Journal Toy G's Journal: Welcome to 2003 2
Someone just discovered the marvellous world of Messenger spam...
Actually, it works this way: windows 2000/xp have this small service enabled, called "Messenger". Careful: not MSN Messenger (the MS version of instant messaging a la ICQ), just Messenger. It's basically the Windows version of that old unix tool that broadcasts console messages through a network: a small service sits listening for messages broadcasted via netbios (the MS network protocol), and when one of these messages comes, it opens this small "alert" box. All wonderful, but...
Today, to be a spammer is an hard job. I mean, competition is increasing, and email filters get better and better. You need new markets. So, why not broadcasting netbios messages through the net? After all, 99% of windows users don't even know what a service is, let alone a network protocol...
By the way, blocking this spam is easy: Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services, right click on Messenger, Properties, set activation to "Manually" and stop the service. It would be MUCH better from a security point of view to disable netbios at all, when on the net: it's the first thing the script-kiddies look for to 0wn your machine. But you know, MS likes to make things easy, thus blocking netbios could create many problems at your Windows network configuration.
Oh well, windows is such a good operating system, you won't mind a few hacks, will you? :P
Actually, it works this way: windows 2000/xp have this small service enabled, called "Messenger". Careful: not MSN Messenger (the MS version of instant messaging a la ICQ), just Messenger. It's basically the Windows version of that old unix tool that broadcasts console messages through a network: a small service sits listening for messages broadcasted via netbios (the MS network protocol), and when one of these messages comes, it opens this small "alert" box. All wonderful, but...
Today, to be a spammer is an hard job. I mean, competition is increasing, and email filters get better and better. You need new markets. So, why not broadcasting netbios messages through the net? After all, 99% of windows users don't even know what a service is, let alone a network protocol...
By the way, blocking this spam is easy: Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services, right click on Messenger, Properties, set activation to "Manually" and stop the service. It would be MUCH better from a security point of view to disable netbios at all, when on the net: it's the first thing the script-kiddies look for to 0wn your machine. But you know, MS likes to make things easy, thus blocking netbios could create many problems at your Windows network configuration.
Oh well, windows is such a good operating system, you won't mind a few hacks, will you?
Alternatively (Score:2)
Re:Alternatively (Score:1)