OT - Ding Dong, the Wicked Worm is dead...

General Woundwort · #1 August 12th, 2003, 12:47 PM

Last night my computer started acting very strange. I'd log-on to my dial-up ISP, but within 2-5 minutes I'd get an error message saying "Windows XP will shut down in 1 minute due to a Remote Procedure Call failure". The computer then shuts down and restarts after 1 minute.

I have not downloaded any viruses to my knowledge. I do not use Microsoft Office for any e-mail or other things. I tried looking this error up in Google and got nowhere.

Any suggestions?

[ August 14, 2003, 02:52: Message edited by: General Woundwort ]

Arkcon · #2 August 12th, 2003, 12:59 PM

General, the symptom you describe has been reported elsewhere as a worm that's infecting Microsoft systems lately. Let me find some specific links for you however, meanwhile:

1). Mcafee and Norton have updates to detect the worm, others may have it soon. Update and scan your system.

2). Microsoft had an update against the exploit available in July, download it to prevent further attacks.

[EDIT]
Ah yes, here's a slashdot story, full of technie info -- /. {link} someone mentions in the comments that the worm has problems infecting XP

[ August 12, 2003, 12:03: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Richard · #3 August 12th, 2003, 02:26 PM

To be honest I would rebuild your system at this point, there is no telling how many secondary packages it has dropped off.

At my full time job we have been lucky so far, but some of our other business units screwed up big time. Our exchange team is still having email problems this morning.

General Woundwort · #4 August 12th, 2003, 02:51 PM

Re... build... system...

Uh, how do I do that?

What happens to all my SE stuff in my hard drive?

Would it be more cost effective to get a new PC?

Suicide Junkie · #5 August 12th, 2003, 04:06 PM

Burn all your important files to CD.
Savegames, mods, etc.
Documents, bookmarks, desktop stuff.

Anything you don't have on CD.

Then, format your harddrive and reinstall windows, copy all your stuff back down, and reinstall your programs.

A new, good system (that I would buy) will run you only $500 Canadian if you put it together yourself.
Rebuilding your system as above will cost you $0, and no more than about 4 hours unless you've got tons of files you need to backup.

Ragnarok · #6 August 12th, 2003, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Burn all your important files to CD.
Savegames, mods, etc.
Documents, bookmarks, desktop stuff.

Anything you don't have on CD.

Then, format your harddrive and reinstall windows, copy all your stuff back down, and reinstall your programs.

A new, good system (that I would buy) will run you only $500 Canadian if you put it together yourself.
Rebuilding your system as above will cost you $0, and no more than about 4 hours unless you've got tons of files you need to backup.

So with this virus you can burn what needed files you want without getting infected files copied as well? The more I look into this virus the more it seems to be that way being the type of virus it is as it isn't really effecting any actual files such as .gam, .jpg, .bmp, .mp3, etc. Correct? A co-worker of mine has this virus at home and he is wondering if it is safe to burn his files to CD then reformat without getting the virus once again once he copies his files from CD back to his PC.

Suicide Junkie · #7 August 12th, 2003, 04:34 PM

Pictures don't get run, so there would be little point in a virus infecting one of them.
Mostly system files or newly created files that look like system files. Or programs like iexplore.exe so the virus is activated when you browse the internet.

All you really need to do is install your antivirus software first, and make sure its updated. It will then scan the files you copy back. You can scan your CD first if you feel like it.

General Woundwort · #8 August 12th, 2003, 04:42 PM

I'm probably going to be getting a new system anyways...

if only because the current system (the infected one) does NOT have a CD-RW - just a stinking 100MB zipdrive.

At least I can salvage the text and image files for SEIV, and my school work...

Gryphin · #9 August 12th, 2003, 04:56 PM

Is this the same virus that would be affecting
Copy / Paste and Linking on our Win2k systems?

Richard · #10 August 12th, 2003, 04:59 PM

You can run anti-virus and try to pick up known things, and of course go to windowsupdate and download all security packages.

It's just been my observation that almost everytime a worm like this hits it has secondary and tertiary payloads that are worse then the first one, and well hidden. Code Red, Code Red II, and Nimda showed that.