New worm draws Sobig comparisons

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What I learned

1. Buffer overflow attacks were first used in earnest in 1988, well before Windows had a monopoly and certainly before most people knew the Internet existed.

2. Susceptibility to buffer overflow attacks is caused by bad programming and inherent weaknesses in programming languages; both can be fixed by good programming and appropriate security measures.

3. Most buffer overflow vulnerabilities have been patched and are no longer a significant threat.

4. Vigilance and appropriate security measures reduces the threat of this type of attack to near zero.

5. It doesn't matter whether you are using UNIX (or some variant) or Windows, the threat is about the same.

6. The article is about a worm, not a virus, and does not use a buffer overflow to attack the victim. Bagle-A depends on the user activating the program either explicitly or automatically when downloaded.

"When the attachment is activated by its receiver..."

This type of attack will work on any system if the user is silly enough to run a malicious program.

Your point was?

Posted by: Fred Fredrickson   Posted on: 01/19/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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