ll have noticed that I’ve been trying to test the WMF exploit against a Windows 98 Virtual machine since January 1st. I initially started out with a default install, which didn’t work, (for the exploit), then added irfanview (didn’t work), tried the exploit as a jpg, gif, htm, doc file extension, (didn’t work) and then this morning saw that I’m not the only one that’s been testing this….
Ok – so at least I wasn’t the only one to see Microsoft’s update to the security bulletin as downplaying the threat….
Of course, I don’t expect them to say…. “OH NO>>>> THE INTERNET WILL BE CRASHING AND BURNING…” But acknowledging that it is a very serious threat and there are few ways (outside of the unofficial patch) to be certain that you’re protected in some manner, shape, form would be nice.
I had hoped to get in another test of Windows 98 with yet another WMF viewer (tried Kodak imaging, and irfanview). So far I haven’t seen a way that the WMF exploits can work on Windows 98 SE. I’m running out of time before I have to run to some computer service appointments and maybe will be able to pick up again this afternoon/evening. Larry Seltzer had a post this morning that earlier versions of Windows might not be as vulnerable because they had no default WMF viewer, but with a default WMF viewer they may be susceptible. I’m still looking for a WMF viewer that makes the exploit possible on Windows 98 SE.
Rumors have been around for some time about Google launching Google OS, an Operating System to compete with Microsoft Windows. Well…. now the rumors are circulating around the Google PC (with Google OS). The Latimes.com is reporting that Google has been meeting with people from Wal-Mart (and others) to distribute a cheap pc. This would be a Google PC running something other than Windows – Google OS….
There’s another security warning out related to specially crafted image files. This time it’s targetted at the blackberry, which is a small portable email/pda device. Basically a corrupted TIFF may lead the user to be unable to view other image attachments. The US-CERT advisory seems to indicate that remote code execution could be possible, although there is no comment to this issue from the makers, Research in Motion.
The Microsoft security bulletin on the WMF vulnerability has been updated to indicate that Microsoft expects to release an update for the issue in their regular patch release on January 10th. The first couple paragraphs strike me as a bit defensive. Explaining about their immediate mobilization of Incident Response and immediate work on a patch, in addition to the explanation of extensive testing of the patch in 23 languages….