I was asked something similar years ago. He said "I open a website in my browser, turn around and talk to my wife, and when I turn back the page has changed, what could have happened?"
I thought he was looking for something specific, so I started guessing, and it started making me angry, and I'm usually pretty grounded. It ended with me saying "I don't know what you're fishing for, I've given you like 8 possibilities already."
But he was a really good interviewer - unfortunately I was too inexperienced to appreciate it.
The browser was an unpatched IE 6 with a litany of vulnerabilities including one that allowed ActiveX controls full system access with admin rights. There happened to be an embedded ActiveX control in the page you opened that downloaded an exe and launched it. The exe then went through the file system looking for adult content on the machine, generated an html page containing all of that content, and launched the page in the default browser: IE 6.
My experience was part of what, in hindsight, was still a really bad interview. The person who asked me that question was a manager basically reading off a sheet of questions and the next step was with a dev who's only real concern was whether I'd "annoy" them once I got the job.
I'm sitting here just shaking my head at the memory.
I once offended an HR manager, by asking them "are you gonna ask me about the principles of OOP?", and apparently he was, because he was shocked and told me why shouldn't he, and I said "You invited me to a Senior PHP Developer position, surely I would know the OOP principles by now!".
Well, I didn't mean to offend them, and might have come as arrogant to them for saying what I said... Oh well...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
I was asked something similar years ago. He said "I open a website in my browser, turn around and talk to my wife, and when I turn back the page has changed, what could have happened?"
I thought he was looking for something specific, so I started guessing, and it started making me angry, and I'm usually pretty grounded. It ended with me saying "I don't know what you're fishing for, I've given you like 8 possibilities already."
But he was a really good interviewer - unfortunately I was too inexperienced to appreciate it.
The browser was an unpatched IE 6 with a litany of vulnerabilities including one that allowed ActiveX controls full system access with admin rights. There happened to be an embedded ActiveX control in the page you opened that downloaded an exe and launched it. The exe then went through the file system looking for adult content on the machine, generated an html page containing all of that content, and launched the page in the default browser: IE 6.
Lol, I did not think of that one.
My experience was part of what, in hindsight, was still a really bad interview. The person who asked me that question was a manager basically reading off a sheet of questions and the next step was with a dev who's only real concern was whether I'd "annoy" them once I got the job.
I'm sitting here just shaking my head at the memory.
I once offended an HR manager, by asking them "are you gonna ask me about the principles of OOP?", and apparently he was, because he was shocked and told me why shouldn't he, and I said "You invited me to a Senior PHP Developer position, surely I would know the OOP principles by now!".
Well, I didn't mean to offend them, and might have come as arrogant to them for saying what I said... Oh well...