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Re:WannaCry – The largest ransom-ware infection in history by firewalkwithme on Sunday May 14, 2017 @12:59PM (#14336358)
I don't understand how a machine becomes infected, it is perhaps not very clear yet? this article explains receiving an email containing a link OR a PDF with a link to a .hta file ? what a strange sentence. Can one get infected without user interaction, or even with a passive client ?
Re:WannaCry – The largest ransom-ware infection in history by Scoundreller on Sunday May 14, 2017 @01:50PM (#14336616)
Yes, a vulnerable system can get infected without user interaction.

This malware somehow got seeded, either by (1) direct scanning the internet for vulnerable systems, or (2) traditional "open-this-link / install-this-file" emails/downloads. Maybe that's why we see at least 3 bitcoin addresses: 3 different "seeding" groups.

Corp networks shouldn't be accepting outside SMB connections, and home routers will block them too, so that's where user-initiated emails/downloads come in (or someone connecting an outside laptop).

Re:WannaCry – The largest ransom-ware infection in history by cpncrunch on Sunday May 14, 2017 @03:04PM (#14337025)
From what I gather, it tends to be one person in an organisation opening a dodgy attachment, then it spreads through the internal network via unpatched SMB flaw.
Re:WannaCry – The largest ransom-ware infection in history by Scoundreller on Sunday May 14, 2017 @04:13PM (#14337343)
That, or they bring a work computer home, get infected, then bring it back to work. Could happen if the network they got infected on resolved all domains (so it didn't execute then), but their corporate network didn't.
Re:WannaCry – The largest ransom-ware infection in history by remx on Sunday May 14, 2017 @01:08PM (#14336396)
This is what I want to know[0] too.

To mitigate, you can disable SMB1.0 with the following command. Make sure to run as administrator:

    dism /online /norestart /disable-feature /featurename:SMB1Protocol

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14335845
Re:WannaCry – The largest ransom-ware infection in history by syshum on Sunday May 14, 2017 @02:14PM (#14336780)
To mitigate, Install Security Patches in a Timely manner.

Also note that only works on windows 7 and later, dism is not a tool for XP or Windows 2003 which seem to be the largest numbers hit by this since there is/was no patches for them

Re:WannaCry – The largest ransom-ware infection in history by technion on Sunday May 14, 2017 @11:50PM (#14339026)
Careful, most old scanners out there only talk SMB1.

I'm all for recommending defence in depth, but please study changes like this before doing them.

Re:WannaCry – The largest ransom-ware infection in history by syshum on Sunday May 14, 2017 @02:11PM (#14336758)
In this case it is passive. SMB in unpatched windows has a Remote Code Execution vulnerability that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on your system with out your knowledge or interaction