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New Virus: XPA

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Raveers

Posted: June 19th 2008 8:30 pm

Fat Bastard

Join: September 27th 2005 8:01 pm
Posts: 1550
Location: In hell

Hey gang,

I was visiting another forum and someone posted about a new virus that's going around called XPA, here is the tibit from the forum I visit.

Quote:

XPA IS NOT on McAffee's list! Beware of this.

Basically what this program does is it normally associates itself with high traffic sites where there are video or audio downloads. It then appears as a pop-up that resembles an error warning such as: "You need to download (insert activex control here) to view or listen to this file"

DO NOT under any circumstances, click on the download button! If perchance you do, it will then download a self extracting executable file into your REGISTRY. It will then sneak it's way into your networking configuration files and your email clients, replicates itself as an attachment, and then starts sending encrypted packets of information back to the source page that it originated from.

How to know if you are infected: A warning message will pop up from your task bar every 45 seconds saying that you need to download a new uppdate to security software. It will also self install two icons on your desktop that resemble the Microsoft Security shield. DO NOT CLICK THESE ICONS! They are direct links to a server that will begin uploading information from your computer (Identity theft issue!).

This trojan will also self install a "Security toolbar" That will appear as a bargraph that will ALWYAS show your security level as 40% or lower. *The current appearance on the toolbar will say Version 7.1* This new toolbar will also have the same links as the desktop icon.

How to remove: McAffee and Norton DO NOT PICK THIS UP AT THIS TIME, no matter how many times you scan or update them... Reports have been filed with them recently so they should be updating their watch lists soon.

Spyware doctor was the only service that found this program for me, and even THAT took 4 hours to find it. You MUST scan ALL Files including hidden and secure Registry files, because this program changes the location in which it embeds itself each time it infects another machine.

So just be aware of this for future reference, this sounds like an evil son of a bitch.

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Topeka

Posted: June 19th 2008 10:29 pm

Bush Pilot

Join: March 23rd 2005 3:46 pm
Posts: 1483

It might as well say "Click me and I will infect you." These are easy to spot.

Firefox doesn't use ActiveX controls. With Version 3 just released, there's no better time to switch. Get yourself an Internet Explorer theme and you'll never know the difference.

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Daglington

Posted: June 20th 2008 4:01 am

Join: February 29th 2004 6:19 am
Posts: 243

I love my shiny Mac.

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Cryostar

Posted: June 20th 2008 5:20 am

Join: May 2nd 2005 7:26 am
Posts: 1998
Location: Down the rabbit hole

Topeka wrote:

Get yourself an Internet Explorer theme and you'll never know the difference.

Why would you ever want to make firefox look like that POS? *cackle*

I still need to upgrade, I figure 2 will be good for a while.

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CloneCommander

Posted: June 20th 2008 6:42 am

Join: October 25th 2005 2:12 pm
Posts: 508

Cryostar wrote:

I still need to upgrade, I figure 2 will be good for a while.

Give it a month or so, when I downloaded FF3, it went apeshit on my computer and did nothing but crash to desktop. :roll:

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Obi-Wan Starkiller

Posted: June 20th 2008 6:51 am

Join: March 15th 2005 9:39 am
Posts: 934
Location: Nashville, TN

Daglington wrote:

I love my shiny Mac.

Amen

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Raveers

Posted: June 20th 2008 9:33 am

Fat Bastard

Join: September 27th 2005 8:01 pm
Posts: 1550
Location: In hell

Mac's are over-rated. Anyways I too am happy with Firefox 2. With 3 reporting that it's crashing people's desktop just like CloneCommander reported I'm not upgrading any time soon.

Anyways when Firefox 3 is stable I'll download it but I won't make it look like Internet Explorer. I don't even use IE any more it's a piece of shit layout and program.

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Obi-Wan Starkiller

Posted: June 20th 2008 10:00 am

Join: March 15th 2005 9:39 am
Posts: 934
Location: Nashville, TN

Raveers wrote:

Mac's are over-rated.

Well, thank you for providing that without anything to base it on. It might look better though if you give your reasoning. Do you own one?

Oh, and I can guarantee you I'm not going to get XPA on a Mac.

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Raveers

Posted: June 20th 2008 10:37 am

Fat Bastard

Join: September 27th 2005 8:01 pm
Posts: 1550
Location: In hell

I have used a Mac before and I hate them. I prefer my custom built PC that I myself build in 2004 and have never had any problems with.

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Obi-Wan Starkiller

Posted: June 20th 2008 12:36 pm

Join: March 15th 2005 9:39 am
Posts: 934
Location: Nashville, TN

Raveers wrote:

never had any problems with.

Not running Windows, huh?

