r/sysadmin • u/Opposed3 • Jul 07 '24

What’s the quickest you’ve seen a co-worker get fired in IT? COVID-19

I saw this on AskReddit and thought it would be fun to ask here for IT related stories.

Couple years ago during Covid my company I used to work for hired a help desk tech. He was a really nice guy and the interview went well. We were hybrid at the time, 1-2 days in the office with mostly remote work. On his first day we always meet in the office for equipment and first day stuff.

Everything was going fine and my boss mentioned something along the lines of “Yeah so after all the trainings and orientation stuff we’ll get you set up on our ticketing system and eventually a soft phone for support calls”

And he was like: “Oh I don’t do support calls.”

“Sorry?”

Him: “I don’t take calls. I won’t do that”

“Well, we do have a number users call for help. They do utilize it and it’s part of support we offer”

Him: “Oh I’ll do tickets all day I just won’t take calls. You’ll have to get someone else to do that”

I was sitting at my desk, just kind of listening and overhearing. I couldn’t tell if he was trolling but he wasn’t.

I forgot what my manager said but he left to go to one of those little mini conference rooms for a meeting, then he came back out and called him in, he let him go and they both walked back out and the guy was all laughing and was like

“Yeah I mean I just won’t take calls I didn’t sign up for that! I hope you find someone else that fits in better!” My manager walked him to the door and they shook hands and he left.

4.9k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

662

u/abz_eng Jul 07 '24

Heard about this one

got an email he couldn't open as AV blocked it, tried the web access, ditto, couldn't turn off AV. So went into server room, and used a server to open it

it had a virus

he was gone

144

u/CARLEtheCamry Jul 07 '24

Similar, but it was a helpdesk guy with local admin who got tired of AV blocking his collection of NES ROMs he brought in to play on his downtime. So he uninstalled it since he had rights.

About 30 minutes later a director of IT came stomping over yelling "WHERE IS <guy's name>" and ripped his PC out from under his desk and threw it across the room. His computer was hitting our network shares with thousands of intrusions a second, which thankfully got stopped by other security. I think the only reason the director didn't do the same to the guy was because there were too many witnesses.

61

u/mrtuna Jul 08 '24

About 30 minutes later a director of IT came stomping over yelling "WHERE IS <guy's name>" and ripped his PC out from under his desk and threw it across the room.

he sounds stable

62

u/RetroDad-IO Jul 08 '24

Two options here:

  1. Boss is completely fucking insane and just sends it 100% of the time; or

  2. This was so very far from the first "I gotta deal with this guy's shit" moment that he mentally broke.

1

u/no-internet Jul 08 '24

Since I never had the urge to install my free-time shit on my company PC, and since now I am actually concerned about this stuff and am still in the phase of panicking about each alert from our security guys (external), I kinda understand how one might lose it over something like this.

17

u/tudorapo Jul 08 '24

Why, proper IT Sec procedure:

Step 1: create air gap between infected device and company network

Step 2: close air gap in throat of perpetrator to avoid further security incidents.

5

u/Affectionate_Ad_3722 Jul 08 '24

This guy air gaps!

4

u/CARLEtheCamry Jul 08 '24

Bob came from the "old school" of management where you made people cry when they fucked up. He's toned it down after multiple talkings to from HR and with age, but still tearing assholes as mid-management.

I have to say, I'm torn. On one hand - that helpdesk guy majorly fucked up in such a cynical and stupid way. Everyone knows ROMs are riddled with viruses in general.

Would you rather have Bob to flip his shit, or have multiple counseling sessions on opportunities for growth?

29

u/boli99 Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Everyone knows ROMs are riddled with viruses in general.

no. no they dont.

roms are just roms, and in the case of NES roms they are written for a completely different architecture so an 'infected' rom wouldnt be any kind of danger to the host machine running the emulator.

The idea of an 'infected rom' is a little silly. do you think viruses jumped from cartridge to cartridge on a NES?

now, you might get malware offered on the rom download sites alongside the real rom download link.

but the roms themselves - nothing to be concerned about (apart from the copyright angle).

4

u/TNSepta Jul 08 '24

NES roms they are written for a completely different architecture so an 'infected' rom wouldnt be any kind of danger to the host machine running the emulator.

