Posted on 02/12/2010 10:34:08 AM PST by zeugma
"Tuesday's security updates from Microsoft have crippled Windows XP PCs with the notorious Blue Screen of Death, users have reported on the company's support forum. Complaints began early yesterday, and gained momentum throughout the day. 'I updated 11 Windows XP updates today and restarted my PC like it asked me to,' said a user identified as 'tansenroy' who kicked off a growing support thread: 'From then on, Windows cannot restart again! It is stopping at the blue screen with the following message: 'A problem has been detected and Windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer.' Others joined in with similar reports. Several users posted solutions, but the one laid out by 'maxyimus' was marked by a Microsoft support engineer as the way out of the perpetual blue screens."
Update: 2/12/2010:
"A rootkit infection may be the cause of a Windows Blue Screen of Death issue experienced by Windows XP users who applied the latest round of Microsoft patches. It appears that the affected Windows PCs had the rootkit infection prior to deploying the Microsoft patches. Researcher Patrick W. Barnes, investigating the issue, has isolated the infection to the Windows atapi.sys file, a driver used by Windows to connect hard drives and other components. Barnes identified the infection as the Tdss-rootkit, which surfaced last November and has been spreading quickly, creating zombie machines for botnet activity."
If you find the specified rootkit, I'd strongly advise saving your data, wiping the disk, and install from known good media.
bttt
Interesting - my dad updated his XpPro, went ok ... so???
I got nuked last Saturday by a Vista update. Lost almost everything.
Working on my new gaming build a little faster now.
I got it a few weeks ago. Hub fixed it since I don’t know how to do anything on a puter except turn it off and on. I thought it was from a game I had installed......oooops to the game provider for thinking they had a corrupted game.
Good advice except most AV products will not detect rootkits.
I do all my internet access in a virtual machine (Sun Virtualbox).
I install MS patches only after they've been out for a few weeks and when I know that what they do is something that I want done on my systems.
Never had a problem yet (knock wood)
Rootkits are nasty since you never really know if you are clean. It almost always call for a wipe and reload.
Just did an update on XP Pro and now have an invalid windows image error keep popping up.
Ping
Do not let your system or Microsoft update your machine as a routine. I have about ten PCs and NONE of them allow updates.
If it ain’t broken, it don’t need another fix!
Do not let your system or Microsoft update your machine as a routine. I have about ten PCs and NONE of them allow updates.
If it ain’t broken, it don’t need another fix!
I’m always 100% patched and have my virus software current however don’t forget about java, flash, etc. updates.
I got nailed several weeks ago by a java exploit even with everything else 100% current.
I think Avira’s free version includes a root kit scanner.
“Avira encounters this malware spreading by integrating the rootkit technology into the entire product range. Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic is a basic protection that can be downloaded for free from: www.free-av.com.”
I swear. I only clicked once.
I fail to friggin’ understand - Toyota is being raked over the coals because of a so-called “sticking gas pedal” which any reasonable driver would know enough to throw the car in neutral and turn off the key.
And this problem only affects what, one car in a million?
Yet Microsoft products for OVER TWENTY YEARS are rife with bugs, insecurities, problems, errors, unusable crap, ... and Microsoft executives are NEVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE!
This is pure Bull Ship!!!
Well, that probably means that at least he doesn't have this rootkit. :-)
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