Hi there all,
Please excuse me if I am posting this in the wrong area though I thought that this would be the best area to post considering it has to do with viruses.
I have a lot of questions to ask. If anybody could take the time to help me out, I would greatly appreciate it. Before I ask my questions, let me describe my topic.
Being one of the victims of getting a massive amount of viruses, I found a topic at symantec web-site. It states that they are issuing their customers that if they do not need to run vbscript files, then they should disable the Windows Scripting Host app, or to move it to a removable media devicwe, such as a jump drive, floppy disk or cd etc. The file is called wscript.exe. You can find the topic
hereWhat the Windows Script Host app does is it allows users to run vbscript files which this also includes running ActiveX. Reading other topics at other sites, I here that one of the most popular ways to get a virus, other than through email, is through ActiveX. The reason is, ActiveX has capabilties of silently downloading viruses on to your computer. It use to be that you would get a pop-up window asking you if you want to install the the ActiveX plug-in to view the site's web page properly etc. However this is not the case anymore. The web site that you maybe viewing might just make the plug-in to install without your permission. So here are my questions....
1. How much more secure could your computer be if by removing the Windows Scripting Host application? Yeah I know you should still have other tools to help you keep your computer much more secure, such as an adware and spyware remover, using firewall, and keeping you AV up to date. However, besides doing all this other stuff, could we actually put an end to vireses or at least keeping our computer 99.9% secure by doing so? Also how many applications need vbscripting capibilities? Meaning, other than Microsoft Office, what are the possibilities that I have an application that needs vbscripting? I am a shockwave/graphic designer, so I can't really think of anything considering all I use is Photoshop, Illustrator, Director, Maya, and Quark Xpress.
2. Does shockwave use ActiveX? If so, and that would mean that I need the wscript.exe file, but is it possible to get infected with other ActiveX viruses, after installing the shockwave plug-in? I know that downloading shockwave is secure, and I know this by when a website askes you if you want to install the shockwave plug-in it shows that the plug-in is signed through VeriSign. However, does this open a hole in IE that could allow all other ActiveX to pass through?
3. Continuing questions with shockwave, and if need the ActiveX plug-in for it, is it possible to only allow this ActiveX plug-in to run by setting this through my IE securty settings? If so then how? This is really critical becuase I am a shockwave programmer, and I hope that shackwave can continue on and extend it's popularity. It is really a neat program considering that it does not allow to install files to the user's computer, where as there is java for games too, but sometimes it needs to install other things to the user's computer which actually could be a virus.
I appologize for the long story, and I really appreciate you guys who are reading this in taking the time to help. So in conclusion, just maybe by combining are brains togather we could kill viruses forever!!!!!!!!!!
