80 ms·
I guess the demise of XP is still a long ways off. If there were no XP users remaining, could there still be enough hackable computers to create a large enough
by coldcode 12y ago
I guess the demise of XP is still a long ways off. If there were no XP users remaining, could there still be enough hackable computers to create a large enough botnet?
- danielweber 12y agoIs that really a correlation? Have we seen a decrease in zombie counts as XP machines attrition out?
- xeroxmalf 12y agoConsidering a lot of intrusions happen via the web browser / plugins installed in the web browser (flash/java come to mind right off the bat), I don't think XP being retired has anything to do with future botnet sizes.
- aikah 12y agoit's a coktail,you cant only blame flash or java,the browser and the os running these stuff shares some responsibility.
- Dylan16807 12y agoExactly how is the OS supposed to stop an exploited browser from doing anything malicious? Even if you have strict access controls like SELinux, that won't stop a browser from participating in a DDOS attack and changing settings like cache or homepage to get reinfected next session. And if you don't have strict access controls, like 99% of desktops, the exploited browser can freely install all the user-mode malware it wants. So XP vs. not-XP is completely meaningless at this stage.
- zuck9 12y agoEven if everything was up to date, you still can't make sure that you don't get infected. The common hobby for kids these days: finding and writing exploits
- frankus 12y agoA lot of these types of attack use amplification attacks (https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA13-088A https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA13-088A), often a carelessly-configured time server or name server, where only a small number of hosts are needed to wreak havoc.