Help me infect my computer!
 

I've been given the task of implementing some kind of spyware solution at work. The claim is that people are opening up websites and just randomly becoming infected out of the blue. Well the subject caught my interest and I'm trying to figure out what to do by determining how exactly these people are becoming infected if what they claim is true.

I've never really had a spyware problem. Thinking I've been keeping my computer too up-to-date to be vulnerable, I installed a copy of XP SP1 on a spare hard drive, shut off automatic updates, and went to town opening up every porn site, "win a free big-screen TV!" ad, spyware company, shady-looking search site, etc., etc., etc. that I could think of.

Nothing. It's still totally clean.

So what's the deal? Do sites really exist that will take over Internet Explorer and infect it with spyware with no user intervention, or are these people too embarrassed to admit (or dumb to realize) that the e-mail attachment they opened or the "free screensaver" download is the real culprit? If so I'd love to see a few examples for myself!

File-sharing apps usually have them.
There are websites that have them, check warez sites and other mischievous sites.

lots of websites have them, working as a computer repair technician we get about 90% of our clients having spyware issues. having had them before myself, they come from downloads, installed from websites, and also comes bundled with a lot of software you buy as well, including your OS if you bought it from someone like HP, Compaq, Gateway, ect. lots of them come preloaded with spyware right out of the box. Also what program are you using? Ad-aware and spybot PC-cillin, Mcafee or Norton anything, only pick up a fraction of the spyware and some of the spyware removal utilities actually are pieces of spyware themselves, 2 great ones right now are spysweeper (currently running on my computer) and Microsoft antispy currently in beta (yes microsoft actually made a good product.) Anyways just my 2 cents from the trade. BTW Norton and Mcafee are WONDERFUL for antivirus, just not to useful for spyware removal and prevention by anymeans, at least as of yet.

Well I'm a believer now. I just hadn't looked at sufficiently shady sites.

I went to astalavista.com and then to a bunch of serial/crack search engines from there. Didn't download a thing, clicked no to all the activex installers, etc.

Soon various installers started popping up more and more rapidly. I managed to get most of them closed and then saw some advertisement had taken over active desktop. Shortly thereafter an error message popped up indicating a modem could not be found (a freaking dialer installed itself!!), then a runtime error, then my computer crapped out.

After rebooting, I waited 10 minutes before again rebooting into safe mode. When it came back up 3 more activex installer prompts popped up, I had 10+ porn site icons on my desktop, and it locked up hard. I must say I was quite surprised!

There are a lot of sites that can infect your computer with spyware.

Try looking into the CoolWebSearch spyware, it's something that hijacks your browser without your knowledge, just by visiting a webpage, or maybe just typing in the wrong url, and you could be infected.

Then there's the annoying dialer, that won't allow you to not install their crap.

There's also spyware, such as ads in a webpage, similar to the jpg vulnerability, these ads are stored in your cookie file, and have the ability to track your surfing history.

Another technique, involves the messenger service, that system admin's use. With the messenger service, technique, you don't have a choice, since there's only one option, and that's Ok.

Then there's another technique, that involves playing on your fears, while surfing the net, you see a pop-up telling you that, your computer might be infected, click Yes to install xyz application. No matter what you click on something gets installed.

Then there's people, who are just clicking yes to everything, and have no idea what they are installing.

spyware and malware gets its biggest boost from the ease of microsoft operating systems. Most of them use the ActiveX components in IE to install without even asking you. MSJava(win2k and older) is also a major contributor to installs without your approval. There are some real tricky malware programs that take alot of time and patience to get rid of.

Ha! Yeah Astalavista took me out one time. This was before I discovered the bliss that is Firefox.

mmmm here here i'm going to second Skaven's vote on FireFox..
i've pushed it onto most of my friends quite successfully as well.. mostly by saying everynow and then..
Man.. i don't know the last time i saw a pop up.
or
Man.. Adblocker is amazing i don't see advertisements on any of my usaual sites anymore.(save for those whom i want to have revenue from my traffic.)

that got a few of them on the boat, not to mention tabbed browsing...

The Screen Savers did a report and found out that an unprotected (firewall, antivirus, Firefox, etc) Windows machine will be infected within four minutes of being on the Internet. I found that a tad amusing.

Something installed the fuckin' Google toolbar on my PC yesterday. I don't know where it came from! And I don't care how useful it is, I don't want stuff randomly showing up on my box.

Try lyrics websites, guitar tab websites, flash games websites and anything that turns up when you google "free".

theres nothing to do to avoid spyware these days. ahving spyware removing agents is great - but until there is some extra control/security out there, there really is no way to avoid it if you're surfing the web. spyware even comes in image formats! you can visit a page like yahoo and voila - spyware has affixed itself to your computer.

CWS is a beast to get off most of the time. Try going to Iwon.com and installing some of their software or installing weatherbug

i had the same problem at work. in my case, the people o work with werent very computer literate. so i knew the problem wasent warez and p2p's. (the just berly knew how to go to the net) this people where going to shady gambling sites and just overall flashy pop ups that would catch their attention. i.e. hotbar.com and wallpapers. yyou know junk like that. i bet your coworkers fall in the same demographic.

I almost got fired because management (who are also a bunch of computer iliterate dumb f***'s) saw there was a computer problem and asumed i knew all about computers so it must be my fault.

Yeah but it's not so amusing when you're trying to help a friend to reinstall windows, and the damn thing gets infected with three viruses before SP1 can even finish downloading.

Its crap like that that made me give up on Windows altogether. Long live Linux!

^ heh.

not sure in such cases whether the blame lies in front of or behind the keyboard ...
I've reinstalled windows many times and have never had 'crap like that' happen ...

(admittedly most of the time I've been securely tucked behind a linux fw) ...

I'm a Linux fanboy too.. but I did hear...

Longhorn is going to come out with a mode where no (unasked for) incoming traffic is accepted until the machine has visited WindowsUpdate. Pretty smart and handy.. also could have happened 5 years ago :)

I am much more likely to install Windows off the CD, install a firewall from CD or other device, turn this on, then connect to the net.

congratulations you just licked the bottom of the internet. do you still have that nasty tingling in your mouth like you just got slapped in the face?

i ran a similar experiment with a windows box in my DMZ. i didnt believe the rumor that in less than a half hour you can get blown out of the water with that stuff.
are you ready to make the jump to linux? nearly impossible for that to happen.

I use a copy of Windows that has the service packs steamlined, so I dont have to worry about downloading SPs.

Exactly. I'm behind a router to begin with, then I toss on a firewall from a CD, then I install the drivers for my wireless card.

Bingo. There are plenty of guides on the internet on how to slipstream a service pack and burn a new install cd with all the critical updates already integrated. By the time I get a fresh Windows install connected to the internet I'm already in pretty good shape, just have to update antivirus and antispyware definitions.