there is a way in windows to have all device instalations require user input to proceed. After all the messes made and security risks associated with stuffing USB things in (any) computers, WHY wouldnt the system be set up so the user clicks One or 2 Times , before a new device is installed. Would any average user have a problem with seeing What it is and having to say OK to it?
@Psycogeek I don't think anyone would have a problem with it, but therein lies the problem -- users would get so used to clicking OK that it would be worthless as a security measure
With your suggestion // Step 1: Plug a device in Step 2: Operating system says "This device can do stuff!" Step 3: User clicks "OK" Step 4: Device owns user's system
Without your suggestion // Step 1: Plug a device in Step 2: Device owns user's system
Same result, just takes about 3 seconds less time
One potential problem is that, at least with USB, and almost everything else except the CPU, there is no cryptographic security that certifies that a particular device was manufactured by a particular vendor, or that it's trustworthy
If I had the parts, I could build a device that calls itself a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, a perfectly benign and trustworthy thing, right? The operating system would have no way to know whether this alleged "Microsoft Natural Keyboard" is actually a device manufactured by Microsoft intended for typing, or a device manufactured by a Chinese criminal organization intended for industrial espionage
I was wondering what recommendations everyone has regarding blocking 3rd-party JavaScript? For example, the script blocker I use by default blocks tynt.com, intellitxt.com, kontera.com & snap.com. I added meebo.com because I find the Meebo toolbar to be hugely annoying and it gets in the way when...
Perhaps one thing that needs to be done with devices going forward is to introduce a new standard whereby operating systems may, at the option of the user, choose to enforce a policy of only allowing devices that are cryptographically signed by a known manufacturer to have its driver installed on the system, even if the driver is already available to the OS
That way, if you plug in a keyboard by Logitech or Microsoft, the operating system knows that it's not a rubber ducky
@somequixotic Yes the knee-Jerk install :-) I know all my items, and my own only have to be installed once. . It takes 50 minutes 20 clicks 2 boots and inserting some crasy long alphanumeric code to install windows. Only takes 1 second to get a virus :-)
@tapped-out block as much as i can. Web got so bad, I will start with a precompiled LIST of web sites that others blocked. Turn off my blocker and some of the sites i have been Blindly surfing without add or crap or noise, and some of my sites were UnBearable. A webmaser must hate blockers, but i would NEVER have gone to the web site if i has seen the mess i was blindly blocking.
@somequixotic for my computer its not the really viral keyloggers and really bad stuff that i would just Bail and bring in my last backup. Its the simple flash disks, from a user. One had a bad Windows virus on it, but the user was a mac user :-) so they didnt even have a clue to care.
There really isnt any policy, they just cant very easily do something really stupid, takes some effort :-)
how many executables in any e-mail were nessisary to run out of any e-mail EVER? other than someone who knows what they are doing?
If a gas station worked like MS was working, every other day a gas station would blow up. Drive up to pump, 30 seconds later gas starts comming out of it :-) doesnt make sence to me
@Psycogeek in the context of optical media, >99% of the time it's an installer or video where autoplay is desired by the majority of users
not to mention, one has to question where you would come across infected optical media, and how disabling autoplay would remove that infection risk (the user will want to run it anyway)
flash drives are, obviously, different - hence why it's no longer possible to use autoplay on them
@Psycogeek what's that got to do with this conversation?
I have never seen any executable in an email automatically run
you may be referring to file preview, and associated exploits, but running executables automatically was never done, AFAIK
@Bob My solutions would be play media in STUPID player blindly , MS solution play special web linked media files in java scripted code that can take over the whole machine, then add 3 more programming subsystems , add them to the media player, call them features. and have about 2 people even wanting that feature. and all it was was Adds anyways :-)
and, there's nothing wrong with file preview as a concept. it's the exploits (which are the result of the preview handler's security or lack thereof) that's the problem
@Psycogeek again, that has no bearing on autoplay
it's a problem with another area, quite distinct from autoplay
@Bob No thanks, install the codec, use stupider player.
many simple programs went from viewer , to Ohhh Lookie we can run somones whole machine with our code. NO please dont setup another vulnerability inside my machine.
