New IM Worm Spreads Rootkits and Trojans to AOL Instant Messenger Users, Creating Sophisticated Botnet
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FOSTER CITY, Calif., Sept. 18  /PRNewswire/ -- Research experts at FaceTime Security Labs(TM), the threat research division of IM and greynet security leader FaceTime Communications, today identified and reported a new worm known as W32.pipeline that is propagating over AOL Instant Messenger.
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Researchers have been working with AOL for weeks to mend a problem with that service's instant messaging client that could allow evildoers to create a self-copying worm attack.
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A new worm that spreads via Microsoft&#39;s instant messaging client began badgering users Monday, several security firms said. Dubbed Funner, the worm propagates by sending itself to all the contacts listed in
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(InfoWorld) - Financially motivatedÂ malwareÂ attacks areÂ on the rise,Â with automated software packages making it easy for unskilled hackers to earn a living by sending out spam, researchers at messaging security vendor Secure Computing say. A malware kit calledÂ MPack,Â released by Russian hackers last December, allows pretty much anyone with $200 to become a master spammer because it is easy to use and exploits vulnerabilities in FireFox, Internet Explorer and Apple's QuickTime, says Dmitri Alperovitch, principal research scientist for Secure Computing. The trend that "kind of defines 2007" is the convergence of traditional e-mail with Web-based attacks, in which message recipients are prompted to click on links to malicious Web sites, rather than to download attachments, Alperovitch says. "Certainly, exploiting Web browser vulnerabilities has been common. We've seen that for a long time," he says. "Now we're seeing that capability being merged with traditional e-mail worms that sort of blanket the Internet." Information-stealing malware now accounts for 10 percent of all threats, up from 8 percent in January, new research from Secure Computing has found. Trojans comprise 63 percent of all newly discoveredÂ malware, up from 58 percent in January. SpywareÂ and phishing are also becoming more problematic as attackers use more targeted attacks to steal personal and financial information. "The barriers to entry into cyber crime have been lowered so much," Alperovitch says. "People are realizing that they can make very serious money with almost no accountability, almost complete anonymity." Quoting the analyst firm Gartner, Secure Computing's researchers say that 75 percent of enterprises will be infected by "undetectable professional-grade malware" by year-end. About 90 percent of all e-mail is malicious, but that figure will rise as the holiday season gets closer, according to Alperovitch. "There's a good chance we'll reach 95 percent, maybe higher, of all e-mails being malicious by the end of the year," he says. As the storm worm showed, the automation of online attacks is allowing the creation of more botnets, he says. E-mail delivery mechanisms are also being optimized to bypass spam filters. Unfortunately, many Web surfers are far too trusting. "If you're walking down the street and someone asks you for your Social Security number or your bank account pin, you're not going to give it to them," Alperovitch says. "Yet on the Internet, people freely give them out to anyone who sends them an e-mail message." Here are some key security trends and events identified by Secure Computing in the first eight months of 2007: -- TheÂ Storm worm,Â named after subject lines like "230 dead as storm batters Europe," and similar worms became widespread in January and the following months, with new variants being created every 15 minutes. -- A password-stealingÂ Trojan hit visitors to the Miami Dolphins' stadium Web siteÂ during the Super Bowl, when attackers took advantage of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer's rendering of vector markup language documents. -- A mass-email with pictures of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in April lured people to a Web site that hosted a zero-day exploit related to Windows' handling of animated cursor files. Microsoft released a patch to fix the vulnerability. -- More than 10,000 European Web sites hosted malware attacks in June after being compromised. "Hidden IFRAME's" were injected into the Web sites, referring visitors to malicious sites using MPack to deliver banking Trojans. -- So-called backdoor Trojans affect home users around the world, including nearly 100,000 PCs now infected by a new wave of storm malware. "The mailings that came with subject lines such as 'You've received a postcard from a family member!' directed users to Web-hosted exploits for several different vulnerabilities; they infect users' computers and attach them to the Storm family's P2P botnet," Secure Computing writes. Network World is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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A vulnerability in AOL's instant messenger could allow attacks. Also: A new Bagle variant rumbles across the Net.
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(InfoWorld) - A new variant ofÂ the Stration worm, which has been plaguing Windows users for the past year, has made the jump from Skype to the ICQ and MSN Messenger networks. This latest variant popped up earlier this week, according to Chris Boyd, a researcher at FaceTime Communications, who blogs under the pseudonym "Paperghost." "They're using Skype as a jump off into other more established networks," Boyd said. "The infection will go looking for other instant messaging clients that are on the PC and then attempt to send the infection message that it initially sends through Skype through these other chat systems." For a computer to be infected, a user must first click on a link and then agree to download an executable file. In one sample provided by Boyd, the malicious link is listed below the instant message, "Check this out. Give me your opinion." Once installed, the worm will gradually start to send out messages to the victim's contacts, Boyd said. Instant message worms have spread from network-to-network in the past, but this is the first time Boyd has seen a worm jump from Skype to another network. "It's an odd system to make, because these guys have a foot in the door [in the Skype network]," he said. "You think they'd focus all their energies onto exploiting Skype." Stration is not widespread and is considered to be a low-risk infection, but it has been a tough worm to fight for some security vendors. Over the past year it has morphed into hundreds of variants, and antivirus companies have been having a hard time keeping track of its many iterations. Stration has also been called "Warezov" and "Stratio." Nobody knows who is behind the worm, but the domains that host the malicious code are registered through a Chinese Internet company, Boyd said. Â
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A researcher has posted exploit code that attackers can use to hijack Windows machines via Yahoo Inc.'s Messenger instant messaging software.
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IM in peril Malware miscreants have created the first worm targeting Skype that's also capable over other instant messaging networks, such as MSN and ICQ.â¦
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Blog: IM directs victims to malicious Web site where they are duped into typing in their password, it then sends itself to the victims' contacts.
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Security researchers warned Monday of a new worm, dubbed "Funner," targeting Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Messenger IM (instant messaging) system.
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Vuln researcher questions company's disclosure practices Yahoo! bug crushers have plugged a serious hole in Yahoo! Messenger that made it possible for bad guys to remotely take control of a user's machine. The update became available less than 24 hours after an anonymous hacker posted proof-of-concept code that demonstrated how the vulnerability could be exploited.â¦
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Patch for Messenger addresses zero-day exploits that take advantage of vulnerabilities in its Webcam ActiveX controls.
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Blog: Yahoo IM worm directs victims to malicious web site where they are duped into typing in their password and it sends itself to the victim's contacts
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Attacks on instant messaging systems are getting better at targeting users, study finds.
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Its buffer floweth over Yahoo! Messenger users have been warned to update their IM software following the discovery of a serious security bug.â¦
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bulk messages clogging instant-messaging accounts. AOL and its Anti-Spam Alliance partners -- EarthLink, Microsoft, and Yahoo
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First, Yahoo was notified that its Messenger IM client was vulnerable to attack. Then, a researcher fingered two ActiveX controls as flawed and posted exploit code.