untangling_the_web

DID: 4046925
UNCLASSIFIEDM~gRg~F1SI,lcL l:JSE Of4L¥
Shoot the Messenger!
With the release of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, Microsoft finally shut one of the
many wide open, unlocked "doors" in one of its operating systems by disabling
Windows Messenger Service as the default setting. Unfortunately, Windows
Messenger Service remains a problem for other operating systems. First, it is
important to understand that Windows Messenger Service is something entirely
different from instant messaging services and turning it off will not affect 1M in
any way. Messenger is primarily used by network administrators to send
administrative alerts to network users or, for example, to let a user know when a
print job on a network printer is complete. However, most home users are not
networked and never need or want Messenger. The problem is that Messenger
comes enabled by default on most Windows operating systems and is, in fact,
automatically launched whenever a user boots his computer. This may not sound
too bad, except that the ever-enterprising spammers and malicious hackers of the
world found a way to exploit the darned thing. The spammers found they could flood
users with pop-up messages using Messenger and, worse, malicious hackers found
a way to use a buffer overflow in Messenger to install and run malicious code on a
victim's computer.
If you use a Windows operating system other than Windows XP/SP2 or Vista, I
recommend you turn off Messenger Service-that is, if you can. Users of Windows
2000 systems can disable Windows Messenger Service. However, Windows
Messenger Service cannot be disabled on Windows 98 or ME. For Windows
2000 users, it is easy to disable Windows Messenger and, if needed, turn it back on
by reversing these steps:
Windows 2000
Click Start I Settings I Control Panel IAdministrative Tools I Services
Scroll down and highlight "Messenger"
Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties.
Click the STOP button.
Select Disable or Manual in the Startup Type scroll bar
Click OK
UNCLASSIFIEDIIj;OR g~~ISIA:L l:JSE ONLY 567