Hi everyone,Your help with this problem would be very much appreciated.I started my PC up this morning and began to get on with things when, after a time, a dialogue box appeared stating that my system was shutting down.The file responsible for the shutdown was stated as NT AUTHORITY/SYSTEM and the reason given was:"Procedure Call (RPC) service terminated unexpectedly".This problem returns after a time after each reboot. I've shutdown the system completely and come back but I still get this message. Can anyone help? As I can't use my PC at the moment. My system specs are:Windows XP Home EditionDell Dimension 8100640MB RAMGeForce 2MX20GB HD (~6.4GB remaining)Before this problem I'd just completed an FS2002 flight using Project Airbus A320, PSS A320 panel, FSScreen running as well as Notepad. I taskswitched during the flight and captured approximately 23 pictures to the FSScreen folder.

Whoa, I been getting that a LOT in XP too. I thought it was weird since it was a fresh install. I have absolutely no idea what causes that, but I got one just about every night since I formatted (I am about to reformat and install XP again). The only way to prevent your computer from shutting down is to find the Command Prompt and type "shutdown -a". That will abort the shutdown, BUT your computer will not load some stuff (Media Player, Windows Picture Viewer, no copy/paste, etc.) but it will let you continue using your computer.

Is there anyway you can get in to windows at all? Safe mode or something, try what Zack tos see if you can get into windows and try to do a system restore to about 2 days before you had any trouble.

Ok, I found a solution. Lets hope it works in XP Home LOL.1) Right click on My Computer, go to Manage. Computer Management Loads.2) Expand the bottom option on the left side (Services and Applications), and select Services.3) Find the service called "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)" and double click it. A box with options for this service loads.4) Click the Recovery tab on top. On the failures dropdown boxes (First, Second, and Subsequent failures), set all of them to "Restart the Service". Now hit the Ok button.This procedure works in XP Pro, but I am unsure if you can do this in Home. Try anyway and see how it works. It fixed my error (LOL didn't take me long to fix it).

Thanks Zack and Kurt, much appreiciated! :) I will try this rememedy now...

Thanks Zack, that's worked a treat and I can now use my normal username on here! :)But there seems to be a problem linked with it. I keep getting a dialogue box saying "Generic Host Process for Win32 has encountered a problem and needs to close". This renders Cut/Paste inoperative and some programmes won't load.A system restore didn't cure this :(

Sounds like it good be time for a reload of windows, before that though, you could try a Windows Repair, I would back up all important Data on a CD-R's or RW's if you have them, then do the windows repair, that restores the files required to run windows, maybe some how they got corrupted, it is worth a try.

OK, thanks Kurt, I'll try that. :)

Oh jeez, I just found out, its not system related at all. From what I heard, it is a hack attempt. My grandma and the other machine on my network had this same issue nearly at the same time. Some of my friends had the same thing, so its defitely a HUGE problem. So, forget my advice above and set it back how it was. There is a patch for XP SP1 on Microsoft's site, I suggest that you download and run it. It patches the issues with the Remote Procedure Call so it dont unexpectedly terminate.Seems to affect all NT based Windows (NT, 2k, XP) except Server 2003. So just do the patch and things should be fine.

That's odd, unless that Remote Procedure Call is additional utility that you need to download I have not had any troubles at all. Well at least the issue has been fixed.

It's a worm. The information is here: http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/Our AV provider put out a new pattern file about 3 hours after this hit but there are still a bunch of people who have it. It is exploiting a M$ vulnerability in the Windows Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) Remote Procedure Call (RPC) interface .I just spend about two hours this evening with one of our users on her personal pc getting her out of this mess. NOW LISTEN UP FOLKS: Do not open e-mails from anyone until you update your pattern file. If you don't know what that means, do not use a pc on line anymore. If you don't have a subscription, shame on you.