@Bob And lots of even dogier and addware loaded codec packs. It is not to hard to find the trusted sources (if you can find the forest for the trees) and ya gotta wonder why if i need 2 64K codecs why am i installing 5MEGS of chit :-)
@Bob Some of it is the desire to change the OS and programs to add new features. at some point people spent 1/4th of thier lives in front of the TV too :-) bring on HD, man now i am gonna spend 1/3 of my live in front of the tv :-)
at some point, we had all the entertainment and features and ability to use up 80% of our lives in front of the thing. What more could they really do or require ? Were OWNED , picking our pockets is all that is left to do :-)
Description: The Disk drive is not formatted. Can you please do a backup first before reformatting the D: drive? User needs the files that are under this drive.
I need to help microsoft to get thier errors to be more meaningful. like "WTF" , "oh damn that didnt work" , and "hmm , it wasnt written to do that", and "I tossed an error into the error log, good luck buddy"
@Bob I write batch files for some things for my own uses. 1-2 pages of text at most. Adding in full commenting at least 1 more page, adding in error checking for everything another page, finnaly clueing in the user on what went wrong, and what could have gone wrong 10-20 pages.
But
when programs that used to fit on a floppy, come in filling a CD and have 340 parts and pieces , provide the explaination of Error as "e004" , somethings funkey :-0
I love this one too. 1/2 page description of how to get the same error, programmer writes back download ?? debugger thing, run the program,get the error, and send me the 500 page debugging log file i will never get around to reading. Okkaaay. dude i couldnt run your program, what makes you think i could run a debugger :-)
A container is a concept in IoC where the object model, including dependencies (relationships between "user" object and "used" object) and object instances, reside and is managed -- e.g., contained. The container is usually provided by a IoC framework, such as Spring. Think of it as a runtime repository for the objects that make up your application. — The Awnry BearJun 29 '12 at 19:05
Why I did not get that Job at Dell: "There could be any one of a million things wrong with your computer, but damn-it I'm going to test for 900,000 of them before I re-install"
When reviewing here, can I reject an edit because it was needless? (even if it was ok) do edits really bump threads? Is someone paying people to edit? Because after a bit of review , there seems to be more picking over minor junk , than there is a cleanup of the grammer and spelling that they miss when editing?
I don't believe this shit. I waited like, forever, to get my Firefox addon audited and now they rejected it because the checksum of my jQuery doesn't match theirs. Why doesn't it you ask? Because mine uses an LF to separate line 1 and 2 (the only lines in the file) and the official one uses CRLF
Some Anon did a minor edit, on a "not an answer" Is that trying to get a bump? I feel so sorry for the guy, because it will get flagged for "not an answer" Then (assuming he cares to deal with this site anymore) He makes his own question, then somone comes along and closes His question for being a duplicate. Any right minded person at that point would put this site on thier blacklist :-)
@Gowtham H.A.L killer drone missile with Borg implants? its the machines , we better stop them now. I have worked at a SAC (Strategic Air Command) base, i can assure you that the computers that launch nuclear missiles . . . are secured by idiots like me :-) we all in deep poo.
I am sorry dave, mission specs do not call for a recall of the ICBM at this time.
Russians assured us of the security of the nuclear arsenal. Sure and microsoft said they were secure 400 patches ago :-)
I now live down the street from the nuke lab, i feel much safer. After the 4 year cleanup of (actually minor) plutonium and tritium that accidentally escaped the lab , got in the stream, and tainted the groundwater they decided it would be a good idea to also work on Bio Warfare research.
@MichaelFrank I would not know that they are remotely accessable. after all talking to AirForce 1 to get strike orders while it flys 1000 miles away , is not remote :-) For real though there are many humans involved in that chain still.
i am sure we have all done it, spend 2 hours figuring out how to get the machine to save us from endlessly repetitive work, because it saves 12 seconds (of repetition) for each month that new method works for, and is obsolete in 2 years.
then you finish the method and the thing works beutifully without you, and they fire you :-)
luckily lots of the implemented technology is the opposite. EX: they make a computerised toll booth system, puts 50 people IN a job (making it) , 45 people IN a job of fixing and maintaining it, and there is still 50 at the toll booth making sure nobody cheats. Progress in action.
Press Win+Pause (if you can explain to people where those keys are).
For reference, here are screenshots of the resulting dialog under various versions of Windows:
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7
I have a client on the phone who unfortunately does not know his Windows and Internet Explorer version. I'm trying to debug an issue they're seeing, but in order to reproduce it I will have to find out what version of IE they run.
What would be the easiest way to have him get me the information,...
Press Win+Pause (if you can explain to people where those keys are).
For reference, here are screenshots of the resulting dialog under various versions of Windows:
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7
