RE: zotob

I'm curious to see if a worm using this vulnerability hits XP with any
considerable outbreak.  With the firewall in XP, the worm would have
it's propagation hindered greatly.

Brady McClenon
Systems Administrator
ITS - Systems Management and Operations
University at Albany
518-442-3619



-----Original Message-----
From: John D. Patota [mailto:jpatota@ccs.neu.edu] 
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 2:13 PM
To: focus-virus@securityfocus.com
Subject: zotob

Its my estimate it will only be a few days until this hits windows XP.

Some useful information is at
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/zotob_a.shtml

The biggest thing I can think of is to have users assign strong
passwords to their Administrator accounts. If you want to do things
right, take the following steps:

- Disable the Admin account entirely and take it out of every group
- Create a separate account with administrator permissions whose
username is inconspicuous
- Primarily use an account with minimal permissions, when installing
programs and doing other various administrative duties you can right
click on the program and select "run as"

This is the type of mentality UNIX and subsequently macs use that most
windows users haven't caught on to yet. I just hope when vista comes out
Microsoft will smarten up and tighten administrator access.