OT: Bomba/Matt Help! E-mail infected!

x said:

Guys if you are reading this, I may have stopped the worm or what ever it was from attacking my
computer. What was happening was my real message was replaced with spam. Annoying, but was the
hacker possibly able to log into my email account? If so I have to change all of my passwards.
That's going to suck.

What programs make the best firewalls? Was it a worm or what how did it get onto my
computer...any ideas?

X

Ummm.... that's not a lot of info to go on.

Did you go to the FTP site? What happened?

What OS do you run?

x said:

Guys if you are reading this, I may have stopped the worm or what ever it was from attacking my
computer. What was happening was my real message was replaced with spam. Annoying, but was the
hacker possibly able to log into my email account? If so I have to change all of my passwards.
That's going to suck.

I'm confused here - you're giving contradictory statements. A worm self-replicates automatically,
where as a cracker uses means of manual intervention.

Secondly, I need a hell of a lot more information. When you say that your 'real message was replaced
with spam', how exactly do you mean? Are you getting returned mails? Do they appear in your sent
items? What is the content of the spam?

Quoted message said:

What programs make the best firewalls?

It's not perfect, but for a beginner, Zone Labs' Zone Alarm is ok: www.zonelabs.com

Do you have anti-virus protection? If not, use the free virus scanner from GRI - www.grisoft.com and
scan your machine

Quoted message said:

Was it a worm or what how did it get onto my computer...any ideas?

I have lots of ideas, but without more info, I can't really diagnose the problem. If you can, find
one of the offending messages and hit ctrl +
F3. You'll get a pop-up box with the 'Message Source'. Copy this and mail it to me and this should
give me a better idea.

--
G.m-b FAQ: t-online.deambfaq.htmOpen ↗

H.bmx FAQ: t-online.debmx faq.htmOpen ↗

x said:

What programs make the best firewalls?

Linux, and the Firewall-HOWTO.

--
Matt

Fear of a flat planet

"bomba" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

x said:

Guys if you are reading this, I may have stopped the worm or what ever

it

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

was from attacking my computer. What was happening was my real message was replaced with spam.
Annoying,

but

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

was the hacker possibly able to log into my email account? If so I have

to

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

change all of my passwards. That's going to suck.

I'm confused here - you're giving contradictory statements. A worm self-replicates automatically,
where as a cracker uses means of manual intervention.

I sent a message (LMAO Bait for the troll) to alt.mountain-bike and it was posted as a spam to
visit a ftp site for a Beck movie. I was never at that site. The header on the message that made it
to the group was no where near what mine is. The spam came from Texas. I deleted all my mail, so
I'm not sure what the actual header was like. Someone still might have the original message saved
on their computer.

Quoted message said:

Secondly, I need a hell of a lot more information. When you say that your 'real message was
replaced with spam', how exactly do you mean?

Another post I made to a group was posted as a site for an on-line auction service. The header was
from some guy in texas. Sorry about not being much help, but I know jack about how this kind of
thing is done.

Quoted message said:

Are you getting returned mails? Do they appear in your sent items? What is the content of
the spam?

The messages in my sent items were clean, so they must have been sent to who ever was turning
them to spam, and the spammer was posting the finalized message. I only had a couple of returned
mails, but those were in question, because they were from the same address, and I might have
typed them wrong.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What programs make the best firewalls?

It's not perfect, but for a beginner, Zone Labs' Zone Alarm is ok: www.zonelabs.com

Do you have anti-virus protection? If not, use the free virus scanner from GRI - www.grisoft.com
and scan your machine

Quoted message said:

Was it a worm or what how did it get onto my computer...any ideas?

I have lots of ideas, but without more info, I can't really diagnose the problem. If you can, find
one of the offending messages and hit ctrl +
F3. You'll get a pop-up box with the 'Message Source'. Copy this and mail it to me and this
should give me a better idea.

--
a.m-b FAQ: t-online.deambfaq.htmOpen ↗

a.bmx FAQ: t-online.debmx faq.htmOpen ↗

Matthew Paterson said:

x said:

What programs make the best firewalls?

Linux, and the Firewall-HOWTO.

Puhlease. Linux, an OS with more exploits than NT/Win2000?

OpenBSD and pf. openbsd.orgopenbsd.orgOpen ↗

Greg

--
"Destroy your safe and happy lives before it is too late, the battles we fought were long and hard,
just not to be consumed by rock n' roll..." - The Mekons

"G.T." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Matthew Paterson said:

x said:

What programs make the best firewalls?

Linux, and the Firewall-HOWTO.

Puhlease. Linux, an OS with more exploits than NT/Win2000?

OpenBSD and pf. openbsd.orgopenbsd.orgOpen ↗

Greg

Neither is really appropriate for someone who is admittedly not an expert on computers. My
recommendation would be to use a decent commercial firewall like Zone Alarm or Sygate on a recent
version of Windows (2000 or XP) with all the latest patches on it.

