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  3. Almost nobody knows how to write software anymore.

Almost nobody knows how to write software anymore.

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  • L Offline
    L Offline
    Lost User
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    Yep, Here is a small failure you probably won't see in the news media. Recently the [FBI](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/divisions/national-security-division/qakbot-resources) and [CISA](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-242a) announced the closure of "Operation Duck Hunt". An astute reader might have noticed it being described as a "disruption". While the initial media reports described it as a "takedown". Allow me to shed some light on that. They basically wrote a DLL that would be loaded by Qbot and issues the QPCMD_BOT_SHUTDOWN command. Then sent a C2 command to around 700,000 bots instructing them to download and execute the DLL. A good and solid plan. But what you haven't heard is that the FBI/CISA tool authors dynamically linked to the C runtime. Guess what happens if you try to run a DLL (dynamic linked to C runtime) but without the [C runtime installed](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170)? Those 700,000 computers will certainly have a large percentage without the Visual C++ Redistributable package installed. I can understand why they left the (persistence modules) WMI and scheduled tasks untouched, but dynamic linking the uninstall library looks like rookie ineptitude. Luckily the C2 servers were apparently seized so it was ultimately a success. But the client software uninstall was a failure. "I wrote a C++ program that only runs on my computer" is something you might imagine a high school student asking. But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

    OriginalGriffO L M D J 9 Replies Last reply
    0
    • L Lost User

      Yep, Here is a small failure you probably won't see in the news media. Recently the [FBI](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/divisions/national-security-division/qakbot-resources) and [CISA](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-242a) announced the closure of "Operation Duck Hunt". An astute reader might have noticed it being described as a "disruption". While the initial media reports described it as a "takedown". Allow me to shed some light on that. They basically wrote a DLL that would be loaded by Qbot and issues the QPCMD_BOT_SHUTDOWN command. Then sent a C2 command to around 700,000 bots instructing them to download and execute the DLL. A good and solid plan. But what you haven't heard is that the FBI/CISA tool authors dynamically linked to the C runtime. Guess what happens if you try to run a DLL (dynamic linked to C runtime) but without the [C runtime installed](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170)? Those 700,000 computers will certainly have a large percentage without the Visual C++ Redistributable package installed. I can understand why they left the (persistence modules) WMI and scheduled tasks untouched, but dynamic linking the uninstall library looks like rookie ineptitude. Luckily the C2 servers were apparently seized so it was ultimately a success. But the client software uninstall was a failure. "I wrote a C++ program that only runs on my computer" is something you might imagine a high school student asking. But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

      OriginalGriffO Offline
      OriginalGriffO Offline
      OriginalGriff
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      It was probably written by ChatGPT and c opy'n'pasted without any thought being involved. :sigh:

      "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

      "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
      "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • L Lost User

        Yep, Here is a small failure you probably won't see in the news media. Recently the [FBI](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/divisions/national-security-division/qakbot-resources) and [CISA](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-242a) announced the closure of "Operation Duck Hunt". An astute reader might have noticed it being described as a "disruption". While the initial media reports described it as a "takedown". Allow me to shed some light on that. They basically wrote a DLL that would be loaded by Qbot and issues the QPCMD_BOT_SHUTDOWN command. Then sent a C2 command to around 700,000 bots instructing them to download and execute the DLL. A good and solid plan. But what you haven't heard is that the FBI/CISA tool authors dynamically linked to the C runtime. Guess what happens if you try to run a DLL (dynamic linked to C runtime) but without the [C runtime installed](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170)? Those 700,000 computers will certainly have a large percentage without the Visual C++ Redistributable package installed. I can understand why they left the (persistence modules) WMI and scheduled tasks untouched, but dynamic linking the uninstall library looks like rookie ineptitude. Luckily the C2 servers were apparently seized so it was ultimately a success. But the client software uninstall was a failure. "I wrote a C++ program that only runs on my computer" is something you might imagine a high school student asking. But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

        L Offline
        L Offline
        Lost User
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        FBI wrote:

        As a result of this operation, the FBI and the Dutch National Police

        The Dutch National Police. Does anyone else still own a fax machine?

        Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • L Lost User

          Yep, Here is a small failure you probably won't see in the news media. Recently the [FBI](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/divisions/national-security-division/qakbot-resources) and [CISA](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-242a) announced the closure of "Operation Duck Hunt". An astute reader might have noticed it being described as a "disruption". While the initial media reports described it as a "takedown". Allow me to shed some light on that. They basically wrote a DLL that would be loaded by Qbot and issues the QPCMD_BOT_SHUTDOWN command. Then sent a C2 command to around 700,000 bots instructing them to download and execute the DLL. A good and solid plan. But what you haven't heard is that the FBI/CISA tool authors dynamically linked to the C runtime. Guess what happens if you try to run a DLL (dynamic linked to C runtime) but without the [C runtime installed](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170)? Those 700,000 computers will certainly have a large percentage without the Visual C++ Redistributable package installed. I can understand why they left the (persistence modules) WMI and scheduled tasks untouched, but dynamic linking the uninstall library looks like rookie ineptitude. Luckily the C2 servers were apparently seized so it was ultimately a success. But the client software uninstall was a failure. "I wrote a C++ program that only runs on my computer" is something you might imagine a high school student asking. But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

          M Offline
          M Offline
          Marc Clifton
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Boy does that bring back memories. Years ago, many years ago, I had written this app for whatever company I was working for then, and it simply wouldn't run anywhere but on my computer. Yup -- dynamically linked to the C runtime, which nobody else had installed. Granted the problem was easily fixed, though as I recall it took a few hours to figure out why it failed, no error message given. And then there were more interesting problems, like different DLL versions (often on the sales people's computers) and somehow the app was loading the wrong, older, DLL or something like that, from who knows what folder, and the solution was usually to wipe any residue of the old app and DLL's off the computer, something of a PITA in DOS days, though del foo.dll /s should have worked - I don't really remember why it was more complex than that. I still have that problem with the .NET runtimes occasionally, but at least the app is kind enough to tell me that the required so-and-so .NET framework is not installed, and here's the unclickable link to go to. Unclickable because it's a popup message where the URL isn't a clicky and the text isn't copy-and-paste'able. :rolleyes:

          Latest Articles:
          A Lightweight Thread Safe In-Memory Keyed Generic Cache Collection Service A Dynamic Where Implementation for Entity Framework

          J 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • M Marc Clifton

            Boy does that bring back memories. Years ago, many years ago, I had written this app for whatever company I was working for then, and it simply wouldn't run anywhere but on my computer. Yup -- dynamically linked to the C runtime, which nobody else had installed. Granted the problem was easily fixed, though as I recall it took a few hours to figure out why it failed, no error message given. And then there were more interesting problems, like different DLL versions (often on the sales people's computers) and somehow the app was loading the wrong, older, DLL or something like that, from who knows what folder, and the solution was usually to wipe any residue of the old app and DLL's off the computer, something of a PITA in DOS days, though del foo.dll /s should have worked - I don't really remember why it was more complex than that. I still have that problem with the .NET runtimes occasionally, but at least the app is kind enough to tell me that the required so-and-so .NET framework is not installed, and here's the unclickable link to go to. Unclickable because it's a popup message where the URL isn't a clicky and the text isn't copy-and-paste'able. :rolleyes:

            Latest Articles:
            A Lightweight Thread Safe In-Memory Keyed Generic Cache Collection Service A Dynamic Where Implementation for Entity Framework

            J Offline
            J Offline
            jmaida
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            I hate DLL's.

            "A little time, a little trouble, your better day" Badfinger

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • L Lost User

              Yep, Here is a small failure you probably won't see in the news media. Recently the [FBI](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/divisions/national-security-division/qakbot-resources) and [CISA](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-242a) announced the closure of "Operation Duck Hunt". An astute reader might have noticed it being described as a "disruption". While the initial media reports described it as a "takedown". Allow me to shed some light on that. They basically wrote a DLL that would be loaded by Qbot and issues the QPCMD_BOT_SHUTDOWN command. Then sent a C2 command to around 700,000 bots instructing them to download and execute the DLL. A good and solid plan. But what you haven't heard is that the FBI/CISA tool authors dynamically linked to the C runtime. Guess what happens if you try to run a DLL (dynamic linked to C runtime) but without the [C runtime installed](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170)? Those 700,000 computers will certainly have a large percentage without the Visual C++ Redistributable package installed. I can understand why they left the (persistence modules) WMI and scheduled tasks untouched, but dynamic linking the uninstall library looks like rookie ineptitude. Luckily the C2 servers were apparently seized so it was ultimately a success. But the client software uninstall was a failure. "I wrote a C++ program that only runs on my computer" is something you might imagine a high school student asking. But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

              L Offline
              L Offline
              Lost User
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              Randor wrote:

              But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

              But they are responsible for security, not software support. Just because it's the FBI does not mean they employ the best software engineers.

