JANUARY 28, 2004 ( COMPUTERWORLD ) - A new variant of the Mydoom virus has just emerged, several security companies are reporting this afternoon.
Mydoom.b variant has a larger payload and targets Microsoft's Web site for a distributed denial-of-service attack on Feb. 1, instead of The SCO Group Inc., according to London-based security vendor Mi2g Ltd.
"This new variant of Mydoom is worse than Mydoom.A," Ken Dunham, director of malicious code at iDefense Inc. in Reston, Va., said in a statement. "It modifies the hosts file to block access to antivirus Web sites and is configured differently from Mydoom.A." It also opens up a different Transmission Control Protocol port.
Mi2G said there are some minor changes to the text padding as well. It's possible Mydoom.b is being disseminated via infected computers turned into "zombies" by Mydoom.a, as well as via the file-sharing system Kazaa, the company said.
"This could turn the whole Mydoom episode into a much more adverse series of unfortunate events," the company said.
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/virus/story/0,10801,89494,00.html
[Todays Threads] [This Message] [Subscription] [Fast Unsubscribe] [User Settings]
