[clug] Latest worm

[Sam Couter]

Darren Freeman <daz111 at rsphysse.anu.edu.au> wrote:
> I thought that port 135 would *have* to be blocked off for the computers
> around me. How wrong I was.

Tee hee!

> And take the time out to be glad that there are so many people running
> Windows, after all now we get to mop up the tears.

Unfortunately, very few people will see this as a serious software
quality problem. They'll put the blame on the shoulders of the worm
writer (where a fair bit of blame belongs, I admit), accept that
computers just don't always work right, and continue to use Windows.

One thing I have to thank Microsoft for is that nobody expects software
to work right anymore, so my job as a programmer is much easier. I can
be as sloppy as I like and the users slurp it up and put up with it.

> And why oh why is port 135 open? Anyone know of a sane reason for there
> to be a clear path from the outside world all the way in here?

Because it's easier to leave things as they are than to block the port?
Because Windows users expect to be able to browse "Network Neighborhood"
and find every share on the 'net?
Because some organisations have geographically separate
divisions/branches which share files, and don't know (or care) how to
set up a VPN?
-- 
Sam "Eddie" Couter  |  mailto:sam at couter.dropbear.id.au
Debian Developer    |  mailto:eddie at debian.org
                    |  jabber:sam at teknohaus.dyndns.org
OpenPGP fingerprint:  A46B 9BB5 3148 7BEA 1F05  5BD5 8530 03AE DE89 C75C
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