New Internet Worm Detected
NU Online News Service, June 3, 2:52 p.m. EDT?Russia-based Kaspersky Labs in Moscow said it has detected a potentially dangerous new Internet worm, Plexus.a, which spreads via infected e-mail attachments, file-sharing networks and vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows.[@@]
A worm is a virus that replicates itself by sending itself out to other computers, using the computer systems of its victims. Kaspersky said a detailed analysis of the code confirms that the virus author used Mydoom source code as a foundation.
W32.Mydoom.A@mm (also known as W32.Novarg.A) is a well-publicized mass-mailing worm that appeared earlier this year. The new worm's payload also includes attempts to prevent downloads of anti-virus database updates.
Plexus.a masquerades as various distributives for popular applications and penetrates systems via local area networks and file-sharing networks, said Kaspersky. A significant number of infections have occurred via "well-known Windows vulnerabilities," the virus software maker added.
"Plexus chooses from 5 e-mail messages to baffle users," Kaspersky noted. "Each message has a different header, body and attachment name. The only characteristic which does not change is the file size: 16208 bytes when compressed with FSG and 57856 when uncompressed."
Upon execution, Plexus.a copies itself to the Windows system registry under the name upu.exe, said Kaspersky. Plexus also sends copies of itself to all e-mail addresses it has harvested from local disks.
According to Kaspersky, the worm "threatens systems worldwide. The worm?makes it possible for files to be remotely uploaded to and from the victim machine. The open port leaves the victim machine vulnerable to further attacks."
Kaspersky Labs has released an urgent update to the anti-virus databases. More information is available at www.kaspersky.com.
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