> he tweaked the code, adding an auto-spreading feature that would send copies of the virus to victims' Outlook contacts, using a flaw in Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system.
What's the flaw?
What's the flaw?
As far as I remember, this wasn’t a more advanced virus that self-executed upon being opened. People had to willingly double-click the VBS file. The self-replication and use of the address book was clever — and it was a definite Windows flaw that ultimately allowed it all to work — but I don’t think allowing people to willfully execute an attachment is a flaw.
It was after Melissa and this incident that you started seeing the very public campaigns telling people not to open unknown or weird attachments. And AV vendors like Norton started doing more robust AV updates online (rather than selling new virus definitions on floppy disk or CD-ROM) each year. Norton was already doing online definition updates in 2000, but I seem to recall (I was 16 so my memory is fuzzy) the updates becoming more frequent. I do remember having to install ILoveYou patches on my dad’s computer and my uncle’s computer down the street. I’m also pretty sure this was one of the viruses we purposefully sent around our high school’s network that helped get the entire county infected. Novell’s enterprise rules didn’t catch up until it was too late.
That sounds reasonable. You should have to save the attachment and run it from disk. The chances of any hunk of executable code being of some potential use on your particular architecture and OS was low back in the Win95 days and is even lower these days.
That file extensions were hidden by default and that double clicking on a .vbs file ran it.
Does it tho? In what way? Anyone can create or steal a developer account. You can still notarise malicious software. It just that it gives some lead for investigators to follow (for couple of cases per year that are significant enough).
p.s. how App Stores were designed by accepting binaries rather than source code for review is beyond me. Such an obvious oversight.
edit: Although, this is decent https://malware.wikia.org/wiki/ILoveYou
In their defense, it wasn't really designed for cash registers anyway.
When I was a kid and saw an out of order POS was showing Win95 desktop (could be NT. When did NT start having start menu?), I thought it was cool. I wanted to play Solitaire on it while waiting for my mom to finish paying at some other counter.
> When did NT start having start menu?
Windows NT 4 in 1996 had a similar shell to Windows 95.
That was a master level dad joke. I didn't realize either until reading your comment.
I love that the guy put in his email and physical location.