Latest Netsky variant spreading fast

Security experts have warned users to beware a new version of the prolific W32/Netsky virus.

According to McAfee's Avert antivirus research team, the Netsky.ag variant is a prolific mass-mailing worm that spreads via email, sending itself to addresses found on the victim's machine.

The company said last week that, due to an increase in prevalence, it had raised its risk assessment of the virus to 'medium'.

Netsky harvests addresses from local files and uses them in the 'From' field to send itself, Avert warned. It contains its own SMTP engine to construct outgoing messages.

This produces a message with a spoofed From address. When run, the worm displays a message box reading: "File corrupted replace this!"

The worm also copies itself to local folders containing string share or sharing, network shares and P2P shared folders. If PCs are infected users may notice unexpected network traffic.

See also:

Cost of malware soars to $166bn in 2004

Viruses, worms and Trojans taking their toll  01 Feb 2005

IT chiefs use scare tactics to tighten security

Hacking and virus threat often exaggerated to win management support, says survey  21 Oct 2004

Noomy.A virus spreading via chat rooms

IRC users hoodwinked with promise of software cracks and Kournikova screensavers  07 Oct 2004

Teenager charged over Sasser worm

Sven Jaschan faces five years in jail if convicted  10 Sep 2004

Fallout from virus war persists

Netsky, Bagle and Mydoom variants still topping the virus charts  02 Sep 2004

Security

The latest wave of cyber-crimes and acts of vandalism have demonstrated once again that many systems are still vulnerable to attack.  15 Apr 2004

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