Viral Pandemonium

The next blaster?

Yesterday Microsoft released an advisory describing a Windows vulnerability that is very similar to the one exploited by the blaster and nachia worms. In response to the vulnerability Microsoft has released an updated patch that addresses both the new flaw and the flaw exploited by blaster et al. Unfortunately the older patch--the one we distributed earlier--does not fix the new vulnerability.

We (per Microsoft's recommendation) strongly encourage all users to protect themselves by installing the new patch. The patch files for Windows 2000 and Windows XP may be downloaded directly from this site, or may be found on the student Z: drive in the "Sophos Anti-Virus". Windows 2000 users should download and install Service Pack 4 from this site before installing the patch listed above.

Annoying emails

Many people have complained about bounced or returned email messages--messages that they never wrote. These messages are an unfortunate side-effect of viruses like sobig which propagate themselves via email. Computers infected by these viruses send out a large number of email messages to real or imaginary email addresses and, to avoid detection, fake or "spoof" the return address on the messages. When the messages cannot be delivered--as often happens because the addresses aren't legitimate, or because mail servers like ours detect the virus attached to the message--mail servers often try to notify the sender via the return address. Since the viruses fake the return address, however, these notifications are not sent to the true sender but to the listed return address--an address that may belong to you.

Because these notifications are a normal part of the email system, and because it is often helpful to know that a message you sent could not be delivered--if you're emailing a friend or family member, for example--InfoSys cannot block them; our advice is to simply delete the messages and try not to feel too frustrated by them. If it helps to keep things in perspective, several InfoSys-maintained email accounts receive hundreds of these messages each week.