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Hi,
How does ASP (or VBScript for that matter) work?
Is there a DLL or something in Windows that recognizes such things as Request.Form or Response.Write?
I started wondering about this after the "I Love You" virus was unleashed. How can a simple text file run commands on a computer?
Thanks,
Al.
Hey Al!
ASP is what is known as a Server Side scripting language. This means that it is compiled on the server, and sent to your browser as plain text. If you view the source of an ASP page, it will just look like standard HTML. On the server, it is compiled by asp.dll which does all the cool stuff, then sends the page to your browser.
The virus your talking about was written in VB Script. Which ASP uses, but writing VB Script for Outlook is slightly different than for ASP. Windows uses a dll that contains the ASP Object library (response, request, server, etc..). The virus runs inside of outlook using it's VBScript scripting engine. I will never understand why MS allowed VBScript to just run from an email attachment. It should at least display a warning or something. I usually just use the preview pane which does not run any attachments. They only run if you open the message in it's own window.
VBscript (where the I love you virus is written in) runs by sing "wscript.exe".
You can see it like CGI. Input goes into the exe and the exe gives back some output.
Greetz,
mØrPh
To be more correct, the virus for the Outlook is using Windows Scripting Host DLL. It allows you to right a VBScript even in Notepad and save the file with vbs extension.
%windir%\system32\asp.dll :)