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OT: Latest email virus plague, badtrans.B



Looks like another "Sircam" plague is about to hit the fan. Please update
your antivirus files, people. If you're using Microsoft Outlook, make
sure you have this security patch installed:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-020.asp

Yeah yeah, we're not supposed to spread warnings about "horrible new
viruses". But today I received about 30 messages from peoples' infected
computers, and the Norton page says that the new worm was only discovered
yesterday. Last time I saw something like this, it was the start of the
Sircam virus epidemic.

Badtrans.B spreads fast because it can use security holes in MS Outlook to
run itself as the message is opened (without the victim ever having to
open the infected attachments.) It automatically sends out infected
messages to people in your address book, and to any email addresses it
finds in your browser's cache of recently-viewed websites. The email is
always about 40K in size, and the attachment always has a file extension
of .PIF or .SCR. Worse, the worm often forges the return address, so you
cannot warn the person who has the infected PC.

Also see the various antivirus sites:

http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.badtrans.b@mm.html
http://www.antivirus.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=WORM_BADTRANS.B
http://vil.nai.com/vil/virusSummary.asp?virus_k=99069
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32badtransb.html
http://groups.google.com/groups?group=alt.comp.virus

Owners of list servers might wish to temporarily reject all attachments,
or at least to set their "max message size" filters to 35K or so.


((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com http://www.amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits science projects, tesla, weird science
Seattle, WA 206-789-0775 freenrg-L taoshum-L vortex-L webhead-L