New worm spreading via Skype
Multilingual malware posing as porn in chat messages.
VoIP and chat system Skype has been targeted by another worm, sending chat messages to harvested contacts
posing as links to pornographic images, which in fact download and install copies of the worm. The new malware
has been variously dubbed 'Pykspa.D', 'Skipi.A', 'Ramex.a' and 'Pykse.b'.
The fake messages, which are as likely to come from known contacts as from strangers, can contain text in a wide range
of languages selected by the worm based on the sender's system locale settings, which hint that the linked erotic
images may be of interest to the recipient. Following the link brings up a 'soap bubble' screensaver, and installs
the worm.
Once a system is infected, the worm attempts to disable a range of security software, and adjusts the Windows
hosts file to prevent access to security updates and advice. It harvests further addresses from the local contacts
list and continues spreading itself across the Skype network.
The worm, a variant of a previous Skype worm seen in April, is
currently thought to be spreading at fairly low levels, and requires user interaction to accept and run the
malware. Users are reminded to exercise caution online and to ignore unsolicited messages containing suspect links.
A Skype blog posting with initial details, including manual removal instructions, is
here. Further discussion on
the Symantec blog is
here,
with detailed analysis of the malware
here.
11 September 2007
Tags:
skype, virus, worm.
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