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AnalProbe · 01-28-2004, 09:48 AM

A new malicious computer program continued to spread rapidly throughout the Internet yesterday, swamping e-mail message in-boxes and crashing corporate computer servers in what some computer security experts are predicting may become one of the largest outbreaks of a computer virus.

The viruslike program, called a worm and known as Mydoom and Norvag, among other names, is proliferating through e-mail attachments and file-sharing services.

"It's the biggest e-mail outbreak we've had," said Mikko H. Hypponen, director for antivirus research at F-Secure, a computer security company in Helsinki, Finland. Yesterday afternoon, he estimated that nearly 20 percent of all e-mail traffic in the world was created by Mydoom.

Several security experts said there were no apparent clues in the worm's code to indicate its origins.

While the replication of Mydoom had not slowed general Internet response time, several security analysts said, some servers were collapsing under the deluge of mail or were being forced offline, disconnecting corporations and personal computer users from the Internet.

Mydoom, which first appeared on Monday afternoon, is spread as an attachment to seemingly harmless e-mail messages that may carry plausible subject lines like "hello" and "Mail Transaction Failed." Recipients who click on the attachment will release Mydoom into their computers, where it installs a so-called backdoor that allows hackers access to the hard drive. In addition, the worm trawls the infected computer's files searching for e-mail addresses to which it will, in turn, send itself as an attachment in e-mail messages.

Security analysts say they think the purpose of Mydoom is to install a command in infected computers to send a flood of requests for information to the Web site of the SCO Group, which owns licensing rights to the Unix operating system, a competitor of Microsoft Windows.

Unless an infected computer is immediately cleaned of Mydoom, the worm will instruct the computer to connect to the SCO Group's Web site beginning Feb. 1. The cumulative effect of the worldwide barrage, which is intended to last until Feb. 12, could be to shut the site down.

The SCO Group has run afoul of many computer users because it contends that the free, open source Linux operating system, a variant of Unix, violates the company's license and copyright. Linux users and fans deny that and say the company's rights are not as broad as SCO says.

Last year, the SCO Group began a campaign to collect fees from the companies that support and use Linux. The SCO Group first sued I.B.M., a corporate champion of Linux, accusing it of illegally contributing Unix code to Linux. I.B.M. has denied the accusations.

The SCO Group offered a reward of $250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for creating Mydoom.

Darl C. McBride, chief executive of SCO, said Mydoom is the fourth attempted denial-of-service attack against the company in 10 months, and provides a window into what he called "the darker side of the Linux community we've been fighting."

"This is obviously by far the largest-scale attack we've seen come against us," he said in an interview.

01-28-2004, 09:48 AM
AnalProbe pain in the Ass Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 3,727	New viruses, watch out ! A new malicious computer program continued to spread rapidly throughout the Internet yesterday, swamping e-mail message in-boxes and crashing corporate computer servers in what some computer security experts are predicting may become one of the largest outbreaks of a computer virus. The viruslike program, called a worm and known as Mydoom and Norvag, among other names, is proliferating through e-mail attachments and file-sharing services. "It's the biggest e-mail outbreak we've had," said Mikko H. Hypponen, director for antivirus research at F-Secure, a computer security company in Helsinki, Finland. Yesterday afternoon, he estimated that nearly 20 percent of all e-mail traffic in the world was created by Mydoom. Several security experts said there were no apparent clues in the worm's code to indicate its origins. While the replication of Mydoom had not slowed general Internet response time, several security analysts said, some servers were collapsing under the deluge of mail or were being forced offline, disconnecting corporations and personal computer users from the Internet. Mydoom, which first appeared on Monday afternoon, is spread as an attachment to seemingly harmless e-mail messages that may carry plausible subject lines like "hello" and "Mail Transaction Failed." Recipients who click on the attachment will release Mydoom into their computers, where it installs a so-called backdoor that allows hackers access to the hard drive. In addition, the worm trawls the infected computer's files searching for e-mail addresses to which it will, in turn, send itself as an attachment in e-mail messages. Security analysts say they think the purpose of Mydoom is to install a command in infected computers to send a flood of requests for information to the Web site of the SCO Group, which owns licensing rights to the Unix operating system, a competitor of Microsoft Windows. Unless an infected computer is immediately cleaned of Mydoom, the worm will instruct the computer to connect to the SCO Group's Web site beginning Feb. 1. The cumulative effect of the worldwide barrage, which is intended to last until Feb. 12, could be to shut the site down. The SCO Group has run afoul of many computer users because it contends that the free, open source Linux operating system, a variant of Unix, violates the company's license and copyright. Linux users and fans deny that and say the company's rights are not as broad as SCO says. Last year, the SCO Group began a campaign to collect fees from the companies that support and use Linux. The SCO Group first sued I.B.M., a corporate champion of Linux, accusing it of illegally contributing Unix code to Linux. I.B.M. has denied the accusations. The SCO Group offered a reward of $250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for creating Mydoom. Darl C. McBride, chief executive of SCO, said Mydoom is the fourth attempted denial-of-service attack against the company in 10 months, and provides a window into what he called "the darker side of the Linux community we've been fighting." "This is obviously by far the largest-scale attack we've seen come against us," he said in an interview.