Worm Fears Shut down Skype Video Feature
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Skype turned off a video-sharing feature in its software because it could be misused to launch a self-copying worm attack against Skype users, security researchers said today.
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First person: What's a telecommuter to do when the Web telephony service vanishes?
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Skype again warns users of its software that malicious code targeting its VoIP and instant messaging service is on the prowl, the second such recent alert.
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Lycos Europe has shut down its screensaver, makelovenotspam, which delighted many Internet users with the opportunity to flood spammers&#39; Web sites with junk e-mail.
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Virus writers have developed a &#39;Peeping Tom&#39; worm that can use webcams to spy on computer users in their home or workplace, internet security watchers have warned.
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Video with tidbits about plans for Google Reader and social features is taken offline.
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Skype has been forced to turn off a video-sharing feature in its software because it could be misused to launch a self-copying worm attack against Skype users, security researchers said Tuesday.A bug in the software, which was first reported last Thursday by security researcher Aviv Raff, stems from the way Skype uses an Internet Explorer component to render HTML.Skype&#39;s video-sharing feature allows users to share videos hosted on two sites -- Dailymotion.com and Metacafe.com -- while chatting with other Skype users.Last week Raff showed how attackers could exploit the bug to run unauthorized software on a Skype user&#39;s PC. But on Tuesday, the security researcher said the flaw was more serious than he&#39;d first thought. It can &quot;be triggered by simply visiting a Web site, or clicking on a link from your instant messaging application,&quot; he wrote in a blog posting, &quot;Which basically means that this vulnerability is now wormable.&quot;Skype appeared to have pulled the video feature from its client software on Tuesday as a result of the bug. Users who attempted to click on the &quot;videos&quot; button within a chat window were greeted with a message that the feature was unavailable &quot;because of some security concerns.&quot;&quot;Our brightest engineers are rattling their wrenches to make things all right and bring the beloved videos back. Soon,&quot; the message read. &quot;Sorry about this.&quot;Skpe representatives did not return calls seeking comment. Last week, Skype spokesman Villu Arak confirmed that there was a security problem for Skype 3.5 and 3.6 users who visited the Dailymotion.com Web site, but users were still able to share videos using Metacafe.com.On Tuesday, however, Skype pulled the video feature altogether after being informed of the new problem, Raff said.Because Metacafe had a cross-site scripting flaw, a common type of programming error, Raff was able to run JavaScript on Metacafe.com, which could then be used to run unauthorized software on the victim&#39;s computer. Attackers could then forward a link to the malicious Web page to all of the Skype contacts in the victim&#39;s computer, spreading the infection.For Raff&#39;s attack to work, an attacker would have to post a maliciously encoded video file to either of the Metacafe or Dailymotion Web sites. Metacafe said Tuesday that it&#39;s &quot;highly unlikely&quot; that this kind of malicious video would make it through the site&#39;s content-filtering process.In a statement, the company said it expects Metacafe videos to be available to Skype users as early as Wednesday morning.Raff said that because the attack could lead to a widespread worm outbreak, it would be better for Skype to fix the underlying problem before bringing Metacafe back online.Raff believes that Dailymotion was probably susceptible to this type of attack as well, although he was unable to confirm this after Skype cut off access to the Web site.The problem lies in the fact that Skype uses a Windows Internet Explorer component with inappropriate security settings, researchers say. Instead of processing pages it renders with the more secure &quot;Internet Zone&quot; security setting, Skype uses IE&#39;s &quot;Local Zone&quot; security setting, usually reserved for more trustworthy content.Until Skype engineers make some changes to their software, more of these problems will continue to pop up, Raff said.Another security researcher who has been studying the flaw agreed.&quot;If they keep their Skype client running in the Local Zone of IE, we will see more of these,&quot; said Petko Petkov of GNU Citizen via instant message. &quot;Before killing Metacafe, anyone who owns the server would have been able to own every Skype user on the planet.&quot;
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A programming error in Skype could let hackers use "Add Video" feature to run malicious code on the victim's system.
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MySpace, which we recently wrote about due to its partnership with Google, has shut down hundreds of user profiles as a precaution to a worm which is infecting user computers via MySpace &#038; Apple&#8217;s QuickTime media player. The worm seems to change user profiles and add malicious links and content when the video is played. Joris [...]
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VOIP service Skype is warning users about a Windows worm that spreads through the Skype's chat service, posing as a legitimate chat message.
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New variant of the Stration Skype worm, can also propagate using the ICQ and MSN Messenger Networks.
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A wave of bugs in the plug-in technology used by Microsoft's browser has some security experts recommending that users disable all ActiveX controls.
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(InfoWorld) - A sophisticated computer worm spreading via AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is setting up a botnet that may be difficult to combat, security researchers said. The worm, known as W32.pipeline, propagates when AIM users click on a Web link that appears to have been sent to them by someone on their buddy list. They receive a message along the lines of, "Hey, would it be okay if I upload this picture of you to my blog?" If the recipient clicks on the link, an executable file that looks like a JPEG will download into a Windows folder, according to researchers at security company FaceTime Communications Inc. The file can then execute a number of different attacks, said Chris Boyd, security research manager for FaceTime Security Labs and the researcher who discovered the worm. It can open up the email port on the PC and send out spam messages. It can also install a variant of the "hacker defender" rootkit, which is widely deployed and difficult to remove. One of the most dangerous aspects of the worm is that it can also connect to remote file upload sites, which Boyd believes the worm authors' use as sort of staging sites where they can continuously download new infections. Once a computer is infected, the program will propagate using the same instant messaging method. The worm is unique because the program seems to be able to contact a number of different sites around the globe randomly. FaceTime researchers had different results when running the same file. "Previously, where we've seen something similar to this attempted, if one file is pulled offline or removed by an ISP, the whole chain goes down," Boyd said. "But this one, if one file goes missing or gets pulled down, it will potentially make a call to another file. It has quite a random aspect to it."So far, he estimates that the botnet -- a group of similarly infected computers that are remotely controlled -- has 1,000 to 2,000 members. More computers may have been infected but not made part of the botnet. The best defense is for AIM users to be wary of clicking on links. If a user receives an unexpected link from a buddy, the user can always reply to ask if they have sent the link, to make sure it is legitimate. FaceTime has updated its virus protection software to prevent users from infection, and other antivirus vendors may do the same. AIM users that get infected can try to remove the worm but may have to wipe and reformat their drives to get rid of it.
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Pocket PC users who were expecting to use Skype Technologies&#39;s SkypeOut service to make telephone calls via the Internet may find themselves without a dial-tone.
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Skype expert and author Michael Gough details several methods to lessen Skype security risks, including his own specialized scripts.
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When the Internet phone company Skype went offline for nearly two days last week, Tim Legrand was frustrated and inconvenienced. But he has no plans to switch back to a traditional telephone line.
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Security researchers are warning of a serious - and unfixed - security hole with the popular Winamp media player.