Microsoft: XP Attack Rocks 10,000 PCs
PrintIt didn't take long for digital ne'er do gooders to actively exploit a new Windows XP flaw discovered by a Google engineer last month. In a blog post on Wednesday, Microsoft said it noted some 10,000 "distinct computers" have fallen prey to the attack.
"At first, we only saw legitmate researchers testing innocuous proof-of-concepts. Then, early on June 15th, the first real public exploits emerged," Microsoft said. "Those intial exploits were targeted and fairly limited. In the past week, however, attacks have picked up."
Microsoft also said the attacks are no longer limited to specific geographies, noting outbreaks in Portugal, Russia, Croatia, Germany, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and several others, including the United States.
The exploit involves a vulnerability in the Windows Help and Support Center software that comes with Windows XP. In short, the attack is being used to download various malware, as well as a piece of software called Obitel that...downloads more malware. Go figure.
Image Credit: Photobucket
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B10H4Z4RD
July 04, 2010 at 10:44pm
Damnit leave XP alone. Be honest with yourself, as cool as Win7 is, it just doesn't have the emotional attachment that XP had. I'd rather get get a viruz to be deleted on my Win7 partition than some stupid shit on my WinXP partition. this makes me sad.
______________________________________________________________________
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Elric
July 02, 2010 at 9:24am
Wow, 10000 cases... that's like what? One ten trillionth of the number of XP boxes? LOLocaust.
Dustn525
July 01, 2010 at 3:47pm
Thanks to Nlite, I've removed the worthless Help & Support Center from my XP box from the install.
IFLATLINEI
July 01, 2010 at 12:08pm
I would guess this is why Black Viper turns these things off. I did. When you know what your doing with the PC you dont need to worry as much about these kind of things. But sadly most people dont know jack about their electronics much like their cars and are prime for getting ripped off or exploited. Windows help LMAO did it ever really help anyways? Nope!
igoka
July 01, 2010 at 9:56am
At least this time we know where it coming from because " Obitel " is russian word for " sanctuary ".
k11k
July 01, 2010 at 8:53am
I agree they really need to be taken down a level, to high and mighty for its own good, need a good lawsuit to dring it back down.
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