JoeRT
08-09-2001, 01:54 PM
From this morning's Information Week Daily mailing...
"Security firm Vigilinx Inc. is alerting customers of a first-ever worm that replicates using an Adobe portable document format (PDF). The PeachyPDF@mm worm mass mails itself through Microsoft Outlook. Not only does it send itself to 100 addresses from an infected users' address book, it also sends itself to the users' alternative E-mail addresses.
Jerry Freese, chief intelligence officer at Vigilinx, says the worm was coded by a hacker known as "Zulu," who also wrote the first E-mail worm BubbleBoy. "This guy is no script kid; he is an actual virus writer," says Freese. A user who opens a Peachy PDF sees a document that reads "You have one minute to find the peach!" An icon requests users to double click on an icon to "show the solution." If the user does so, and is running the full version of Adobe Acrobat--not just the reader--the worm propagates."
The good news is, we can still open attachments if we just have the reader installed... but I wouldn't even be that daring!
Bottom line, as always... if you weren't expecting the attachment, DON'T OPEN IT!
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Joe Torsitano
www.weatherforyou.com
"Security firm Vigilinx Inc. is alerting customers of a first-ever worm that replicates using an Adobe portable document format (PDF). The PeachyPDF@mm worm mass mails itself through Microsoft Outlook. Not only does it send itself to 100 addresses from an infected users' address book, it also sends itself to the users' alternative E-mail addresses.
Jerry Freese, chief intelligence officer at Vigilinx, says the worm was coded by a hacker known as "Zulu," who also wrote the first E-mail worm BubbleBoy. "This guy is no script kid; he is an actual virus writer," says Freese. A user who opens a Peachy PDF sees a document that reads "You have one minute to find the peach!" An icon requests users to double click on an icon to "show the solution." If the user does so, and is running the full version of Adobe Acrobat--not just the reader--the worm propagates."
The good news is, we can still open attachments if we just have the reader installed... but I wouldn't even be that daring!
Bottom line, as always... if you weren't expecting the attachment, DON'T OPEN IT!
------------------------------------
Joe Torsitano
www.weatherforyou.com