              A J 2 Replies Last reply
              0
              • L Lost User

                Randor wrote:

                But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

                But they are responsible for security, not software support. Just because it's the FBI does not mean they employ the best software engineers.

                A Offline
                A Offline
                Andre Oosthuizen
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                Probably sourced the engineers from Freelancer site for the lowest price possible. :-D

                L 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • A Andre Oosthuizen

                  Probably sourced the engineers from Freelancer site for the lowest price possible. :-D

                  L Offline
                  L Offline
                  Lost User
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  They should have asked me, I have extensive experience of writing bad software.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • L Lost User

                    Yep, Here is a small failure you probably won't see in the news media. Recently the [FBI](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/divisions/national-security-division/qakbot-resources) and [CISA](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-242a) announced the closure of "Operation Duck Hunt". An astute reader might have noticed it being described as a "disruption". While the initial media reports described it as a "takedown". Allow me to shed some light on that. They basically wrote a DLL that would be loaded by Qbot and issues the QPCMD_BOT_SHUTDOWN command. Then sent a C2 command to around 700,000 bots instructing them to download and execute the DLL. A good and solid plan. But what you haven't heard is that the FBI/CISA tool authors dynamically linked to the C runtime. Guess what happens if you try to run a DLL (dynamic linked to C runtime) but without the [C runtime installed](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170)? Those 700,000 computers will certainly have a large percentage without the Visual C++ Redistributable package installed. I can understand why they left the (persistence modules) WMI and scheduled tasks untouched, but dynamic linking the uninstall library looks like rookie ineptitude. Luckily the C2 servers were apparently seized so it was ultimately a success. But the client software uninstall was a failure. "I wrote a C++ program that only runs on my computer" is something you might imagine a high school student asking. But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

                    D Offline
                    D Offline
                    dandy72
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    A lot of software written in C run on a clean Windows install with no further prerequisite; Windows does ship with a version of the runtime. I suspect - if the details are true - they might have targeted a newer version, which would result in what you're relaying. Could've been something else altogether. Just sayin' you generally can't count on mainstream reporters for technical accuracy either.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • L Lost User

                      Yep, Here is a small failure you probably won't see in the news media. Recently the [FBI](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/divisions/national-security-division/qakbot-resources) and [CISA](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-242a) announced the closure of "Operation Duck Hunt". An astute reader might have noticed it being described as a "disruption". While the initial media reports described it as a "takedown". Allow me to shed some light on that. They basically wrote a DLL that would be loaded by Qbot and issues the QPCMD_BOT_SHUTDOWN command. Then sent a C2 command to around 700,000 bots instructing them to download and execute the DLL. A good and solid plan. But what you haven't heard is that the FBI/CISA tool authors dynamically linked to the C runtime. Guess what happens if you try to run a DLL (dynamic linked to C runtime) but without the [C runtime installed](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170)? Those 700,000 computers will certainly have a large percentage without the Visual C++ Redistributable package installed. I can understand why they left the (persistence modules) WMI and scheduled tasks untouched, but dynamic linking the uninstall library looks like rookie ineptitude. Luckily the C2 servers were apparently seized so it was ultimately a success. But the client software uninstall was a failure. "I wrote a C++ program that only runs on my computer" is something you might imagine a high school student asking. But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

                      J Offline
                      J Offline
                      jschell
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      I suspect about 50% of my time for the past 20 years has been spent dealing with problems that others failed to account for when they created the software. Originally I figured that it must be an individual fault. But it just happens too much. Developers get focused. They see a problem. They fix that problem. They very, very seldom consider what the fix means even within the application they are working on much less other possible impacts. I don't expect that to change.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • L Lost User