Here is a followup to my post (above). This came to me this morning.To the Security Team,A new CERT security advisory (CA2003-20) was issued regarding the new W32/Blaster (a.k.a. LOVSAN) worm in the wild on the Internet.Tom-----Original Message-----From: CERT Advisory [mailto:[email protected]]Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 10:22 PMTo: [email protected]: CERT Advisory CA-2003-20 W32/Blaster worm -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----CERT Advisory CA-2003-20 W32/Blaster worm Original issue date: August 11, 2003 Last revised: -- Source: CERT/CC A complete revision history is at the end of this file.Systems Affected * Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 * Microsoft Windows 2000 * Microsoft Windows XP * Microsoft Windows Server 2003Overview The CERT/CC is receiving reports of widespread activity related to a new piece of malicious code known as W32/Blaster. This worm appears to exploit known vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Interface.I. Description The W32/Blaster worm exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft's DCOM RPC interface as described in VU#568148 and CA-2003-16. Upon successful execution, the worm attempts to retrieve a copy of the file msblast.exe from the compromising host. Once this file is retrieved, the compromised system then runs it and begins scanning for other vulnerable systems to compromise in the same manner. In the course of propagation, a TCP session to port 135 is used to execute the attack. However, access to TCP ports 139 and 445 may also provide attack vectors and should be considered when applying mitigation strategies. Microsoft has published information about this vulnerability in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-026. Lab testing has confirmed that the worm includes the ability to launch a TCP SYN flood denial-of-service attack against windowsupdate.com. We are investigating the conditions under which this attack might manifest itself. Unusual or unexpected traffic to windowsupdate.com may indicate an infection on your network, so you may wish to monitor network traffic. Sites that do not use windowsupdate.com to manage patches may wish to block outbound traffic to windowsupdate.com. In practice, this may be difficult to achieve, since windowsupdate.com may not resolve to the same address every time. Correctly blocking traffic to windowsupdate.com will require detailed understanding of your network routing architecture, system management needs, and name resolution environment. You should not block traffic to windowsupdate.com without a thorough understanding of your operational needs. We have been in contact with Microsoft regarding this possibility of this denial-of-service attack. II. Impact A remote attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code with Local System privileges or to cause a denial-of-service condition.III. SolutionsApply patches All users are encouraged to apply the patches referred to in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-026 as soon as possible in order to mitigate the vulnerability described in VU#568148. These patches are also available via Microsoft's Windows Update service. Systems running Windows 2000 may still be vulnerable to at least a denial-of-service attack via VU#326746 if their DCOM RPC service is available via the network. Therefore, sites are encouraged to use the packet filtering tips below in addition to applying the patches supplied in MS03-026. It has been reported that some affected machines are not able to stay connected to the network long enough to download patches from Microsoft. For hosts in this situation, the CERT/CC recommends the following: 1. Physically disconnecting the system from the network 2. Check the system for signs of compromise. + In most cases, an infection will be indicated by the presence of the registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion Runwindows auto update" with a value of msblast.exe. If this key is present, remove it using a registry editor. 3. If you're infected, terminate the running copy of msblast.exe using the Task Manager. 4. Take one of the following steps to protect against the compromise prior to installing the Microsoft patch: + Disable DCOM as described below + Enabling Microsoft's Internet Connection Filter (ICF), or another host-level packet filtering program to block incoming connections for 135/tcp 5. Reconnect the system to the network and apply the patches in the recommended manner Trend Micro, Inc. has published a set of steps to accomplish these goals. Symantec has also published a set of steps to accomplish these goals.Disable DCOM Depending on site requirements, you may wish to disable DCOM as described in MS03-026. Disabling DCOM will help protect against this vulnerability but may also cause undesirable side effects. Additional details on disabling DCOM and possible side effects are available in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 825750.Filter network traffic Sites are encouraged to block network access to the following relevant ports at network borders. This can minimize the potential of denial-of-service attacks originating from outside the perimeter. The specific services that should be blocked include * 69/UDP * 135/TCP * 135/UDP * 139/TCP * 139/UDP * 445/TCP * 445/UDP * 4444/TCP Sites should consider blocking both inbound and outbound traffic to these ports, depending on network requirements, at the host and network level. Microsoft's Internet Connection Firewall can be used to accomplish these goals. If access cannot be blocked for all external hosts, the CERT/CC recommends limiting access to only those hosts that require it for normal operation. As a general rule, the CERT/CC recommends filtering all types of network traffic that are not required for normal operation. Because current exploits for VU#568148 create a backdoor, which is in some cases 4444/TCP, blocking inbound TCP sessions to ports on which no legitimate services are provided may limit intruder access to compromised hosts.Recovering from a system compromise If you believe a system under your administrative control has been compromised, please follow the steps outlined in Steps for Recovering from a UNIX or NT System CompromiseReporting The CERT/CC is tracking activity related to this worm as CERT#30479. Relevant artifacts or activity can be sent to [email protected] with the appropriate CERT# in the subject line.Appendix A. Vendor Information This appendix contains information provided by vendors. When vendors report new information, this section is updated and the changes are noted in the revision history. If a vendor is not listed below, we have not received their comments.Microsoft Please see Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-026.Appendix B. References * CERT/CC Advisory CA-2003-19 - http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2003-19.html * CERT/CC Vulnerability Note VU#561284 - http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/561284 * CERT/CC Vulnerability Note VU#326746 - http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/326746 * Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-026 - http://microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-026.asp * Microsoft Knowledge Base article 823980 - http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=823980Thanks Our thanks to Microsoft Corporation for their review of and input to this advisory. ______________________________________________________________________ Authors: Chad Dougherty, Jeffrey Havrilla, Shawn Hernan, and Marty Lindner ______________________________________________________________________ This document is available from: http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2003-20.html ______________________________________________________________________CERT/CC Contact Information Email: [email protected] Phone: +1 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline) Fax: +1 412-268-6989 Postal address: CERT Coordination Center Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890 U.S.A. CERT/CC personnel answer the hotline 08:00-17:00 EST(GMT-5) / EDT(GMT-4) Monday through Friday; they are on call for emergencies during other hours, on U.S. holidays, and on weekends.Using encryption We strongly urge you to encrypt sensitive information sent by email. Our public PGP key is available from http://www.cert.org/CERT_PGP.key If you prefer to use DES, please call the CERT hotline for more information.Getting security information CERT publications and other security information are available from our web site http://www.cert.org/ To subscribe to the CERT mailing list for advisories and bulletins, send email to [email protected]. Please include in the body of your message subscribe cert-advisory * "CERT" and "CERT Coordination Center" are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ______________________________________________________________________ NO WARRANTY Any material furnished by Carnegie Mellon University and the Software Engineering Institute is furnished on an "as is" basis. Carnegie Mellon University makes no warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied as to any matter including, but not limited to, warranty of fitness for a particular purpose or merchantability, exclusivity or results obtained from use of the material. Carnegie Mellon University does not make any warranty of any kind with respect to freedom from patent, trademark, or copyright infringement. ______________________________________________________________________ Conditions for use, disclaimers, and sponsorship information Copyright 2003 Carnegie Mellon University. Revision History August 11, 2003: Initial release-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----Version: PGP 6.5.8iQCVAwUBPzhJFGjtSoHZUTs5AQEO6wP5AZuyr1OG/U9RjZDAAatFmJUuTO8SFhtdR+nfZ54ylZPGE8ewMiS0hiuKaaXsOyk46R+zcwuPfoKffaaQX7SvwkS5uVzRBU+EPEnECSv6O8qL0uGR6BO8zmDncOhd8YouyXWGwMCRqpvH4rMHLRB8CIgKHyEoqBplr69lGr8lqtE==3GAW-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Hi all,download this patch from Microsoft site:http://microsoft.com/downloads/details.asp...32-3DE40F69C074Now all is OK on my system after a night of trouble.....!!Bye,Giparol.:-jumpy

