27 MAY 97
APPARENT CSERVE (aka CStarSM)
COPYRIGHT VIOLATION
Someone appears to be using a copy of our beloved CStar
in violation of the source copyright (which is tacky at best, illegal at
worst). CServe (known to us as CStar) has been FREELY available for
some months under terms of the GNU license agreement. (Of course,
one may wonder WHY anybody would 'steal' a FREE program just so they
could put their own name on it, but we'll leave that as an excercise for
the reader .. or possibly a nice thesis on aberrant psychology for those
still in school.) Nonetheless, it appears that the "other" StarLink
did go a tad too far in appropriating somebody else's code
and giving credit where, alas, it is NOT due. We (StarLink-IRC) are involved
in this issue in that dev|null is one of our founders and, as some of you
may know, many of the CServe features were developed on and with the full
cooperation of StarLink-IRC. No matter where else (or under which nickname)
CServe gets used, StarLink-IRC will ALWAYS be the first
home of CStar, the best channel service bot on the net!!
It is STRONGLY suggested all interested parties
take a look at the full text at http://www.cs.cuc.edu/~mdabrows/copyright/
24 MAY 97 WIN NUKE
Thanks to www.secant.net
for most of this information. Check their page for a full description and
excellent suggestions for fixes and workarounds.
Information about the Port 139 Bug - Courtesy of bugtraq@netspace.org
It is possible to remotely trigger a bug on any Windows
95 or Windows NT system which has rather unpleasant ramifications. It is
done by sending OOB (Out Of Band) data to an established connection with
a Windows user. NetBIOS [139] seems to be the most effective since this
is a part of Windows. Apparently Windows doesn't know how to handle OOB,
so it panics and crazy things happen. Reports have been heard of everything
from Windows dropping carrier to the entire screen turning white. Windows
also sometimes has trouble handling anything on a network at all after
an attack like this. A reboot fixes whatever damage this causes.
WinNuke Info/Fixes www.secant.net
- MyDeskTop
Microsoft patchese: Windows95
- NT4.0
i386 - NT3.51
i386
SL IRC Email Notice
Sent 20 May 97:
StarLink-IRC NOTICE to users
or potential users of 'nuking' programs and the like:
Notice to all: An open letter to
anyone using or considering use of "nuke" programs. Please pass
the following along:
ANYONE using, assisting in, or advocating
the use of the winnuke (or similar) type attacks on StarLink-IRC users
or servers will (in no particular order):
1. Be Identified (sooner or later,
someone will find you) .. no matter how good you are.
2. Be Banned from StarLink-IRC unconditionally
and eternally. This is a promise, not a threat.
3. Be made known to all other concerned
persons, such as the administrators of your ISP, your school, and anyone
else who may wish to know of such activities, including local and federal
law enforcement, ... and last but not least,
4. Be fully prosecuted to the maximum
extent possible. In some locations, this can include jail as well as confiscation
of your equipment.
Attacks like this have the potential
to cause lost data and are NOT the same as simple 'inconvieniences' like
DCC flooding or similar shenanigans. StarLink-IRC is a FUN network and,
as such, takes malicious attacks on its systems or users quite seriously.
If you want to annoy people, go play somewhere else where they don't care.
PS: for additional information,
check out ZD Net's Article:
http://www5.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/pcwo/0513/pcwo0003.html
PPS: To SL-IRC users in general.
This thing exploits a bug in the network services (TCP/IP) and, from all
available information, doesn't seem to cause permanent harm to the PC,
although unsaved data can be lost. NT and Win95 users should check out
the microsoft site for fixes when available.
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