                        Yep, Here is a small failure you probably won't see in the news media. Recently the [FBI](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/divisions/national-security-division/qakbot-resources) and [CISA](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-242a) announced the closure of "Operation Duck Hunt". An astute reader might have noticed it being described as a "disruption". While the initial media reports described it as a "takedown". Allow me to shed some light on that. They basically wrote a DLL that would be loaded by Qbot and issues the QPCMD_BOT_SHUTDOWN command. Then sent a C2 command to around 700,000 bots instructing them to download and execute the DLL. A good and solid plan. But what you haven't heard is that the FBI/CISA tool authors dynamically linked to the C runtime. Guess what happens if you try to run a DLL (dynamic linked to C runtime) but without the [C runtime installed](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170)? Those 700,000 computers will certainly have a large percentage without the Visual C++ Redistributable package installed. I can understand why they left the (persistence modules) WMI and scheduled tasks untouched, but dynamic linking the uninstall library looks like rookie ineptitude. Luckily the C2 servers were apparently seized so it was ultimately a success. But the client software uninstall was a failure. "I wrote a C++ program that only runs on my computer" is something you might imagine a high school student asking. But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

                        S Offline
                        S Offline
                        Steve Naidamast
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        Uh... Where have you been in the past several years? Since the 1980s the US public school systems have been in decline. Analysts now warn that as a result of this first decline along with the more recent deterioration of our universities, graduates are demonstrating increasingly their inability to perform properly in jobs. What else did we expect? The Taiwanese company that agreed to build a new semi-conductor plant in the US has now put an indefinite hold on the project since it cannot find enough technical talent in the United States who can manage the various job requirements the new plant was expected to provide...

                        Steve Naidamast Sr. Software Engineer Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com

                        M J J 3 Replies Last reply
                        0
                        • S Steve Naidamast

                          Uh... Where have you been in the past several years? Since the 1980s the US public school systems have been in decline. Analysts now warn that as a result of this first decline along with the more recent deterioration of our universities, graduates are demonstrating increasingly their inability to perform properly in jobs. What else did we expect? The Taiwanese company that agreed to build a new semi-conductor plant in the US has now put an indefinite hold on the project since it cannot find enough technical talent in the United States who can manage the various job requirements the new plant was expected to provide...

                          Steve Naidamast Sr. Software Engineer Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com

                          M Offline
                          M Offline
                          Member_14192382
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          Since the 1980s the US public school systems have been in decline.

                          More like since the 1950s. By 1960 logic and critical thinking had been removed from curriculums, and then the gradual decline in literacy and mathematics. Much of what U.S. high school students are doing is what 5th and 6th grade students are doing in most countries. If anyone excels in the U.S. public schools they are either very self-motivated or have strong interest and encourgement at home, where they are learning most of what they know.

                          J 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • L Lost User

                            Yep, Here is a small failure you probably won't see in the news media. Recently the [FBI](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/divisions/national-security-division/qakbot-resources) and [CISA](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-242a) announced the closure of "Operation Duck Hunt". An astute reader might have noticed it being described as a "disruption". While the initial media reports described it as a "takedown". Allow me to shed some light on that. They basically wrote a DLL that would be loaded by Qbot and issues the QPCMD_BOT_SHUTDOWN command. Then sent a C2 command to around 700,000 bots instructing them to download and execute the DLL. A good and solid plan. But what you haven't heard is that the FBI/CISA tool authors dynamically linked to the C runtime. Guess what happens if you try to run a DLL (dynamic linked to C runtime) but without the [C runtime installed](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170)? Those 700,000 computers will certainly have a large percentage without the Visual C++ Redistributable package installed. I can understand why they left the (persistence modules) WMI and scheduled tasks untouched, but dynamic linking the uninstall library looks like rookie ineptitude. Luckily the C2 servers were apparently seized so it was ultimately a success. But the client software uninstall was a failure. "I wrote a C++ program that only runs on my computer" is something you might imagine a high school student asking. But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

                            J Offline
                            J Offline
                            jochance
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            Cool story (not in the sarcastic way). That is a pretty big oversight. Game developers sometimes make this mistake in early iterations. It's becoming less common with Unity/Unreal driving so much. It's still pretty dang cool they're writing mass bot network kill switches though.

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • L Lost User

                              Randor wrote:

                              But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

                              But they are responsible for security, not software support. Just because it's the FBI does not mean they employ the best software engineers.

                              J Offline
                              J Offline
                              jlongo
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              They would have hired the lowest bidder who would then have used H1-B’s to write it. Those H1-Bs - brought to you by Democrats and RINOs - are lowering wages and bill rates in IT…all to make the big tech owners richer. If you don’t believe me compare the salary of a cloud engineer from 2020 to 2023.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • S Steve Naidamast

                                Uh... Where have you been in the past several years? Since the 1980s the US public school systems have been in decline. Analysts now warn that as a result of this first decline along with the more recent deterioration of our universities, graduates are demonstrating increasingly their inability to perform properly in jobs. What else did we expect? The Taiwanese company that agreed to build a new semi-conductor plant in the US has now put an indefinite hold on the project since it cannot find enough technical talent in the United States who can manage the various job requirements the new plant was expected to provide...

