Virus News

Badtrans Virus (November 24th, 2001)
New worm that arrives as an email attachment from someone who either has your email address in their address book or has visited a web page that has your email address stored on it as a link. The attachment usually appears as an audio file, which if you execute seems to do nothing, but in fact installs a keystroke capturing program which records your keystrokes (with the intent of finding passwords) and sends that information out. It also resends itself to people in your address book and to email addresses stored on pages you've visited.

For more information on this and other viruses visit:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/


NIMDA Worm (New - September 18, 2001)A NEW WORM that can infect all 32-bit Windows computers and propagates using multiple methods has spread across the world Tuesday morning. The worm, called Nimda (admin spelled backwards), can spread via e-mail attachments, HTTP, or across shared hard disks inside networks. The worm can infect all 32-bit Windows systems -- Windows 98, 2000, Millennium Edition, XP, NT -- because it scans systems for between 10 and 100 different vulnerabilities and exploits them when found.
 As always, the best practice is to have a good anti virus application on your computer (Norton Utilities or McAfee are two of the most popular) and always take care in opening attachments. Never open attachments if you don't know the sender, and even when you do if you are not expecting an attachment confirm with the sender what the attachment is before opening, if unexpected.

 More information on this latest threat can be found at the following sites:

Symantic W32.Nimda.A@mm (September 18, 2001)

McAfee NIMDA Warning

Central Command What is Win32.Nimda.A@mm?

Microsoft Code Patches

Sophos Nimda worm causing internet mayhem -

Sophos warns against double pronged attack September 18, 2001

Infoworld, Major new worm poses serious threat worldwide (Septmember 18, 2001)

Lethal worm spells double trouble, ZDNET Sept 18, 2001

FBI investigating new Internet worm, thousands of computers targeted Silicon Valley.com


Sircam Virus
Sircam is a malicious code virus that is delivered through email and through LANs (via network shares). As in all viruses a normal user can not be infected unless you OPEN the attachment. It is always a good practice to NEVER open an attachement from an unknown party, but this virus will almost always come from someone you have exchanged emails with in the past, using random subject lines. More information is at http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2001-22.html. The best practice for attachments and virus protection is to have a good anti virus application on your computer (Norton Utilities or McAfee are two of the most popular) and always take care in opening attachments. Never open attachments if you don't know the sender, and even when you do if you are not expecting an attachment confirm with the sender what the attachment is before opening, if unexpected.


The Code Red Worm
The Code Red Worm is not only affecting NT/IIS servers as below, but is also affecting some other devices that have web servers. In particular the Cisco 675 series routers Qwest DSL customers use. If you have DSL service and Qwest is the local loop provider (All CSD DSL Customers have the local loop provided by Qwest) and you are experiencing problems with your DSL service please download the PDF linked below and follow the directions to not only disable the web server in your Cisco router but also change the port on the web server. This will stop the occasional lockups on your router.


 Qwest router fix:
http://www.qwest.com/dsl/customerservice/downloads
/Red_Virus_Patch.pdf



 Information on the virus:
Greetings from FBI Phoenix:

The National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) in Washington, D.C.,
has posted Alert 01-016 "Code Red Worm" at its web site, www.nipc.gov.

The advisory in its entirety is set forth below.

ALERT 01--016

"Code Red Worm"

July 29, 2001

For Immediate Release: 3:00 PM (EDT) July 29, 2001
A Very Real and Present Threat to the Internet: July 31 Deadline For
Action

Summary: The Code Red Worm and mutations of the worm pose a continued and serious threat to Internet users. Immediate action is required to combat
this threat. Users who have deployed software that is vulnerable to the worm
(Microsoft IIS Versions 4.0 and 5.0) must install, if they have not done so
already, a vital security patch.

How Big Is The Problem? On July 19, the Code Red worm infected more than
250,000 systems in just 9 hours. The worm scans the Internet, identifies
vulnerable systems, and infects these systems by installing itself. Each
newly installed worm joins all the others causing the rate of scanning to
grow rapidly. This uncontrolled growth in scanning directly decreases the
speed of the Internet and can cause sporadic but widespread outages among
all types of systems. Code Red is likely to start spreading again on July
31st, 2001 8:00 PM EDT and has mutated so that it may be even more
dangerous. This spread has the potential to disrupt business and personal
use of the Internet for applications such as electronic commerce, email and
entertainment.

Who Must Act? Every organization or person who has Windows NT or Windows
2000 systems AND the IIS web server software may be vulnerable. IIS is
installed automatically for many applications. If you are not certain,
follow the instructions attached to determine whether you are running IIS
4.0 or 5.0. If you are using Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me, there is
no action that you need to take in response to this alert.

What To Do If You Are Vulnerable?

a. To rid your machine of the current worm, reboot your computer.

b. To protect your system from re-infection: Install Microsoft's
patch for the Code Red vulnerability problem:


- Windows NT version 4.0:

http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=30833

- Windows 2000 Professional, Server and Advanced Server:

http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=30800

Step-by-step instructions for these actions are posted at


www.digitalisland.net/codered

Microsoft's description of the patch and its installation, and the
vulnerability it addresses is posted at:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/
bulletin/MS01-033.asp

Because of the importance of this threat, this alert is being made jointly by:

Microsoft Corporation

National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC)

Federal Computer Incident Response Center (FedCIRC)

Information Technology Association of America (ITAA)

CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC)

SANS Institute Internet Security Systems (ISS)

Internet Security Alliance (ISA)

Recipients of this alert are encouraged to report computer intrusions to
their local FBI office (http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm) or the NIPC,
and to other appropriate authorities. Incidents may be reported online at
http://www.nipc.gov/incident/cirr.htm. The NIPC Watch and Warning Unit can
be reached at (202) 323-3204/3205/3206 or nipc.watch@fbi.gov.