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Raveers

Posted: June 20th 2008 1:29 pm

Fat Bastard

Join: September 27th 2005 8:01 pm
Posts: 1550
Location: In hell

I am, I'm running Windows XP. As I said never had a problem.

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Longtime_Sunshine

Posted: June 20th 2008 1:30 pm

Join: September 20th 2004 6:33 pm
Posts: 376
Location: Southern California

Most Windows users have weird hate for Macs and Apple in general.

I think most people think Apple = hippie liberals computers of choice.

I have a mac and what's a virus?

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Raveers

Posted: June 20th 2008 4:12 pm

Fat Bastard

Join: September 27th 2005 8:01 pm
Posts: 1550
Location: In hell

Longtime_Sunshine wrote:

Most Windows users have weird hate for Macs and Apple in general.

Most yes, but for me I've worked with Mac's and I hate them. It's like working with Windows 3.1 again. I think the only thing Apple is good for is their mp3 players as I own the iPod Touch and soon to upgrade to the 80GB Classic cause I need more room.

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Cryostar

Posted: June 20th 2008 5:55 pm

Join: May 2nd 2005 7:26 am
Posts: 1998
Location: Down the rabbit hole

I have to agree. I have sold/supported Macs for the better part of 15 years and while I recognize that they have some advantages and uses over a Windows machine, I also recognize that they have some unique challenges as well. I have XP on my desktop and I've built my machine, it doesn't crash, either.

And Sunshine, just because you own a mac, doesn't mean your immune to virus attacks. Mac's don't have market share, therefore people don't write as many virus's against them.

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Thundercracker

Posted: June 20th 2008 6:05 pm

Join: January 22nd 2004 10:02 pm
Posts: 1073
Location: Hel

CloneCommander wrote:

Cryostar wrote:

I still need to upgrade, I figure 2 will be good for a while.

Give it a month or so, when I downloaded FF3, it went apeshit on my computer and did nothing but crash to desktop. :roll:

I've been using FF3 for a few days now and haven't had and desktop crashes so far, I'm using XP. Fingers crossed.

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TroyObliX

Posted: June 20th 2008 6:15 pm

Title: Mortician
Join: May 26th 2005 1:23 am
Posts: 1923
Location: Progress City

I don't have any unusual hate for Macs or Apples. I have used IE since at least 95', and as long as I keep my boot on the back of it's neck, we get along great. I have a habit of sitting down at a computer, bringing up the task manager, and just killing process' that I don't need (which is absouletely everything you can, with the exception of explorer.exe, until you are confident the only things running are things you intended to run). I do this all day long, and it would be nice to experience not having to do that once in a while. I would switch to FireFox, but I have like .002% free space left, and until I do some deleting, I'm sort of stuck.

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Ayatollah Krispies

Posted: June 20th 2008 6:30 pm

Join: August 6th 2004 6:29 am
Posts: 857

Cryostar wrote:

Mac's don't have market share, therefore people don't write as many virus's against them.

Yes, this is the commonly used idiotic retort when Mac users point out how shitty Windows is.

Macs don't have as many viruses against them because the Mac OS is more stable. Which is why that "market share" is growing every year.

I have a Mac with an Intel chip and I run XP on a partition solely for the sake of playing some games I can't get on the Mac. Apart from that, XP regularly reminds me why I would never use it for anything important. I honestly can't believe the number of Windows users who still mouth those same old clueless statements about Macs, but then it's not like America has ever suffered from a lack of lemmings.

And by the way: Firefox 3 runs just fine on a Mac.

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Cryostar

Posted: June 20th 2008 9:27 pm

Join: May 2nd 2005 7:26 am
Posts: 1998
Location: Down the rabbit hole

Woo, nearly 8% market share at the end of last year, and it grows at 7-8% during good months, which is still out paced by linux's 10% market growth.

Is Windows the best software in the world, no, but it's fairly good, and if you know how to use it, it's stable enough. I haven't rebooted my machine in months.

I'm sure there are many reasons to write virus code, most however, are written to take advantage of people to gain control of their computer or get personal information. Personally, if I were doing that, I'd write code against an OS that's run on 91% of the computers out there. FYI, I've never had a virus on any of my computers, even running Windows.

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Raveers

Posted: June 20th 2008 9:50 pm

Fat Bastard

Join: September 27th 2005 8:01 pm
Posts: 1550
Location: In hell

Well said Cryostar. I do agree with you that if you know how to use Windows properly it's a stable system. I always shut my PC down at night because I don't like to leave it running all the time, it's actually never a good idea to do that.

As I said I've never in the four years since I built my PC have ever had a virus get onto it. I've only reformatted my PC once because it's generally a good idea to do it. Experts say once a year but you don't have problems don't need to do it that often, can do it like every other year or so.

