so, i'm sitting at my computer (dell inspiron 530 running jaunty) yesterday morning surfing the web, and a message pops up saying "your computer is being controlled remotely by another user" or something like that. my initial thought is "whatever, just a glitch." then windows start moving around on their own and whoever or whatever it is starts typing a URL in a browser window. i panic and shut down my computer.
i did have "you must confirm each access to this machine" deselected in remote desktop preferences, since i sometimes use vnc to remote into this desktop from my laptop. i selected it and haven't had whatever happened yesterday morning happen again.
however, this morning, right when starting up some music in totem, i had a bunch of weird empty windows with the ubuntu help center icon (the little life preserver on the upper-left corner in a standard ubuntu install) start coming up. they rapidly got up to over fifty, so i panicked and shut down again.
i've been (rather naively, i guess) complacent about security in the last two years or so since i moved to linux. i mean, i run all updates, set passwords on things, but that's about it. have i been owned? how would i know? what should i do to prevent whatever is happening, and to fix any security holes i've got now? i've got a base image of this machine that i built in clonezilla...should i reimage in case i've got root kits or back door vulnerablities or something like that now?
Bookmarks