Windows XP security update

[Gene Pink]

Anyone still running XP like I am? Microsoft has a patch for it, released a couple days ago.

KB4012598

http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4012598

You have to do it manually.

Gene

 

[joaquins]

  Why?

  I quit XP about 12 years ago, in the university there's still quite a lot of machines running it.

  It's response of the Wanacry or something like this malware, encrypting all your files and asking for money to decrypt them.

  On a side note, I don't understand how many "secure" or sensitive machines are running old OS, not nice...

JS

 

[Matador]

I still run it, but the patch takes forever at 28.8 kbaud. 

Word on the AOL community boards is that it's optional.  I would research further but I need another 250 hour CD in my next copy of PCMag.

 

[cyrano]

The previous Wanacry was a test. It spread through phising mails and had a killswitch.

Since monday night, a much more dangerous version is infecting everything that has SMB enabled. Especially older OSes as they often need SMB1. But nothing is safe unless admins have supplementary security enabled somehow. Blocking port 445 to the outside world, to start with. And packet enncryption and stuff like that. It'll be interesting to see who has these...

The new variant is not spreading by email, but by direct network propagation.  No killswitch either, apparently.

An SMB honeypot, freshly deployed, gets infected in about 5 minutes on the internet.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I don't know if this is related but I got a surge of spam email this morning...

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

I don't know if this is related but I got a surge of spam email this morning...

I just got two emails telling me I won  one million euros from the dutch lottery. 

JR

BTW thanx Gene, I just patched one of my old XP boxes...  I had it locked down so good with firewalls etc that I couldn't download the patch directly, but sent it over from my mac...  My other old XP box isn''t even on the network. I have engineering software on both of these old platforms I am too cheap to replace.

JR

[edit- just patched the other XP  using a thumb drive but since it can't even talk to the WWW this is closing the barn door after it was already padlocked.  8) /edit]

 

[Gus]

Why would anyone use XP on the web?
I can understand if it is off the web running older programs

There are Linux distributions are good for for older machines some are still available in 32 bit.

 

[warpie]

https://intel.malwaretech.com/WannaCrypt.html

insane….  :-\

 

[cyrano]

Why would anyone use XP on the web?
I can understand if it is off the web running older programs

There are Linux distributions are good for for older machines some are still available in 32 bit.

Works for you because you are a geek. Some other people don't have a clue about Linux, let alone they would be able to install it.

The threat doesn't necessarily come from the internet. Could be a visitor with a recent Win10 portable on your Wifi that infects your old XP machine.

Any machine that isn't patched and has SMB (file sharing) enabled, is vulnerable. Even Macs and Linux, if they have Samba installed. The virus won't work on these machines, but that's because the attackers are goin' after the low hanging fruit first.

 

[JohnRoberts]

got 20+ spams  overnight, just to one email address, something new is going on...  How many times can my car warranty expire?

JR

 

[cyrano]

You could check if your email address is in one of the recently released lists:

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

It's trustworthy. Run by a Microsoft VP

A big list was offered for sale recently. Seemingly it is composed of lists of different older breaches. It contains lists from LinkedIn, Badoo, Yahoo...

 

[Scodiddly]

There's at least a way to unlock the original, if you haven't already rebooted:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/19/wannacrypt_key_recovery_tool/

 

[JohnRoberts]

You could check if your email address is in one of the recently released lists:

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

It's trustworthy. Run by a Microsoft VP

A big list was offered for sale recently. Seemingly it is composed of lists of different older breaches. It contains lists from LinkedIn, Badoo, Yahoo...

I still feel uncomfortable just putting my email address on a list...  I can already tell I have been added to some f'n list as I get 20+ spam emails overnight...

Time to flush that address.

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

I still feel uncomfortable just putting my email address on a list...  I can already tell I have been added to some f'n list as I get 20+ spam emails overnight...

Time to flush that address.

JR

I have just about completed shutting down that one attacked email address...  so far over 250 spam emails in just a few days.  I used that email address to contact my customers so probably one of them was compromised.

I also concealed the contact email address on my website with ascii, in case some bot lifted it..

johndoe@mail.com

JR

[edit up to 339 recent spams sitting in junk folder...  I just replaced my web email address with a jpeg image..  I've split that old email into three so I'll see where future spam attacks come from.  [/edit]

 

[fazeka]

LOL!

I still run it, but the patch takes forever at 28.8 kbaud. 

Word on the AOL community boards is that it's optional.  I would research further but I need another 250 hour CD in my next copy of PCMag.