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"Peter Davoust" <worldgnat@×××××.com> posted |
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7c08b4dd0608150751o418c99e5gcbae8cc9a96460ad@××××××××××.com, excerpted |
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below, on Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:51:51 +0000: |
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|
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> Ok, so I had a 5 gig disk image I was using for a guest OS. I deleted it |
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> and it brought be down to about 93% usage, and gave me back KDE. Then I |
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> did a series of du -s /* etc, which took me to a directory I created for |
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> a Java application I'm writing. Somehow, a file called fool was created, |
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> and it was enourmous. I deleted it and it brought me down to 22% usage. |
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> Is that insane or what? I guess the file was appropriately named..... |
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Let's see... 5 gig = 7%, 1.4% per gig. 93%-22%=71% 71/1.4=... about 50 |
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gigs. A 50 gig "fool" file! (This assumes you didn't delete some other |
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small stuff you failed to mention.) Yeah, appropriately named, I'd say. |
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|
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Did you check the contents of the thing to see what in the world (um.. |
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what on the disk :) it was? Maybe the creation/modification times, |
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perhaps in comparison to other files? |
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|
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That name is ... strange... to say the least. Going just on the name, and |
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the fact that it grew so huge, the possibility that immediately came to my |
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mind was a cracker. Following the thought, the file would have been put |
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there as a DoS, possibly because the cracker couldn't get access to |
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anything else but could create a huge file as a disruption, or perhaps |
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there was a trojan plant and it was an activity log the cracker planned on |
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harvesting at some point for password hints or personal details. |
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|
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Hopefully it's nothing of the sort, but the name... f001d might have been |
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a bit more suspicious, but not by much. Of course, I haven't done Java |
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since about time I switched from MSWormOS as it's proprietary/slaveryware |
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if you are using Sun or Blackdown, and somewhat limited at present with |
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the Freedomware alternatives, and I don't know what you are developing, so |
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for all I know, "fool" was a legit file. However, it still /sounds/ |
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suspicious. I'd not be comfortable until I knew exactly why it was there, |
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or at least until I had done a bit of forensics on my system and could be |
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relatively sure I hadn't been compromised. |
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|
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Of course, one other possibility is a filesystem gone badly wrong, a small |
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file and a file system accident, that an fsck on reboot reconstructed as |
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using all the free space on the entire partition! That would account for |
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the size, but not for the name, which would still need some sort of |
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explanation. |
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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|
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-- |
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