                                Steve Naidamast Sr. Software Engineer Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com

                                J Offline
                                J Offline
                                Jorgen Andersson
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                Steve Naidamast wrote:

                                Since the 1980s the US public school systems have been in decline.

                                So, you're born in the fifties?

                                Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

                                S 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • S Steve Naidamast

                                  Uh... Where have you been in the past several years? Since the 1980s the US public school systems have been in decline. Analysts now warn that as a result of this first decline along with the more recent deterioration of our universities, graduates are demonstrating increasingly their inability to perform properly in jobs. What else did we expect? The Taiwanese company that agreed to build a new semi-conductor plant in the US has now put an indefinite hold on the project since it cannot find enough technical talent in the United States who can manage the various job requirements the new plant was expected to provide...

                                  Steve Naidamast Sr. Software Engineer Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com

                                  J Offline
                                  J Offline
                                  jschell
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  Steve Naidamast wrote:

                                  Since the 1980s the US public school systems have been in decline.

                                  That of course has nothing to do with it. Whether true or not. For starters of course, developers as a group, have more education and are more likely to have been better students in schools. And people creating problems that could have been avoided is hardly something new. Wright 'designed' Fallingwater in 1935. So the premier architect managed to design a house that failed from its very creation. Presumably using the 'best' engineers of the time. Decades later it was determined that the design never would have worked at the time. (Presumably they too were focused on the solution and failed to see the problems.)

                                  Steve Naidamast wrote:

                                  The Taiwanese company that agreed to build a new semi-conductor plant in the US has now put an indefinite hold on the project since it cannot find enough technical talent in the United States who can manage the various job requirements the new plant was expected to provide...

                                  Not true at all. First the problems right now are due to construction problems - not production, not chip design problems. So no idea what problems might develop when it is online. But reasonable to suspect that they are going to have trouble because they will not be willing to pay the much higher costs for talent versus what they expect in Taiwan. Second Taiwan is suffering its own talent pool shortage in tech jobs. So obviously their school system is not meeting the demand. Additionally the Taiwan school system is rigidly controlled by the national government. This includes military training at the high school level. Comparing it to the US is not valid because I suspect if the US attempted the same it would require a US Constitutional Amendment to enforce. Not to mention the cultural ideology that drives performance where the family's public reputation is based on the student's performance. Not even sure how one would attempt to move to that in the US besides generations of forced ideological education, which would be sure to run up against religious doctrine.

                                  S 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • M Member_14192382

                                    Since the 1980s the US public school systems have been in decline.

                                    More like since the 1950s. By 1960 logic and critical thinking had been removed from curriculums, and then the gradual decline in literacy and mathematics. Much of what U.S. high school students are doing is what 5th and 6th grade students are doing in most countries. If anyone excels in the U.S. public schools they are either very self-motivated or have strong interest and encourgement at home, where they are learning most of what they know.

                                    J Offline
                                    J Offline
                                    jschell
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    Member 14192382 wrote:

                                    and then the gradual decline in literacy and mathematics.

                                    I doubt either of those are true. Certainly the literacy part is not. National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) - 120 Years of Literacy[^] As for math figuring out what the actual achievement levels are is very difficult. Exams that attempted such measurements varied widely for very long periods of time. So exactly what objective data are you using to make the claim that math achievement has changed between now and then? What is the name of the test that was used in that period?

                                    R 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • L Lost User

                                      Yep, Here is a small failure you probably won't see in the news media. Recently the [FBI](https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/divisions/national-security-division/qakbot-resources) and [CISA](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-242a) announced the closure of "Operation Duck Hunt". An astute reader might have noticed it being described as a "disruption". While the initial media reports described it as a "takedown". Allow me to shed some light on that. They basically wrote a DLL that would be loaded by Qbot and issues the QPCMD_BOT_SHUTDOWN command. Then sent a C2 command to around 700,000 bots instructing them to download and execute the DLL. A good and solid plan. But what you haven't heard is that the FBI/CISA tool authors dynamically linked to the C runtime. Guess what happens if you try to run a DLL (dynamic linked to C runtime) but without the [C runtime installed](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170)? Those 700,000 computers will certainly have a large percentage without the Visual C++ Redistributable package installed. I can understand why they left the (persistence modules) WMI and scheduled tasks untouched, but dynamic linking the uninstall library looks like rookie ineptitude. Luckily the C2 servers were apparently seized so it was ultimately a success. But the client software uninstall was a failure. "I wrote a C++ program that only runs on my computer" is something you might imagine a high school student asking. But I didn't expect that from our nations brightest security teams.

