Virus Attack Follow Up

Louis Florit Louis.Florit at noaa.gov
Fri Nov 8 12:16:01 EST 2002


Dear coral-listers:

I've recieved some questions regarding the nature of the virus and would
like to offer some more details:

The virus that was sent out over the list infects Windows operating
systems only; this includes Windows 95/98/2000/NT and XP.

If you use a Macintosh or UNIX based system you should not have an
infection, as this virus targets Windows only.

The virus automatically installs itself if loaded through an unpatched
version of Microsoft Outlook via the IFrame vulnerability; if you have
updated your system regularly it would have not infected your system
automatically.  The update from Microsoft can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/q323759ie/default.asp

If you use Eudora, Netscape, Pine, or any other email client, the only
way to be infected is by accidentally opening and excuting the attached
virus.  If you deleted the message, you should be ok.

Finally, this virus, and various others, forge the sender address.  This
means you may have recieved a notice (or several hundred) that you sent
someone a virus, when in fact you haven't.  If you start recieving a
multitude of messages rejecting infected email, and you have scanned
your system with the latest virus definitions, it is likely that this is
what occured and you are not infected.

If I can answer any further questions, please do not hesistate to
contact me at this email address.  Thank you.

Louis Florit
Coral-List Tech Admin

--
  All programmers are optimists  -- Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
~~~~~~~
For directions on subscribing and unsubscribing to coral-list or the
digests, please see http://www.coral.noaa.gov/lists/coral-list.html .



More information about the Coral-list-old mailing list