OT: Newsreader concerns

  • Thread starter Thread starter donutbandit
  • Start date Start date
D

donutbandit

This may not be the right group for this, but there seems to be a lot of
knowledgeable people here, so....

I use Xnews, and I'm very concerned with a new development: the appearance
of the bogus "Microsoft patch" in newsgroups.

I don't know if these are being posted intentionally, or automatically by
infected machines.

Here's the problem: Xnews will automatically begin to decode attachments
without prompting. I haven't been able to turn this off. In setup, I told
it to save nothing, and left all the "save to" directories blank. Yet, if I
open up a post that has an attachment, Xnews blindly begins decoding the
attachment.

Now, what's to stop malicious persons from attaching viruses to otherwise
innocent appearing posts? Xnews would have the dang thing decoded before I
could stop it, and I'd have a virus.

This hasn't happened yet, but give it time.

If anybody knows of a way to stop Xnews from automatically decoding
attachments, please inform. Otherwise, I'm looking for another free
newsreader.

Luu, if you're out there, you need to address this.
 
donutbandit said:
Luu, if you're out there, you need to address this.
Click to expand...

As your documentation says: news.software.readers for Xnews
support, and Luu does read sometimes read/do the group.
 
donutbandit said:
This may not be the right group for this, but there seems to be a lot
of knowledgeable people here, so....

I use Xnews, and I'm very concerned with a new development: the
appearance of the bogus "Microsoft patch" in newsgroups.

I don't know if these are being posted intentionally, or
automatically by infected machines.

Here's the problem: Xnews will automatically begin to decode
attachments without prompting. I haven't been able to turn this off.
In setup, I told it to save nothing, and left all the "save to"
directories blank. Yet, if I open up a post that has an attachment,
Xnews blindly begins decoding the attachment.

Now, what's to stop malicious persons from attaching viruses to
otherwise innocent appearing posts? Xnews would have the dang thing
decoded before I could stop it, and I'd have a virus.

This hasn't happened yet, but give it time.

If anybody knows of a way to stop Xnews from automatically decoding
attachments, please inform. Otherwise, I'm looking for another free
newsreader.

Luu, if you're out there, you need to address this.
Click to expand...

Use Outlook Express. It does not do this.

Ducks..... runs >>>>
 
This may not be the right group for this, but there seems to be a
lot of knowledgeable people here, so....
Click to expand...

It's fine to ask here, but news.software.readers would perhaps be
better. There, put [Xnews] in the Subject of any post about Xnews.
I use Xnews, and I'm very concerned with a new development: the
appearance of the bogus "Microsoft patch" in newsgroups.

I don't know if these are being posted intentionally, or
automatically by infected machines.
Click to expand...

It's Swen, sending itself automatically from infected machines.
Here's the problem: Xnews will automatically begin to decode
attachments without prompting. I haven't been able to turn this
off. In setup, I told it to save nothing, and left all the "save
to" directories blank. Yet, if I open up a post that has an
attachment, Xnews blindly begins decoding the attachment.

Now, what's to stop malicious persons from attaching viruses to
otherwise innocent appearing posts? Xnews would have the dang
thing decoded before I could stop it, and I'd have a virus.

This hasn't happened yet, but give it time.
Click to expand...

Xnews will not run the attachments, and since you have selected no
automatic saving of attachments Xnews will not save them to your HDD.
Decoding is part of reading the article, so Xnews will decode any
article you select for reading. But to infect yourself, you would need
to double-click the attachment then click again to get past the warning
box Xnews would pop up.
If anybody knows of a way to stop Xnews from automatically
decoding attachments, please inform. Otherwise, I'm looking for
another free newsreader.
Click to expand...

Kill them using Xnews' scorefile. None of the Swens show up on any of
the servers I use, so I am not sure what would be a good filter.
 
»Q« said:
<news:[email protected]>:
Click to expand...
It's fine to ask here, but news.software.readers would perhaps be
better. There, put [Xnews] in the Subject of any post about Xnews.
I use Xnews, and I'm very concerned with a new development: the
appearance of the bogus "Microsoft patch" in newsgroups.
I don't know if these are being posted intentionally, or
automatically by infected machines.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
It's Swen, sending itself automatically from infected machines.
<http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/swen.shtml>
Click to expand...
Xnews will not run the attachments, and since you have selected no
automatic saving of attachments Xnews will not save them to your HDD.
Decoding is part of reading the article, so Xnews will decode any
article you select for reading. But to infect yourself, you would need
to double-click the attachment then click again to get past the warning
box Xnews would pop up.
Click to expand...
Kill them using Xnews' scorefile. None of the Swens show up on any of
the servers I use, so I am not sure what would be a good filter.
Click to expand...

I dunno what groups they're being posted to, but I sure haven't seen any --
and I spend a *lot* of time with Usenet.
 
I dunno what groups they're being posted to, but I sure haven't
seen any -- and I spend a *lot* of time with Usenet.
Click to expand...

There are followups to them in this group, so I guess they are
(cross)posted here. I see the followups in most of the groups I
read. Maybe your kill crossposts? Here's one of the followups in
a.c.f, from today:

<
Newsgroups: alt.comp.anti-virus,
alt.comp.bios,
alt.comp.blind-users,
alt.comp.freeware,
alt.comp.hardware,
alt.comp.hardware.amd.thunderbird,
alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,
alt.comp.hardware.overclocking,
alt.comp.hardware.overclocking.amd,
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
 
Xnews will not run the attachments, and since you have selected no
automatic saving of attachments Xnews will not save them to your HDD.
Decoding is part of reading the article, so Xnews will decode any
article you select for reading. But to infect yourself, you would need
to double-click the attachment then click again to get past the warning
box Xnews would pop up.
Click to expand...

Thanks for clearing this up. I feel better about it now.
 
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