I have been running BOINC for years. I now have a rogue project
"Amicable Numbers." I have no account for this project that I can
close.It ignores all the speed limitations in the BOINC client, and
slows my computer down. The "remove" button is grayed out, but it is
one of two, probably because it is current, although suspended. From
its Project Page, it is not managed by a University, but by an
individual whose given name is Sergei.

Has anybody heard of this project? It uses an independent Forum, and
there was some delay in the activation details reaching me.

Doug.

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On 2/11/21 1:50 PM, Doug Laidlaw wrote:

I have been running BOINC for years. I now have a rogue project
"Amicable Numbers."  I have no account for this project that I can
close.It ignores all the speed limitations in the BOINC client, and
slows my computer down.  The "remove" button is grayed out, but it is
one of two, probably because it is current, although suspended.  From
its Project Page, it is not managed by a University, but by an
individual whose given name is Sergei.

Has anybody heard of this project?  It uses an independent Forum, and
there was some delay in the activation details reaching me.

Doug.

I would run KSysGuard to find whatever resources it is using
then find and rename those resources. Then if it exists\ as a file
with the same name remove it. It is doing dirty work for Sergei.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

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On 11.02.2021 at 14:56, Bobbie Sellers scribbled:

On 2/11/21 1:50 PM, Doug Laidlaw wrote:

I have been running BOINC for years. I now have a rogue project=20 "Amicable Numbers."=C2=A0 I have no account for this project that I can=

=20

close.It ignores all the speed limitations in the BOINC client, and=20 slows my computer down.=C2=A0 The "remove" button is grayed out, but it
is one of two, probably because it is current, although suspended.
From its Project Page, it is not managed by a University, but by an=20 individual whose given name is Sergei.
=20
Has anybody heard of this project?=C2=A0 It uses an independent Forum,
and there was some delay in the activation details reaching me.
=20
Doug. =20

=20
I would run KSysGuard to find whatever resources it is using
then find and rename those resources. Then if it exists\ as a file
with the same name remove it. It is doing dirty work for Sergei.

The theory behind amicable numbers can be found here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amicable_numbers

Or at least, that's the legitimate use of the term. But for all we
know, that project is simply mining Bitcoins. After all, to those
seeking to mine digital currency by employing other people's computers
to do the work, the numbers would certainly be very amicable. :p

--=20
With respect,
=3D Aragorn =3D


--- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.21 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Strider (2:250/1@fidonet)

On 12/2/21 10:18 am, Aragorn wrote:

On 11.02.2021 at 14:56, Bobbie Sellers scribbled:

On 2/11/21 1:50 PM, Doug Laidlaw wrote:

I have been running BOINC for years. I now have a rogue project
"Amicable Numbers."  I have no account for this project that I can
close.It ignores all the speed limitations in the BOINC client, and
slows my computer down.  The "remove" button is grayed out, but it
is one of two, probably because it is current, although suspended.
From its Project Page, it is not managed by a University, but by an
individual whose given name is Sergei.

Has anybody heard of this project?  It uses an independent Forum,
and there was some delay in the activation details reaching me.

Doug.

I would run KSysGuard to find whatever resources it is using
then find and rename those resources. Then if it exists\ as a file
with the same name remove it. It is doing dirty work for Sergei.

The theory behind amicable numbers can be found here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amicable_numbers

Or at least, that's the legitimate use of the term. But for all we
know, that project is simply mining Bitcoins. After all, to those
seeking to mine digital currency by employing other people's computers
to do the work, the numbers would certainly be very amicable. :p

It claims to be the genuine one, which it describes. There ids another number-crunching project, but that one is run by Arizona State
University. Clamav gives no alert. Bitcoin mining didn't occur to me,
but I have one filesystem checker (I have forgotten which) that looks specifically for mining.

UPDATE: The "Project" has disappeared, but instead BOINC is running
"acemd3" which isn't a project at all. The Web says that acemd3 is a
program, somehow connected to the company that provides the Project's forum.

[OT] This afternoon, the whole of my state, Victoria, has been put into
the most restrictive lockdown, Stage 4, from midnight tonight for 5
days. We have lived through Stage 4 once. The Australian Open tennis,
a Grand Slam event, has been affected. It may continue without
spectators (we did that for the football); I missed that part of the discussion.

Politically, this is the second time our Premier has given such short
notice, and unlike the first, the circumstances for this one have been
known for a few days. The Premier is already under fire by his own party.

Doug.

