Matthew Wronka
<matt.wronka@altavista.net>
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[Last Update
2000.04.14]
Matthew Wronka <matt.wronka@altavista.net> |
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In brief:
Microsoft's Active-X technology came under attack as a security concern shortly after its release. Green Sweater was a simple quiz program deriving its name from an egotistical maniac that all those in my home town and its neighbor to the north love to hate. Well, from him and a cursed green sweater that I own.
The program itself is a trojan. Granted, while it does nothing damaging to the computer (unlike AOL 4.5), it shows how great of a security risk Active-X is. It communicated with an open mail transfer agent (btw, http://mail.mtsd.k12.nj.us is on the Orbs list) in order to send a list of all the files on a victims hard drive. The program was supposed to give you various situations and you were too select how you would respond. In return, it gave you an "Ego" score which was written into your autoexec.bat.. Overall, this one program was able to reveal a pletora of security concerns and has manifested itself in other forms, including the GS Victorian Politics program I used in my English AP progect in 2000.