Matt

"MattB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"G.T." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Matthew Paterson said:

x wrote:

>What programs make the best firewalls?

Linux, and the Firewall-HOWTO.

Puhlease. Linux, an OS with more exploits than NT/Win2000?

OpenBSD and pf. openbsd.orgopenbsd.orgOpen ↗

Greg

Neither is really appropriate for someone who is admittedly not an expert

on

Quoted message said:

computers. My recommendation would be to use a decent commercial firewall like Zone Alarm or
Sygate on a recent version of Windows (2000 or XP) with all the latest patches on it.

Matt

Zone Alarm, XP, and Norton are a good trio. If I had NOTHING else I'd run Zone Alarm. The free $hit.
Don't pay for it.

Marty

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

"MattB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"G.T." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Matthew Paterson wrote:
> x wrote:
>
>
>>What programs make the best firewalls?
>
>
> Linux, and the Firewall-HOWTO.
>

Puhlease. Linux, an OS with more exploits than NT/Win2000?

OpenBSD and pf. openbsd.orgopenbsd.orgOpen ↗

Greg

Neither is really appropriate for someone who is admittedly not an expert

on

Quoted message said:

computers. My recommendation would be to use a decent commercial firewall like Zone Alarm or
Sygate on a recent version of Windows (2000 or XP) with all the latest patches on it.

Matt

Zone Alarm, XP, and Norton are a good trio. If I had NOTHING else I'd run Zone Alarm. The free
$hit. Don't pay for it.

Marty

grc.comgrc.comOpen ↗, he did a review of many free and shareware firewalls, I'm not sure if it's
still there.
--
_________________________
Chris Phillipo - Cape Breton, Nova Scotia ramsays-online.comramsays-online.comOpen ↗

G.T. said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What programs make the best firewalls?

Linux, and the Firewall-HOWTO.

Puhlease. Linux, an OS with more exploits than NT/Win2000?

Hmm, big call. From a number point of view, you may well be right, but the gravity of the exploits
and the way that they are exploited means that I would always install an Internet-facing Linux
machine over a Win machine. Of course, both are capable of being highly secure in the hands of a
good admin.

Quoted message said:

OpenBSD and pf. openbsd.orgopenbsd.orgOpen ↗

Agreed. Although I believe an OpenBSD / PF, or even a Linux / IPTables firewall, is well out of the
realms of the OP.

Chris Phillipo said:

grc.comgrc.comOpen ↗, he did a review of many free and shareware firewalls, I'm not sure if it's
still there.

And take it with a pinch of salt. Steve Gibson's a melodramatic, attention-seeking nutter. His
personal crusade against Black Ice was disgraceful.

x said:

I sent a message (LMAO Bait for the troll) to alt.mountain-bike and it was posted as a spam to
visit a ftp site for a Beck movie. I was never at that site. The header on the message that made
it to the group was no where near what mine is.

When you say 'the header', do you mean the e-mail address?

The spam came from Texas. I deleted all my mail, so I'm not

Quoted message said:

sure what the actual header was like. Someone still might have the original message saved on their
computer.

Well, you did have a message that appeared in the group in that thread, but it looked normal to me.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Secondly, I need a hell of a lot more information. When you say that your 'real message was
replaced with spam', how exactly do you mean?

Another post I made to a group was posted as a site for an on-line auction service. The header was
from some guy in texas. Sorry about not being much help, but I know jack about how this kind of
thing is done.

Quoted message said:

Are you getting returned mails? Do they appear in your sent items? What is the content of
the spam?

The messages in my sent items were clean, so they must have been sent to who ever was turning
them to spam, and the spammer was posting the finalized message. I only had a couple of returned
mails, but those were in question, because they were from the same address, and I might have
typed them wrong.

Sorry, but your description is too vague. I can't really do much without seeing the messages with
the full headers. I'll take a stab in the dark, and say that if you're actually sending the message,
and it's adding stuff on / altering the content to spam, then maybe it's some kind of vicious
adware. Try running AdAware: www.lavasoftusa.com

"bomba" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

And take it with a pinch of salt. Steve Gibson's a melodramatic, attention-seeking nutter. His
personal crusade against Black Ice was disgraceful.

Have you seen grcsucks.comgrcsucks.comOpen ↗

-will

El Barista said:

Quoted message said:

And take it with a pinch of salt. Steve Gibson's a melodramatic, attention-seeking nutter. His
personal crusade against Black Ice was disgraceful.

Have you seen grcsucks.comgrcsucks.comOpen ↗

Have indeed and had actually totally forgotten about it. Will have to have a bit of a read tomorrow.

Martees said:

Zone Alarm, XP, and Norton are a good trio. If I had NOTHING else I'd run Zone Alarm. The free
$hit. Don't pay for it.

Marty

XP is bad news. I'd not recommend it to anyone. Win2000 is a safe bet for someone who knows nothing.