[MikesWhatsNews] MWN #643 HackFix

MikesWhatsNews, 31, 01, 2003
in today's issue #643
HackFix Updates
NOTICE
2       Venus Game
3       Popup Manager
4       Read-Only Switch v1.0 
5       Security Tutorials Online
6       Content Filtering Issues with Microsoft Outlook
7       theinterviewwithgod
8       CCC     20sim Viewer
9               Clip the Logo's Wings
10      PowerDesk 5 Free Trial
11      Get the New AdAware 6
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NOTE: Any time you see the "  ++ ",  it means there is more 
          of the article, or story, on the linked site. Mike
____________________________________________________________

There is a complete archive of past MikesWhatsNews newsletters 
available to members on the Yahoo page, it is searchable by word 
or issue #.  Here is the address direct to the messages;
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____________________________________________________________

NOTICE

I will not be publishing mikeswhatsnews for an indefinite period.
I need some time to take care of personal matters.

Thank you  Mike

____________________________________________________________
  HackFix updates, thanks to Christy;
staff@xxxxxxxxxxx
Http://www.hackfix.org

HackFix Updates are delayed.
I will send them seperatly as soon as they are availible  Mike
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2
Venus Game free
http://www.microsoft.com/kids/freestuff/free10.htm
An older game from MS works on 486 Win 3.1 or better
Follow the prompts, and Scholastic?s The Magic School Bus? Explores the
Solar System 
++
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3
Popup Manager free
http://www.endpopups.com
Popup Manager Browse the web as you normally would. 
When a popup is blocked the widget will turn red. 
Hover over the red widget to see the address and title of blocked popups. 
Clicking on an 'E' icon will open a blocked popup. 
Popups that you have initiated will not be blocked. 
Right click the widget to enable/disable sites or disable the Popup Manager.

The Popup Manager can be temporarily disabled by holding down the 'CTRL'
key. 
Works with IE 5 & 6 on Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP.  
 ____________________________________________________________
4
Read-Only Switch v1.0  free
http://www.wordboosters.com/more/mr_ros.html
CD-Roms are great for back-ups. However, when you copy files off the CD-Rom
back to your hard drive, they are all read-only! It's a pain to turn off the
read-only flags one by one, or folder by folder. 
This little freeware utility lets you turn off  (or on) the read-only
attribute for all files in a folder and it's subfolders.
This program has been tested on Windows 95/98/ME/2000, but has not yet been
tested on Windows NT/XP
 Created by James Baartse

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5
Security Tutorials Online

http://www.roughoat.com/securitytutorials/index.htm

Links and resources for "free security tutorials, primers, books and white
papers available on the Internet."

Thanks to; Christy
____________________________________________________________
6
Content Filtering Issues with Microsoft Outlook
http://www.messagelabs.com/viruseye/report.asp?id=130
With the advances being made in content filtering techniques, virus authors
and trojan writers are now resorting to exploiting the veiled quirkiness of
our email software to further consolidate their social engineering tactics.

Malware authors are exploiting an Outlook quirk to give their malware a
better chance of evading any content filters, and then persuading an email
recipient that an attachment is safe to open when in fact it contains some
malicious program.

Over the weekend (25th ? 26th January 2003), MessageLabs stopped over
3,000 copies of a trojan called W32/Sadhound, which had been distributed
using just this trick.  However, this is not the first time MessageLabs have
stopped emails of this nature; there are now many tools freely available to
malware authors that can be used to assist them in this task.  

The Exploit

The malware relies on especially crafted email headers, creating an
attachment with three file-extensions.  Standard email packages will not
generate these headers; these emails must either be created by hand, or
using hacker tools (this exploit has been known of for a long time in the
hacker community).

Content Filters

If the filename used for the malware attachment ends with a ?safe?
extension, for example .JPG or .HTM, the email is unlikely to be stopped by
the most common content filters that would otherwise block potentially
harmful file programs.  Many content filtering mechanisms in place may also
look for double extensions, in addition to the usual problematical ones.
However, these need to be carefully checked as well.  Often the order in
which the double extensions appear determines whether the file is blocked or
not.  For example, blocking .JPG. EXE may not be sufficient; you may
additionally need to block .EXE. JPG.

From; MessageLabs' Virus Alert service
http://www.messagelabs.com/viruseye/
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7
Here is a good presentation
http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/popup2.html
It takes a while to load, but it is worth the wait.
Thanks to; Marzy
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8
'Christy's Computer Corner'
  thanks to Christy;
http://www.1stpick.org

20sim Viewer
http://www.20sim.com/downloads/freesoftware.htm
Windows 9x, NT4, ME, 2000, XP

This advanced modeling package simulates electrical, mechanical, thermal or
hydraulic systems. Use the graphical editor and the
large library of standard sub-models to create your own model with iconic
diagrams, bond graphs, block diagrams and differential equations. 
Then simulate it and perform all kind of analysis tasks with the supplied
toolboxes. 

~~~~~~~~
9
Clip the Logo's Wings

If you're sick of that flying Windows logo that shows up each
time you start Win98, here's the cure:

1. Click on Start and then choose Run.

2. In the Run dialog box, type Notepad and press Enter.

3. In the Notepad window, choose File, Open.

4. In the dialog box, type msdos.sys and press Enter.

5. In the msdos.sys file listing, find the [Options] section and
add: Logo=0

6. Choose File + Save and then Exit the Notepad.

Now when you start Windows you'll get right to work without the
Windows flying by.

Was this forwarded to you ?
Get your own subscription here:
<1stpickPCtips-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe>

____________________________________________________________
10
PowerDesk 5 Free Trial 
 http://www.v-com.com/product/pd_free_trial.html  
  Our Free version of PowerDesk 5 provides a number of the features of our
more powerful PowerDesk Pro edition. This is fully usable without any
time-limits. Click here to compare PowerDesk Pro with PowerDesk. Download it
today and find out what you have been missing!
 Download size: 1.6 MB 
Need a luxury file manager that performs beyond the basics of Windows®
Explorer? Get PowerDesk Pro 5 and get the power to organize and manage all
the files on your PC!

Supporting operating systems 
PowerDesk® Pro 5 is the ultimate desktop enhancement utility for
Windows® XP, 2000, NT, Me, 98, and 95! 

At the heart of PowerDesk® 5 is a supercharged file manager that is the
central access point for many PowerDesk functions. 
 
VCOM is pleased to offer this version of PowerDesk 5 as a time unlimited and
free download to VCOM customers. 
++
____________________________________________________________
11
Get the New AdAware 6 Availible Feb 1
http://lavasoft3.element5.com/support/download/
Welcome to our freeware and shareware Downloads page! 
Choose a site to download your copy of Ad-aware, the Ad-aware Help file,
RefUpdate, RegHance and Ad-search from. The freeware* version of Ad-aware is
compatible with Windows 9x/ME/NT40, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
You are only a few clicks away from your free copy of the all new Ad-aware 6
Standard Edition and the latest version of our enhanced registry editor
RegHance 2.12. Ad-aware is the award winning, free*, multicomponent
detection and removal utility that has consistently lead the industry in
safety, user satisfaction, support and reliability.
To download, please select one of the mirror sites listed below and follow
the links to obtain your copy or copies of Ad-aware, RegHance, and the
Ad-aware help file.
++
____________________________________________________________



Antivirus software is a good choice to scan your system for possible viruses, 
however no virus scanner is 100% effective as manufactures cannot keep up with 
the rapid change of viruses that happens daily.
Be sure to update yours regularly.
http://www.hackfix.org/software/antivirus.html
______________________________________________________________________
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