For those of you having difficulty with the msblaster worm (and for those who aren't)

Okay, I got this worm last night. Luckily I know some smart folk who helped me out and pointed me in the right direction. The exploit uses an open port in Windows XP (and select other versions, 2000 in some cases) to sneak a worm in a given port. The worm then downloads the file "msblaster.exe" and tries to execute it.

What this does is makes your computer restart (after giving you a 60 second countdown) and can be quite annoying.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...n/MS03-026.asp

Go to the above link and download the patch for your version (32-bit XP if you're using the home edition). Even if you haven't experienced problems I'd SERIOUSLY recommend picking this up as it could save you some bother.

If you already have the bug and don't know what to do:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com...ster.worm.html

After you've completed this go and download the patch as you could be infected again. Also when you're finished go to C:/Windows/system32/ and delete the file "msblaster.exe".

or you cud just use a Mac :D ;)

http://www.paoracle.com/worm.html

Is also a good guide and explains the various effects that the bug has on each OS.

FYI, the restart is just a symptom and a result of bad coding, the exploit itself is particularly malicious, giving a remote user full control over your computer. I might add that this bug was announced four weeks ago yesterday, so anyone that isn't patched gets exactly what they deserve. :)

adam