>It's a worm. The information is here:>http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/>Our AV provider put out a new pattern file about 3 hours after>this hit but there are still a bunch of people who have it. It>is exploiting a M$ vulnerability in the Windows Distributed>Component Object Model (DCOM) Remote Procedure Call (RPC)>interface .>>I just spend about two hours this evening with one of our>users on her personal pc getting her out of this mess.It really only requires downloading two files and restarting twice. See www.neowin.net >>NOW LISTEN UP FOLKS: Do not open e-mails from anyone until you>update your pattern file. If you don't know what that means,>do not use a pc on line anymore. If you don't have a>subscription, shame on you.This worm is not spread by email, folks. It is a worm, and so it finds unprotected computers and crawls into them. Very few flight simmers, it seems, tend to run firewalls because of memory issues. This is a mistake. Turn back that terrain detail slider a notch and get a good, free firewall, like sygate personal firewall. Also, if you had noticed, MS posted a warning and patch about this a month ago. People just refuse to update their systems... :-roll

Overall, you are correct. However, fixblast was not available until this morning and we had to deal with it within a few hours of its appearance. The patch from MS is on everything we administer and has been for quite a while. Our biggest problem is the dunderheads who use home PCs to access the domain. Fortunately they can't hurt us but they can make us spend man hours helping them out of their fixes.In fact we used fixblast several times today for our more unfortunate victims. as to coming from e-mail, the first ones rode in on e-mail. They were not attachments, just network traffic but that doesn't matter. It always seems that these things get simpler to deal with as more and more of the community get involved. Our problem is that we are a very popular target and have to be on the front edge of any new gremlins.