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On 12/2/21 6:20 pm, Doug Laidlaw wrote:

The theory behind amicable numbers can be found here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amicable_numbers

Or at least, that's the legitimate use of the term.  But for all we
know, that project is simply mining Bitcoins.  After all, to those
seeking to mine digital currency by employing other people's computers
to do the work, the numbers would certainly be very amicable. :p

It claims to be the genuine one, which it describes.  There ids another number-crunching project, but that one is run by Arizona State
University.  Clamav gives no alert.  Bitcoin mining didn't occur to me, but I have one filesystem checker (I have forgotten which) that looks specifically for mining.

UPDATE: The "Project" has disappeared, but instead BOINC is running
"acemd3" which isn't a project at all. The Web says that acemd3 is a program, somehow connected to the company that provides the Project's
forum.

acemd3 is a project intended to use GUI processors. It is one of two
projects under one flag.

Today, within the last hour, a jigsaw that I had about 80% finished was
reset to about 10% for the second time. Something weird is going on. It
looks as though I need to format everything. About viruses for Linux, I
came across this page, which makes interesting reading, if nothing else.:

https://www.unixmen.com/meet-linux-viruses/

It lists 13 viruses/worms, the unlucky number, but their frequency is low.

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.21 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: Aioe.org NNTP Server (2:250/1@fidonet)

On Sun, 14 Feb 2021 00:13:23 +1100, Doug Laidlaw wrote:

Today, within the last hour, a jigsaw that I had about 80% finished was
reset to about 10% for the second time. Something weird is going on. It looks as though I need to format everything. About viruses for Linux, I
came across this page, which makes interesting reading, if nothing else.:

https://www.unixmen.com/meet-linux-viruses/
It lists 13 viruses/worms, the unlucky number, but their frequency is low.

And 2010 is the youngest/latest malware on that link, which makes the malware exploit useless since any exploit is usually fixed, tested and released
within a week.


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* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)

On 14/2/21 12:13 am, Doug Laidlaw wrote:

Today, within the last hour, a jigsaw that I had about 80% finished was reset to about 10% for the second time. Something weird is going on.  It looks as though I need to format everything.  About viruses for Linux, I came across this page, which makes interesting reading, if nothing else.:

https://www.unixmen.com/meet-linux-viruses/

It lists 13 viruses/worms, the unlucky number, but their frequency is low.

I have noticed recently that the numberlock is not always on after
reboots. I could be unknowingly bumping it off but I can't be sure.

It is not the thing you notice until the keypad fails
I haven't done any extensive checking and numberlock is set to be on.

I do wonder if it is similar to your jigsaw
--
faeychild
Running plasmashell 5.15.4 on 5.10.8-desktop-2.mga7 kernel.
Mageia release 7 (Official) for x86_64 installed via Mageia-7-x86_64-DVD.iso


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On 14/2/21 7:56 am, Bit Twister wrote:

And 2010 is the youngest/latest malware on that link, which makes the malware exploit useless since any exploit is usually fixed, tested and released within a week.

A valid point. I used a similar argument in a completely different
context recently. The latest entry in the acemd3 Forum is for 2020,
which suggests no problems since. I have the RC of 8 running on a
different partition. Trying to repeat the fault there may help (or it
may not.)

[BTW] Some years ago, a friend caught a Windows virus before a fix was available. He argued that there should already be a fix, and changed
his antivirus program. I replied that he had been unlucky; just like a
real virus, the companies need to catch a sample of the virus before
they can develop a fix for it.

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.21 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: Aioe.org NNTP Server (2:250/1@fidonet)

On Sat, 13 Feb 2021 22:03:11 -0500, Doug Laidlaw <laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> wrote:

[BTW] Some years ago, a friend caught a Windows virus before a fix was available. He argued that there should already be a fix, and changed
his antivirus program. I replied that he had been unlucky; just like a
real virus, the companies need to catch a sample of the virus before
they can develop a fix for it.

I was normally very careful with downloads, shared disks, etc. During a period when faulty new hard drives were more common than usual, I let the store I was buying a new hard drive demonstrate that it was good in one of their systems.

As it was faster and larger then my existing drive, I later made it my boot drive.
Turned out it had the ripper mbr virus installed to it during the demo. While I had deleted the partitions before copying my stuff to it, I didn't replace the mbr boot code, so my system became infected. As it was a stealth virus, the only
way I found out a month or so later about the infection was when it altered a program I'd written that checked itself using an md5 signature before running.

Then I ran a virus scan from a read only floppy I had created months prior, that
found, identified, and removed the infection. As there was no way to know for sure
which files had been altered, also had to reinstall dos and windows.

That was the only time I had one of my systems infected. Didn't think to scan a "new" hard drive before using it.

The ripper virus would periodically read/write a sectors on disk swapping two bytes, and infect the mbr of all writeable hard disks and floppy discs.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--
Change dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org to davidwhodgins@teksavvy.com for
email replies.

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