Re: on my desk top is this ~
From: Br0wnbear (brownbearat_at_canadadotcom)
Date: 09/25/03
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Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 00:01:19 -0400
Mr
The file appearing on your desktop with the filename
~, commonly known as a tilde, is a backup of your Windows
Address Book. It is appearing as a result of the April
2003 Cumulative Patch for Outlook Express (330994). The
patch is installed for Outlook Express 5.5 or 6 in
response to a vulnerability that could allow an attacker
to run code of the attacker's choice on a user's machine.
To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would have to be
able to cause Windows to open a specially constructed
MHTML URL, either on a web site or included in an HTML
email message.
Unfortunately, there is a bug in the patch.Whenever you
make a change in your Windows Address Book file (*.wab
file), Windows makes a backup of this file. Generally this
backup is called username.wa~ , however after the patch is
installed the backup gets renamed to just ~ instead and
saved in the directory where you start your Outlook
Express. Most of the time, people start Outlook Express
from a shortcut on their desktop, so the backup file gets
placed there. This is how the tilde (~) file arrives on
your desktop.
HTH
jbrown
brownbearat@canadadotcom
just remove the at and the dot ;)
"Mr" <estasconcenco@aol> wrote in message
news:165c01c38317$afe1c080$a301280a@phx.gbl...
> Yesterday and today there was a file on my desk top that
> has ~ under it- I've known that at times when I've
> turned on my pc, that things look like they do not
> finsh "loading"-its done that with the icon for my ISP-
> but I know that it is that because. this one looks fishy-
> When I click to open it, it says that windows needs to
> know what program created it in order for it to be opened-
> I can either look it up manually or I can use the
> internet to look it up- Should I do that. could it be a
> virus-I got the emails but have not opened up the
> attatchments and purged them- I dont have up to date
> Norton on my xp-I really would like to go online and let
> windows find out what created it so as to either be at
> ease or take action- please help and thanx
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