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[bryant]

For the record, Vernor Vinge was right. I want that slogan on a T-shirt.

Last February, it was .bmp files that carried the hack. This time, viewing a JPG on a Windows XP computer that is not running Service Pack 2 can cause your computer to execute arbitrary commands. This is horrible. Imagine what would happen if I stuck an worm image in a bunch of Flickr photostreams. Imagine what would happen if I used one for an LJ icon. Do you read a bulletin board that allows people to upload their own avatars?

Time to upgrade to SP2. I don't care if it breaks City of Heroes.

Comments

[head58.livejournal.com]

Is there nothing antivirus software can do about this sort of thing? I really don't want to upgrade to SP2 again. It was such a nightmare for me the last time. grr.

[bryant]

Not at present. It's a very tough problem.

There may be an intermediate patch; I am researching this.

[head58.livejournal.com]

Symantec seems to suggest that they will catch exploits. Can't tell if this is any more than a simple "hey sucker, you got infected!" warning or not. The page is pretty vague and short on info.

[bryant]

I don't know if I believe them. They say they use a heuristic approach, which means they're guessing.

But here's the XP patch w/out SP2: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-028.mspx

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I had upgraded to XP2 on my laptop and then removed it because it turned into a *slug*.