Article: 10240 of alt.sysadmin.recovery From: Steve VanDevender Newsgroups: alt.sysadmin.recovery Subject: truth in advertising Date: 10 Jun 2001 22:04:45 -0700 Organization: CC University of Oregon Lines: 70 Sender: stevev@tzadkiel.efn.org Approved: production budget Message-ID: <87hexnehea.fsf@tzadkiel.efn.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: hexadecimal.uoregon.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: platform.uoregon.edu 992235975 31945 128.223.32.56 (11 Jun 2001 05:06:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@platform.uoregon.edu NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 05:06:15 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.1 (Cuyahoga Valley) Path: news.meer.net!sea-read.news.verio.net!dfw-artgen.news.verio.net!dfw-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!newsfeed.mathworks.com!enews.sgi.com!hammer.uoregon.edu!platform.uoregon.edu!not-for-mail Xref: archive.mv.meer.net alt.sysadmin.recovery:10240 Some of you have probably seen the latest aggravating Microsoft ad campaign where a soothing voice talks about how great their software is without ever mentioning any specific Microsoft product, and interestingly enough never showing any people either. Well, the other day I was talking to one of the network security people at my orkplace and I had this great idea for a commercial that would showcase the true power of Microsoft software. Shot of generic PC-clone box in rack. VOICEOVER This is the web server for a Fortune 500 company. It provides information and takes orders for their products. But it can do much more. A pimply teenager in Albania had just sent it an unusual request. The software is not confused by this request. It promptly grants the teenager full administrative access to the operating system. Closeup of disk activity light turning on solid. VOICEOVER The teenager quickly uploads his own software to the web server. Now, besides providing customer information and taking orders, Closeup of ethernet switch; one of the link lights goes from blinking to staying solidly on. the web server is UDP-flooding the Bulgarian ISP that is the home of one of his enemies on IRC. Closeup of phone. "Voicemail" light on phone turns on. VOICEOVER The company's IT staff receives a call from their network service provider, Show multiple shots of rack full of server boxes; a different box is missing each time. VOICEOVER and in a couple of frantic days and sleepless nights they shut down the servers broken into by the Albanian teenager, then reinstall and patch them. Show original opening shot of PC-clone box in rack, followed by shots of disk activity light going on solid and ethernet link light going on solid. VOICEOVER The software's special capabilities are not eliminated by the patches, however, and within a week this web server receives another unusual request from a teenager in Bulgaria. Quickly repeat shots of phone with voicemail light going on and rack with missing server boxes. VOICEOVER Always vulnerable, never really secured. Nimble software for the agile script kiddie, from Microsoft. Show Microsoft logo over shot of monitor in rack displaying a Windows desktop. Just before fading out, monitor flashes to blue screen of death. -- Steve VanDevender "I ride the big iron" http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/~stevev stevev@efn.org PGP key fingerprint=929FB79734DF8CC0 210DA447510FF93B Little things break, circuitry burns / Time flies while my little world turns Every day comes, every day goes / 100 years and nobody shows -- Happy Rhodes