Re: Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible

"Roger Abell [MVP]" <mvpNoSpam@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Not all the replies go to you...

"Imhotep" <imhotep@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ceudnewFafcRBdDZnZ2dnUVZ_umdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Alun Jones wrote:

Imhotep wrote:
Michael D. Ober wrote:

The only OS that this warning doesn't appear to apply to is OpenVMS.

There are MANY more OS', typically running on 'real' mainframes, where no
rootkits are known for.

Linux (and by extension, Mac OS-X) and Unix are also subject to this
same problem.

What kind of 'stuff' are you smoking???? Do you have any idea how
stupid you sound?

I have been using Linux for 10 years, never caught anything. If I had
a dollar everytime I caught something on Windows I could retire very
wealthy. The truth is that malware is 99.9 % a Windows problem. So
stop lying about it!

That's SO ridiculous:

- what "Linux"? Any known distribution? Which MTA, web server, ...

Almost all of them have had nice big security holes, and they offered
the whole plethora of services on all their interfaces like Windows.

- why did you catch "something" on Windows?

I'm using Windows since v3.0 and never caught something. I'm also using
other OS' since 30 years and never caught anything there.
Your argument only tells something about your habits using Windows; a
properly setup/configured system is as secure as any other OS! A careless
setup OS is nothing a user should work with.

Where's the "lie"? Where's the "stupid"?

The lie is:
"The only OS that this warning doesn't appear to apply to is OpenVMS.
Linux
(and by extension, Mac OS-X) and Unix are also subject to this same
problem."

You are misleading people by saying malware (spyware, adware, etc) affects
all OSes. When in fact it is a WINDOWS PROBLEM!!! Swallow the sour pill
and
admit the truth...

This warning - that malware can leave such insidious and subtle traces on
a system that you can't guarantee to have found and removed them all -
_is_
applicable to all systems. Possibly excluded are systems that
exclusively
use write-once storage (CD-Rs, for example), and thus have an audit trail
from the moment they were first turned on to right now.

TRUE or FALSE, malware (spyware and adware) is 99% a WINDOWS problem: TRUE
OR FALSE.....

Let's remember that the very term "rootkit" came from the Unix world.

A rootkit does have the possibility of infecting any system. This is true.
A
rootkit is typically installed because a user has downloaded something and
has root/administrator privileges (UNIX users do not have these higher
privileges but in Windows, especially "home" additions do. Thus, again,
making them more vulnerable).

Wrong in two points:

- malware also creeps in via attacks against daemons running with root/SYSTEM
privileges. Remember the Morris worm?

- you can create "normal users" on XP Home too.

However, we are not talking about rootkits.

Sorry, but we ARE talking about rootkits.
Common malware is cleanable.

Please define "common" and "cleanable".
While (some) trojans may be detected: what about the greeks who entered
under the hood?

Is Joe Average able to perform the detection and cleaning?
In resonable time with provable success?

You surely know
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/secmgmt/sm0504.mspx

| The only way to clean a compromised system is to flatten and rebuild.
| That's right.

Stefan

.

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