Still On Windows XP? Here’s Some Bad Advice

Conker said:
XP computers wont automatically get virus just being plugged into the internet. People think if you just go on any website you'll get a virus. You'll get a virus regardless of what operating system is installed if your going to virus prone websites and downloading possible virus infected files. Antivirus programs never really work in reality. You can't prevent a user from shooting himself in the foot. Most viruses that infect people are newer and virus programs don't have the remedy usually for those. Old viruses are usually phased out after its first attacks early in life. The only prevention there is is a smart user. You could run windows 98 and be safe online if you know what your doing. Every operating system has holes that only hackers know. No one is protected on any operating system.
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This. It seems every time a new OS comes out the evangalists come out trying to say it's not secure, yet years before they were trying to get people to upgrade to this very OS because the previous was not secure.

I'm sure even 7 and 8 can get viruses.

Also whether you are logged in as admin or not, a well coded viruse will just use a privilege escalation exploit and compromise the entire system anyway. It's near impossible to even use the computer without being logged in as admin. Heck, even at work we had to request local admin since half the apps wont even run properly.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Wow really? The urge to kill people over their recommendation to use a certain company's computer or operating system? It's no wonder the VR people are getting death threats. :(
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Well...

Yeah...

I'm told I have some repressed anger management issues...

And I'm the phlegmatic one in my family...
(And no, I'm NOT joking.)
 
blood said:
Wonder who are these customers staying at Windows XP...
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Built a machine today from old parts, XP Pro on a Vostro 220. The client has a Win7 laptop but didn't want to VM XP to run ACAD 2000, he likes having a XP desktop. The drive died in his machine, but I couldn't stand for replacing just the drive when the rest of the machine was so ancient. He didn't have the budget or inclination for a move to something new, so XP will make him happy for as long as the hardware lasts. He was fine paying me for my time and $100 for the PC. I still have to work on moving him off of Outlook Express :eek:
 
Conker said:
XP computers wont automatically get virus just being plugged into the internet. People think if you just go on any website you'll get a virus. You'll get a virus regardless of what operating system is installed if your going to virus prone websites and downloading possible virus infected files. Antivirus programs never really work in reality. You can't prevent a user from shooting himself in the foot. Most viruses that infect people are newer and virus programs don't have the remedy usually for those. Old viruses are usually phased out after its first attacks early in life. The only prevention there is is a smart user. You could run windows 98 and be safe online if you know what your doing. Every operating system has holes that only hackers know. No one is protected on any operating system.
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Your post is kind of misleading. First off, unpatched XP systems if plugged directly into the modem DID "automatically" get viruses due to vulnerable services running. You could get the Blaster worm in minutes like that. That is why if you weren't behind a router you should have a firewall running.

As far as user stupidity is concerned, sure that's one way they can get malware on their system, by clicking and running things they shouldn't be, but not every user is like that. The "smarter" users are still getting infected through drive-by downloads. Like malware served through an ad frame that exploits a plugin vulnerability for example.
 
PornoSatan said:
As far as user stupidity is concerned, sure that's one way they can get malware on their system, by clicking and running things they shouldn't be, but not every user is like that. The "smarter" users are still getting infected through drive-by downloads. Like malware served through an ad frame that exploits a plugin vulnerability for example.
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Exactly.

I do this for a living now, and there's exploits like this all of the time.

Ever used HomeDepot.com, for example?

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2011/01/11/home-depot-website-compromised/
http://www.infosecstuff.com/home-depot-website-hack/

And typically you're going to get a backdoor or a Zeus bot variant which is fairly hard to notice. Or an even quieter bot that simply will use your machine to distribute spam or execute DDoS attacks.

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2010-011016-3514-99

I think people get "viruses" confused with FakeAV / Encryption Ransom type malware that is obvious, or pop-ups/toolbars/etc. Not all of it is so obvious.
 
PornoSatan said:
Your post is kind of misleading. First off, unpatched XP systems if plugged directly into the modem DID "automatically" get viruses due to vulnerable services running. You could get the Blaster worm in minutes like that. That is why if you weren't behind a router you should have a firewall running.

As far as user stupidity is concerned, sure that's one way they can get malware on their system, by clicking and running things they shouldn't be, but not every user is like that. The "smarter" users are still getting infected through drive-by downloads. Like malware served through an ad frame that exploits a plugin vulnerability for example.
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I remember the days.

Basically I think this was either pre SP1 or pre SP2 on XP, the blaster worm days, where had the RPC forced reboot. We reinstalled windows on a machine which was online on first bootup, within 5 seconds it was infected, unreal. Yes it was connected direct to the net no NAT. After that time is when I started making custom integration cd's, so new installs of XP after that point not only had service packs integrated but also hotfixes released after those service packs.

I still try to do it today with win7 but integration on win7 is a pain compared to XP. Plus with NAT been common place as well as a default firewall those types of intrusions are way less common.
 
I remember blaster too... virtually none of our machines here got it... but I remember friends machines going down.
 
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