                                      S Offline
                                      S Offline
                                      Shawn Eary May2021
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      Noone knows how to write software anymore because managers force employees to use shiny new no/low code and AI tools even though those tools produce results that are inferior to what can be built and maintained by a trained engineer with traditional robust languages.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • J Jorgen Andersson

                                        Steve Naidamast wrote:

                                        Since the 1980s the US public school systems have been in decline.

                                        So, you're born in the fifties?

                                        Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

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                                        Steve Naidamast
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        Yes... 1950...

                                        Steve Naidamast Sr. Software Engineer Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com

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                                        • J jschell

                                          Steve Naidamast wrote:

                                          Since the 1980s the US public school systems have been in decline.

                                          That of course has nothing to do with it. Whether true or not. For starters of course, developers as a group, have more education and are more likely to have been better students in schools. And people creating problems that could have been avoided is hardly something new. Wright 'designed' Fallingwater in 1935. So the premier architect managed to design a house that failed from its very creation. Presumably using the 'best' engineers of the time. Decades later it was determined that the design never would have worked at the time. (Presumably they too were focused on the solution and failed to see the problems.)

                                          Steve Naidamast wrote:

                                          The Taiwanese company that agreed to build a new semi-conductor plant in the US has now put an indefinite hold on the project since it cannot find enough technical talent in the United States who can manage the various job requirements the new plant was expected to provide...

                                          Not true at all. First the problems right now are due to construction problems - not production, not chip design problems. So no idea what problems might develop when it is online. But reasonable to suspect that they are going to have trouble because they will not be willing to pay the much higher costs for talent versus what they expect in Taiwan. Second Taiwan is suffering its own talent pool shortage in tech jobs. So obviously their school system is not meeting the demand. Additionally the Taiwan school system is rigidly controlled by the national government. This includes military training at the high school level. Comparing it to the US is not valid because I suspect if the US attempted the same it would require a US Constitutional Amendment to enforce. Not to mention the cultural ideology that drives performance where the family's public reputation is based on the student's performance. Not even sure how one would attempt to move to that in the US besides generations of forced ideological education, which would be sure to run up against religious doctrine.

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                                          Steve Naidamast
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          I don't understand where you are getting your facts from... It is already well documented and a known fact in the US employment market that graduating university students from US universities are not doing very well. In many cases it is being found that university graduates do not even have credible levels of reading skills. And many schools no longer teach "cursive", which was a foundation for writing skills. As for the idea that many professional technicians are better trained than the majority of other workers does not strike me as really realistic considering the worsening problems with business web sites. The adoption of stupid development paradigms over the years has made corporate development endeavors a nightmare for many with many professional technicians complaining that web development is becoming an impossible endeavoir to do well. The advent of Microsoft's push for the use of the MVC paradigm in 2010 began this mess in web development but the original catalysts for that were the ideas that came out of the failed Chrysler C2 Payroll system whose lead developers produced the XP development paradigm and paired-programmming, one of the dumbest concoctions the profession ever came up with. When this failed, they moved to Agile, which attempted to dilute solid software engineering principals for the sake of speed of development. Recently an article has been written that describes the increasing rates of burnout from the DevOps paradigm, another stupid concept, which attempts to meld quality control with development teams. All of this is a result of stupid technical management that simply want to support business' even more stupid deadline constructs. Where do you believe all this crap came from? Stupid people! As to the Taiwanese education system, on average, Asian students are far superior to their White counterparts in the United States as parenting in the US has taken a serious turn for the worse given that so many parents carter to the children's every whim while allowing them to use technologies with abandon. The result is that many White students are basically graduating from university with the maturity levels of vegetables. All of this has been well documented in the past 10 years, so I have no idea where you are able to make the statements you do, unless of course you are not well read yourself...

                                          Steve Naidamast Sr. Software Engineer Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com

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