I simply do not like Mac's at all. Their user face is lousy as I said too to me it's like operating Windows 3.1 again. Ya I know most Mac's today can run Windows XP, but to me that's a waste of time and effort to switch back between the two OS's.

Vista is a crap of an OS by the way, the major companies should never have switched to it and now with Windows 9 coming out soon I bet they feel like ass holes about it.

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Ayatollah Krispies

Posted: June 20th 2008 11:27 pm

Join: August 6th 2004 6:29 am
Posts: 857

Cryostar wrote:

Woo, nearly 8% market share at the end of last year, and it grows at 7-8% during good months, which is still out paced by linux's 10% market growth.

Well, it's "outpaced" if you use some kind of voodoo math. The actual market share of Linux is less than 1%, so 10% of that is pretty insignificant -- and certainly less than 7-8% of Mac's market share, which is over 10 times larger.

Besides, if you're going to compare growth rates, then you pretty much have to acknowledge that Windows' is falling, correct?

Quote:

Personally, if I were doing that, I'd write code against an OS that's run on 91% of the computers out there.

And if I were doing it, I'd write code against an OS that has a proven history of dangerous vulnerabilities. Hey, guess what? We're writing code for the same software!

I'm sure there are a lot of Pintos out there that never exploded. I don't want one of them either.

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Obi-Wan Starkiller

Posted: June 21st 2008 6:59 am

Join: March 15th 2005 9:39 am
Posts: 934
Location: Nashville, TN

I only run XP in a Virtual session at work because some of my companies programs only run in that os. Otherwise, I would love to leave it behind.

Say what you will about how great Microsoft's OS is but I don't hear anyone on here who is using the newest version of their operating system. If Vista isn't the greatest example of Microsoft's ineptitude then I don't know what is. You spend THAT long on creating something and you can't get your user base to install it without moving backwards to XP. All the while, I'll continue to update to the newest Mac OS every couple of years and never experience any problems. Cryostar, you can talk about viruses all you like, but when Microsofts products are broken out of the box that is just laziness on their part.

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Cryostar

Posted: June 21st 2008 7:28 am

Join: May 2nd 2005 7:26 am
Posts: 1998
Location: Down the rabbit hole

Not saying windows is perfect, just saying that it's usable and not the festering pile of dung some folks are making it out to be. As for Vista, I won't even try to defend Microsoft for what it released. It wanted a new product, and put out XP with Windows Blinds, then charged out the ass for it. Whatever marketing genius thought this up should be fired (probably the same one that thought up Windows ME).

I thought be comparing the growth rates, I was conceding that Windows is losing market share. They haven't put out a quality OS in years (See above comments). They deserve to. In the mean time, Mac is running the same thing it has for years, and the myriad of flavors of Linux continue to attract new followers.

So let me ask a question of you Mac users, do your Macs run all that software that is sitting the shelves? Just thinking that if I have to write an OS that has to be compatible with so many different standards, I might have holes too, even large gaping ones. They get fixed, we move on, at least some of us do.

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Ayatollah Krispies

Posted: June 21st 2008 3:50 pm

Join: August 6th 2004 6:29 am
Posts: 857

OK, you're trying so hard to avoid making any points that can be refuted that you're saying nothing. Move on indeed.

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dusith

Posted: June 21st 2008 9:51 pm

Join: March 11th 2005 9:23 am
Posts: 74
Location: Accord, NY

Well, as a Mac user (the first computer I ever used way back when was an Apple ][) I will say that I love the format, even though I was a little pissed when they switched to OS X and I had to re-learn some things and get use to some new changes. I understand the platform because that's what I've been using. I don't like PCs because my brain thinks in Mac, simple as that.

That being said, I also understand that my Mac serves my purposes just fine (mostly graphics and photo editing) but it is not great for everything; I don't know if any system really is but folks tend to think their system is best 'cause that's what they are using. That's fine, we are entitled to our opinions. I tend to think that any operating system will run fine if one takes the time to do routine maintenance. PCs would not have dominated the market for so long if they hadn't created a product that people enjoyed combined with good marketing, plenty of software options, and a lack of serious competition. That market leverage is now being challenged by open source operating systems combined with Microsoft's own errors.

That's my two cents.

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sultan bey

Posted: June 22nd 2008 2:29 am

Join: April 28th 2005 2:18 am
Posts: 154
Location: Dallas

When working support jobs (ISP), I liked taking calls from mac users because management was always down w/ handing out the line, “I’m sorry but we don’t support the mac”. I didn’t have anything against mac users, but when working jobs like that, one becomes weary of the callers and it’s comforting to have an easy out.

The only real trouble I’ve had from windows was myself installing bootlegged software. If I’d leave well enough alone, I’d have not much to complain of.

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yarq

Posted: June 6th 2025 4:05 am

Join: June 5th 2025 2:49 am
Posts: 48875