Is somone in my box?

[marcus53002]

I have been spending a lot of time reading and searching the posts for a way in which to know if my box has been entered from the web...I read a lot about logs and identifying attacks...which logs and where are they within xp professional...Could someone attack my puter through msn or yahoo msgr and how would i know if they did...unless of course they did some damage...I apologize if this is an old or elementary question...Please bear with me I am a NEWBIE...thanks

[MadBeaver]

Look in the Tutorials. Read enough and you can answer your own questions.
http://www.neg.be/index/?c=7

[ss2chef]

There have been several attacks for yahoo and msn IM clients.

Google has plenty of documentation about each client.

Make sure you run the latest versions and if you are not at your machine, turn the things off.

Have you had strange activity on your machine that might suggest you have had an

un-wanted visitor?

Advice: Kill the apology/newbie bit. Most on this list don't care as long as you follow site guidelines

and in fact some will give you lame answers just because you hang that sign on yourself.

[Konshuss]

my box

I take it that this is your computer

Im not an expert either so i will give it my best shot!

To your first question

Could someone attack my puter through msn or yahoo msgr

Yes, you can be hacked & (booted) through Messenger(s). Commonly in messenger chat rooms, some annoying geek will start an argument with you, you'll tell him/her where to go and they'll b00t u off the room with a program they have either created or downloaded from a scumy 'script kiddie' site (find out what one of those is if you dont know). Also, in messengers you can set messenger to allow certain files to download. For example most people would disable .exe and several other file types for reasons such as; .exe is an 'execute file'. and could open itself once downloaded and spread a virus through the pc. Foe example .zip would be a safe file do download, as you can scan it for virus's (malitious code) before compiling the program. But this isnt realy hacking, its relying on the stupidity of the end user to allow dangerous files to be downloaded. When on a IRC chat room, extra ports on your pc (letter box's) are opened that dont necesarily need to be, thus opening up your computers vulnerability more to the world.

There are ways of seeing what ports are open and what IPs you are 'talking' with. i.e what internet traffic your PC is currently interacting with. Try going to your dos command prompt and play around with netstat, this link will give you information on the netstat commands and functions.
http://snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca/cour...0/netstat.html

They key to ensuring you dont get hacked in messenger is to have the lates versions (newer versions have had less time to be worked on by skiddies etc therefore having less vulnerabilities. Have a decent and up to date antivirus program. And also a good firewall (not XP firewall cuz it sux, disable it and get another one)

Im sure that there are programs other than firewalls that will tell you what internet traffic is going on but i dont know the names

i hope this helps u out, im no expert, just trying to rack me brain 4 ya

[nihil]

Could someone attack my puter through msn or yahoo msgr

: YES.............if you think about it, most decent commercial sites ban the use of anything P2P.

and how would i know if they did

..........??? can't you see my tongue sticking out of your 3.5" floppy drive? .............anyways...........go to the fridge...........who do you think drank all your beer?

Marcus, a bit more information about your system would help?

1. Is it a single box, or networked?
2. How do you connect to the internet?
3. What firewall do you have?
4. What AV do you have?
5. What IDS are you running?
6. What anti-trojan do you have?
7. What anti-spyware do you have?
8. What anti-adware do you have?
9. What executable (particularly background process) analysis tools do you have?
10. Do you have HijackThis!

One of the most important things is a firewall that intercepts attempts to "phone home"

My advice is to try to keep them out in the first place..........a bit more information would help.

Cheers

ss2chef is right............don't leave it on all the time.............that exposes you.

[Tiger Shark]

ss2chef is right............don't leave it on all the time.............that exposes you.

And there are already far too many exposed boxes on the internet......

[marcus53002]

I am running norton AV and adaware se...my firewall is the xp firewall...I connect with dsl and do not visit chatrooms...thanks for all the info...I am suspicous because my pc has been running phreakish and i scanned with AV,adaware and spybot...whats the best firewall out there

[whatthe]

whats the best firewall out there

Here's a link to Relyt's list

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=262916

[san_debo2]

Well this is very common as Windows XP firewall jist blocks nothing snd specially doesnt block MSN Messanger Thus i think it only came from there However dont worry soln is there.Install Zone Alarm Pro Its Good and get a scan for spyware adware,That sometime hacks ur pc without ur concern.And next time give ur Software config and possibly hardwar config,that helps us alot