Hey all, please help me. I am new to Linux. I dual boot 10.04_64 and Vista

Problem: My Email Address is spamming


Situation Chronology:
1. I received an email (spam) on Yahoo Mail from someone who was not intending to send it. (While it did go to spam folder, I did 'open' the email (since it came from a trusted sender) but it only contained a link (which because of WOT) I assumed was spam.) I did NOT click the link.

2. I then informed him that his email addy was spamming.

3 Shortly thereafter, i noticed in Ubuntu (firefox) whenever I clicked "reply" to email back to someone, there was a quick flash of letters/numbers in the slot where I would normally write. This instantly disappears and goes blank so I can write something, so I just figured it was a bug.

4 Now some people I wrote to today (after all this) are getting spammed by me

So far: I have 1. Changed my Yahoo password 2. Deleted firefox *which i plan to reinstall 3. In windows Ran Spybot/Search-Destory AVG (turns up nothing) What else can I do? Anything I should do with Linux? Please help.

You have a yahoo mail account, it could be something done with yahoo or if on your computer a cookie that is set or a temp file that is a script, binary infections are not usually (read I don't know of any) multi-platform. Try clearing all temp Internet files and deleting all cookies, and everything else you can. But it also could be that they are spoofing your email addy. On Windows try using Malwarebytes, see if that catches anything. You might also try a whole disk scan, not a smart/quick scan. For linux you can run a free online AV scanner at like kaspersky or another site they have them out there.

Scheidel, Yup it was odd that I noticed this rapid "flickering" of text in my reply box in yahoo mail in both OSs. I will try Malwarebytes for windows. Any other suggestion?
Thanks

afraid I've given you all the suggestions I can think of, if I come up with anymore I'll be sure to let you know.

It sounds like the problem is in your yahoo account itself, since it's happening in both linux and windows. Linux is immune to all windows viruses (which comprise 99%+ of all the viruses out there.)

A few suggestions to verify:

1. Try checking / sending e-mail using a different browser in linux (opera's always a good choice.)
2. Try checking / sending e-mail using a different computer entirely - that will determine 100% if the problem is on your end or on Yahoo's.
3. If you have the higher-end e-mail with Yahoo that allows smtp/imap/pop, set up a mail client (Thunderbird, Kmail, whatever) on your local system. That will take the "something in your browser" issue out of the picture.

That all said, again, if it's happening on multiple partitions and different OS's, that implies that the problem is in your Yahoo account itself, not your local machine.

Hope that helps!

Guys thanks for your help. Very odd problem indeed. In fact it is only, the spam, being sent to people that I currently email. So clearly there is something going on where it is using my current emails (as contacts? or in the email itself).

Note: I have run Malwarebytes in Vista = no problems
I have run Rkhunter in Ubuntu no problem (except warning in Sudo, but that may be becuase i changed my timeout time )

If you are using yahoo email through a browser, and spam-sending is a problem both with windows and linux, I suggest the problem lies either with your www-browser, or (maybe more likely) your yahoo account.

I'd suggest you contact yahoo. Mention windows first, wait for advice, and if it is hopeless (like "reinstall windows"), then you can always say "but it also happens when I am running linux". Then wait for further advice (maybe none).

Meanwhile, some things to think about and test:

You only read the suspicious email once, right?
Which OS were you using when you read it first?
Did you read it again in your other OS?

What happens if you boot from a "Live CD", open a browser, and connect to yahoo? Do you have the same problem ("I noticed this rapid "flickering" of text in my reply box in yahoo mail" ) ?

If so then the fault is likely with yahoo (because a live CD is the equivalent of a clean install).

If not, then look locally (browser script?).

What happens if you use a different browser (konqueror, opera, there are many) to access your yahoo email?

Please re-read the above, and then start experimenting. I think that you can find which part of your system has been compromised, or maybe you will confidently be able to place the blame (with evidence) on your yahoo account.

You need to be methodical in your approach to isolating where the problem lies: Don't just "try stuff at random". Keep notes.

Tredegar, I have to thank you for your assuring pace and your methodical approach. It is easy to work one's self into a frenzy re security. For the others following this thread let me at least answer 3 of your questions/tests. Following this, I will go through the set of suggestions you have made and check back in upon completions of these steps.
Q1. You only read the suspicious email once, right?
Q2. Which OS were you using when you read it first?
Q3.Did you read it again in your other OS?

A1. Unsure would be the most conservative answer. I would guess yes
A2. Vista
A3. Unsure (see 1)
Note: the spam was sent at the time I was using Ubuntu, and note that the first time I ever sent something to that person's inbox was in THAT ubuntu session. That is to say that they were not in my contacts.

This may be obvious, but have you changed your Yahoo password since then?

Bratmon, Indeed

1. pop into your nearest internet cafe and try from there; that will definitely show whether the problem is at home or at yahoo.

2. what EXACTLY do you mean by spamming? If an email bot has got your contacts list, it'll be able to send to them whilst faking that it comes from you ie it doesn't have to be running on your system or yahoo at all ........

1. I have not noticed the "reply" screen blinking with text (as referenced in original post) from other computers
2. to be precise:
A. On Vista I was corresponding for the first time with person A via email. (he is/was not on my contact list)
B. Noticed in my spambox an email from A
C. I opened email entitled "Yahoo!auto reply" which contained a link
D. I did NOT click the link
E. On Ubuntu later that day I was corresponding with someone for the first time (again via yahoo email), B, who also is not on my contact list who then asked me if I was spamming them (as they were getting weird emails from me which I had not sent).
Note: nothing odd in my outbox/signatures etc.