Computer Bug and Security News 3/16/05

Part of: BugBlog

These are some of the more troublesome, as well as interesting, bugs from the last week at the BugBlog.

From Russia With Love

A new cellphone virus that targets Nokia's Series 60 smartphones is on the loose. It appears to have been born in Russia, and spreads through MMS messages and maybe also through a Bluetooth connection. (The latter method needs physical proximity to work.) The smart way to use a smart cellphone, at least while these things are circulating, is not to install any applications that come via an MMS message, and also to run Bluetooth in undiscoverable mode. While the Nokia phones are mentioned, any other smart phone based on the Symbian OS may also be at risk.

TaskBar Cover Up

Microsoft says that on both Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 1 and SP 2 computers, some programs may ignore the Taskbar and Start Menu option to "Keep the taskbar on top." Maximizing these applications will cover up the Task bar. Microsoft has a hotfix for this, which will be in a future service pack. If you can't wait for the fix, contact Microsoft Technical Support, and ask for the hotfix described in Knowledge Base article 884539. Note that you may get charged for this call.

Cache Poisoning With Symantec Products

Symantec says that a security bug may interfere with the DNS (domain name service) through DNS cache poisoning. This could affect the Symantec Enterprise Firewall 7 and 8, Symantec Gateway Security 5300 and 5400, and the Symantect VelociRaptor. This bug may cause hostnames to be resolved to bogus addresses. Symantec first released a fix on March 4, and updated it on March 14. See http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/security/Content/2005.03.15.html for more details.
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Article Author: Bruce Kratofil

Bruce Kratofil blogs on bugs and other things that can go wrong with your computer at The BugBlog, and writes about computers and economics at BJK Research

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