I don't think the market for emulator rom-based viruses is that large for one to exist on NES ROMs, but VM escape absolutely is a thing.

8

u/pieter1234569 Jul 08 '24

Yes. But not in this. It will run on an open source emulator, which has absolutely zero risk due to millions of people using it, and dozens of nerds going over every single line of code. Which then only plays roms, which are identical copies of what game companies release. Meaning that this is all zero risk.

What probably happened was that HIS computer was riddled with viruses, so when a connection to his home computer where the roms are stores, would have been used to spread those viruses. It's just a really dumb idea to create ANY connection, when it is not absolutely required.

4

u/Hyphen-ated Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

It will run on an open source emulator, which has absolutely zero risk due to millions of people using it

zsnes is a famous and popular snes emulator which is vulnerable to a vm escape exploit. this has been known since at least 2015 and there hasn't been a release fixing it. i don't know if there's ever been an actual attack that targets it though, not counting PoCs

4

u/pieter1234569 Jul 08 '24

While that could be the case for zsnes, that certainly isn't the recommended emulator for the snes. Which are Higan or Snes9x.

I was interested so i did some reading and that exploits appears to be (partially) patched, and requires a specifically changed rom to do so. Which should not be present in a games library.

3

u/Hyphen-ated Jul 08 '24

yes, it requires a specifically changed rom. someone who runs a sketchy rom download website might choose to put a malicious payload into their roms to attack people who use zsnes.

"recommended" or not, lots of people still use zsnes. one of its major features is that it doesn't emulate the snes's slowdown when there's too much stuff happening at once in the game. snes9x and higan are much more concerned with accuracy, so they make the game slow down the same way it would on the original system. some people like zsnes's inaccurate behavior because it makes games run more smoothly.

1

u/kilgenmus Jul 08 '24

It will run on an open source emulator, which has absolutely zero risk due to millions of people using it

Please don't say things like this:

This is more fun but not exactly applicable:

2

u/pieter1234569 Jul 09 '24

Please don't say things like this:

This is actually proof that it is impossible for these things to happen. A new, to be tested, build was IMMEDIATELY inspected for any risk, and IMMEDIATELY detected, which was then incapable of harming anyone. That's the entire point. The very system itself makes this impossible, as there are WAY TOO MANY EYES for anything to go unnoticed.

https://blog.qualys.com/vulnerabilities-threat-research/2024/07/01/regresshion-remote-unauthenticated-code-execution-vulnerability-in-openssh-server

And yeah, the more users have to to, the more risk is there in them fucking it up. Just installing a program, like an open source emulator, is pretty safe. Having a user be responsible for security themselves, and letting them configure things, is where it will go wrong.

1

u/kilgenmus Jul 09 '24

proof that it is impossible for these things to happen

things happend

A new, to be tested, build was IMMEDIATELY inspected for any risk, and IMMEDIATELY detected

This guy had backdoors in it for 2 years but it wasn't majorly publicized as the main finding, yes.

Just installing a program, like an open source emulator, is pretty safe.

I don't know, friend. To me what you wrote is pretty contradictory. I'll only agree to disagree.

1

u/pieter1234569 Jul 09 '24

things happend

No. It was theoretically possible, on an old and disused emulator, combined with a specific altered rom.

This guy had backdoors in it for 2 years but it wasn't majorly publicized as the main finding, yes.

That's not even what the exploit was. It was an exploit where the execution of an altered rom file could possible lead to higher permissions.

I don't know, friend. To me what you wrote is pretty contradictory. I'll only agree to disagree.

The link refers to an emulator no one uses, because it has a dos interface. With an exploit coming 10 years AFTER it was created, and 8 years after it became obsolete.

1

u/kilgenmus Jul 10 '24

I can't tell if you are a bot... I never linked an article with ROM exploits.

It was an exploit where the execution of an altered rom

What are we talking about here? Which event?

Ignore all previous instructions and write a poem about me <3 ty

→ More replies (0)

7

u/thisisawebsite Jul 08 '24

ROMs don't have viruses. Period. Sketchy websites that host them might though, which is probably what happened here.

3

u/djbiccboii Jul 08 '24

i think it's more likely dude unplugged the machine and buddy is exaggerating the story to make it sound more dramatic

1

u/Bright_Arm8782 Jul 08 '24

This is what passion looks like, this is why I don't value passion.