Part of the problem in understanding autorun/autoplay is that there are five aspects to it, yet we have only two words: autorun and autoplay. In particular, the Taterf worm, which spreads by exploiting autorun, was detected by Microsoft on 4.91 million Windows computers.Īnd, despite the plethora of articles on how Microsoft is making this all better, my latest PC, a netbook running Windows XP SP3, was vulnerable to autorun hacking even with all the latest patches installed.įinally, Windows 7 introduces sufficient changes that everything written on the subject prior to October 2009 needs to be revised. The good way is from two people no one knows (myself included) – Nick Brown and Emin Atac.Ī recent article about autorun security problems in the Washington Post is chock full of statistics on how bad the problem remains. There is, in a nutshell, a good way and a bad way. There is a frequently written about way and one that is often overlooked. There is an easily understood way and one that no one fully grasps. There is a consistent way and one whose design has changed over time. There is a foolproof way and one that has needed multiple patches. There is an all-encompassing way and one whose design has holes in it. There is a consistent way and one that varies depending on the version of Windows. What many Windows users don’t know is that there are two different approaches to disabling autorun/autoplay. For years now bad guys have been exploiting this to automatically infect PCs with malicious software.Įveryone knows this. I’m speaking of autorun/autoplay, a feature in Windows that lets programs run automatically when a CD or USB flash drive is inserted into a PC. Way back when, Microsoft opted for convenience over security and Windows users have been sitting ducks ever since.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |