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Windows vs. NewComer 0 Comments

As Spawn Point caters to gamers, allot of people within our community have a strong sense for open source, platforms, such as Linux. The reasons for these 'feelings' are everything from 'supporting the underdog' to the ol faithful price point. The one thing that always gets me though is when someone who 'is in the know' discuss security as it relates to MS VS Open. I personally, although started out my career as a Microsoftee, have no real 'feeling' for windows or any other operating system. I do know, that one is definitely not more secure then the other. What many security professionals fail to point out is that no matter what you are running, if it is not up to date, patched or upgraded, you are putting the system at risk. Here is a recent posting from the guys at SANS about a new type of virus righting style is starting to proliferate:

Cross-Platform OpenOffice Virus Proof of Concept

Published: 2007-05-24,
Last Updated: 2007-05-24 20:08:18 UTC
by John Bambenek (Version: 1)

A virus writer sent a proof-of-concept virus called BadBunny to Sophos that uses vulnerabilities in OpenOffice to infect Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Depending on the host operating system, the virus will perform different actions to infect the target machine. In this case, it downloads a lewd image of a scantily clad woman and a dude in a big ol' bunny suit. It's not the first or last attempt at such cross-platform virus writing (or the inclusion of bizarre graphics in malware) but the limitation of seeing much of this cross-platform work lies in the fact that few applications are widely deployed and run on multiple operating systems. Few people use OpenOffice (in comparison to MS Office) to make it worth the while of a would-be attacker looking for anything other than bragging rights. However, viruses are possible for a variety of operating systems (yes, including Mac OS X) and the day may come when those users will have to be just as vigilant as those on Windows.

--
John Bambenek / bambenek {at} gmail [dot] com
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

 

Posted in   A Thought
2007-05-25 14:06:24 | 463 Views

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