Post by Bret Walker on Jan 28, 2004 18:09:11 GMT -5
MyDoom Variant Continues to Cause Confusion
By eWEEK.com Staff
January 28, 2004
From eWeek News
Russian anti-virus specialist Kaspersky Labs has identified a variant of MyDoom, the worm that has been spreading through the Internet at a furious pace since Monday.
The variant, which Kaspersky has labelled MyDoom.b, has a slightly larger payload compared with MyDoom.a and targets Microsoft Corp. for a denial-of-service attack to be launched starting on Feb. 1, instead of The SCO Group Inc. The worm features minor modifications to the text of the e-mail that carries it, but is otherwise identical to the original.
It is understood that MyDoom.b may have been distributed using the network of PCs infected with MyDoom.a, something that a spokesman for Kaspersky claimed means the Internet "may be facing a much more serious outbreak than the one caused by Mydoom.a."
For more on MyDoom, check out eWEEK.com's Securing Windows special report.
Denis Zenkin, head of corporate affairs for Kasperky, said it was likely the author of MyDoom.b was the same person as was responsible for MyDoom.a.
"To develop a new version of the worm would require source code of the program and time to learn how it works. The source code was not published, and a virus writer had no time to learn the code to create a revamped version," Zenkin said.
The appearance of a variant of MyDoom is an unwelcome twist in the saga of one of the most rapidly spreading worms in Internet history. By Monday, MyDoom was infecting one in 12 e-mails sent, according to MessageLabs Inc, a New York-based e-mail security company. The worm has also been blamed for slow performance from Web servers over the past few days, as corporate firewalls and filters struggle to cope with increased traffic.
In addition, security firms on Wednesday noted that MyDoom.B overwrites the Windows HOSTS file. The HOSTS file defines domain name-IP address relationships much in the way that DNS does, but it takes precendence.
The worm adds to the user's HOST file a series of domain names for Microsoft, antivirus companies and some other companies the author wants to target and sets them to 0.0.0.0, in an attempt to make them inaccessible to the user.
Antivirus companies reported differences in exactly which HOST file was overwritten. For example, Sophos Plc. pointed to the Windows directory, while SoftWin Bitdefender offered the %Systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc directory. Symantec Corp.'s site suggested it overwrites "the local hosts file."
According to antivirus vendor Sophos, a number of domains are set to 0.0.0.0 by MyDoom.B. The Here's the current list from Sophos:
engine.awaps.net
awaps.net
www.awaps.net
ad.doubleclick.net
spd.atdmt.com
atdmt.com
click.atdmt.com
clicks.atdmt.com
media.fastclick.net
fastclick.net
www.fastclick.net
ad.fastclick.net
ads.fastclick.net
banner.fastclick.net
banners.fastclick.net
www.sophos.com
sophos.com
ftp.sophos.com
f-secure.com
www.f-secure.com
ftp.f-secure.com
securityresponse.symantec.com
www.symantec.com
symantec.com
service1.symantec.com
liveupdate.symantec.com
update.symantec.com
updates.symantec.com
support.microsoft.com
downloads.microsoft.com
download.microsoft.com
windowsupdate.microsoft.com
office.microsoft.com
msdn.microsoft.com
go.microsoft.com
nai.com
www.nai.com
vil.nai.com
secure.nai.com
www.networkassociates.com
networkassociates.com
avp.ru
vwww.avp.ru
www.kaspersky.ru
www.viruslist.ru
viruslist.ru
avp.ch
www.avp.ch
www.avp.com
avp.com
us.mcafee.com
mcafee.com
www.mcafee.com
dispatch.mcafee.com
download.mcafee.com
mast.mcafee.com
www.trendmicro.com
www3.ca.com
ca.com
www.ca.com
www.my-etrust.com
my-etrust.com
ar.atwola.com
phx.corporate-ir.net
www.microsoft.com
Editor's Note: This story was updated to include information about the HOST-file changes made by the worm.
By eWEEK.com Staff
January 28, 2004
From eWeek News
Russian anti-virus specialist Kaspersky Labs has identified a variant of MyDoom, the worm that has been spreading through the Internet at a furious pace since Monday.
The variant, which Kaspersky has labelled MyDoom.b, has a slightly larger payload compared with MyDoom.a and targets Microsoft Corp. for a denial-of-service attack to be launched starting on Feb. 1, instead of The SCO Group Inc. The worm features minor modifications to the text of the e-mail that carries it, but is otherwise identical to the original.
It is understood that MyDoom.b may have been distributed using the network of PCs infected with MyDoom.a, something that a spokesman for Kaspersky claimed means the Internet "may be facing a much more serious outbreak than the one caused by Mydoom.a."
For more on MyDoom, check out eWEEK.com's Securing Windows special report.
Denis Zenkin, head of corporate affairs for Kasperky, said it was likely the author of MyDoom.b was the same person as was responsible for MyDoom.a.
"To develop a new version of the worm would require source code of the program and time to learn how it works. The source code was not published, and a virus writer had no time to learn the code to create a revamped version," Zenkin said.
The appearance of a variant of MyDoom is an unwelcome twist in the saga of one of the most rapidly spreading worms in Internet history. By Monday, MyDoom was infecting one in 12 e-mails sent, according to MessageLabs Inc, a New York-based e-mail security company. The worm has also been blamed for slow performance from Web servers over the past few days, as corporate firewalls and filters struggle to cope with increased traffic.
In addition, security firms on Wednesday noted that MyDoom.B overwrites the Windows HOSTS file. The HOSTS file defines domain name-IP address relationships much in the way that DNS does, but it takes precendence.
The worm adds to the user's HOST file a series of domain names for Microsoft, antivirus companies and some other companies the author wants to target and sets them to 0.0.0.0, in an attempt to make them inaccessible to the user.
Antivirus companies reported differences in exactly which HOST file was overwritten. For example, Sophos Plc. pointed to the Windows directory, while SoftWin Bitdefender offered the %Systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc directory. Symantec Corp.'s site suggested it overwrites "the local hosts file."
According to antivirus vendor Sophos, a number of domains are set to 0.0.0.0 by MyDoom.B. The Here's the current list from Sophos:
engine.awaps.net
awaps.net
www.awaps.net
ad.doubleclick.net
spd.atdmt.com
atdmt.com
click.atdmt.com
clicks.atdmt.com
media.fastclick.net
fastclick.net
www.fastclick.net
ad.fastclick.net
ads.fastclick.net
banner.fastclick.net
banners.fastclick.net
www.sophos.com
sophos.com
ftp.sophos.com
f-secure.com
www.f-secure.com
ftp.f-secure.com
securityresponse.symantec.com
www.symantec.com
symantec.com
service1.symantec.com
liveupdate.symantec.com
update.symantec.com
updates.symantec.com
support.microsoft.com
downloads.microsoft.com
download.microsoft.com
windowsupdate.microsoft.com
office.microsoft.com
msdn.microsoft.com
go.microsoft.com
nai.com
www.nai.com
vil.nai.com
secure.nai.com
www.networkassociates.com
networkassociates.com
avp.ru
vwww.avp.ru
www.kaspersky.ru
www.viruslist.ru
viruslist.ru
avp.ch
www.avp.ch
www.avp.com
avp.com
us.mcafee.com
mcafee.com
www.mcafee.com
dispatch.mcafee.com
download.mcafee.com
mast.mcafee.com
www.trendmicro.com
www3.ca.com
ca.com
www.ca.com
www.my-etrust.com
my-etrust.com
ar.atwola.com
phx.corporate-ir.net
www.microsoft.com
Editor's Note: This story was updated to include information about the HOST-file changes made by the worm.
