There seems to be a new virus out there.

November 27, 2001 6:14 AM

There seems to be a new virus out there. The last installment I received (about 20 overnight over several accounts) seems to corrupt the sender's e-mail address so that you can't alert them as being a victim.
posted by ParisParamus to general weblog-related at 6:14 AM (15 comments total)

I got this from McAfee today:

McAfee.com has received an increasing number of reports from
home users with a new variant of Badtrans, referred to as
Badtrans.b. AVERT has raised the Risk Assessment on this
variant of W32/Badtrans@MM to HIGH RISK FOR CONSUMERS.

VirusScan and other McAfee products with DAT files 4172 and
higher are protected from this variant.

W32/Badtrans@MM is a mass-mailing worm that drops a
remote-access Trojan. The virus arrives via the Microsoft
Outlook email program and attempts to send itself by replying
to unread email messages.

The email may contain the text "Take a look to the attachment"
in the message body and will contain an attachment that is
13,312 bytes in size. The attachment name is created in
three sections, for example, card.doc.pif.

For detection and removal instructions for the
W32/Badtrans@MM virus, click here.
===> http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=2608

posted by pracowity at 6:25 AM on November 27, 2001

There's a bit more info on Badtrans on The Register . It's been knocking around the uk since Friday, and was bad enough to make my free email provider unreachable for 3 days.
posted by iain at 7:00 AM on November 27, 2001

The virus arrives via the Microsoft Outlook email program and ...

heh ;)
posted by walrus at 7:44 AM on November 27, 2001

You should install Lunix.
posted by holloway at 12:42 PM on November 27, 2001

You should install Lunix.

Lunix - First OS for women?

Lunix - OS that functions only at night?
posted by modofo at 2:22 PM on November 27, 2001

whoa, i got this in my email two days ago, and i actually do use outlook. fortunately, i knew enough to not even mess with the attachment. but i never emailed the person who sent it to me (nor do i know him/her), so that was strange. i guess this makes up for all the times i felt sad because i didn't have any friends who sent me sircam.
posted by lotsofno at 2:42 PM on November 27, 2001

Walrus: Yay for Poco!
I've gotten this thing twice in the last day, and it was from people who would not normally have gotten infected. Really seems to be making the rounds.
posted by Su at 3:19 PM on November 27, 2001

Oh no! I open every single attachment I get no matter what!
What am I going to do?
posted by fuq at 5:59 PM on November 27, 2001

Why are there no Mac viruses? Wouldn't someone who wants to wreak havoc launch both platforms simultaneously? Or is there something inherently more secure about Mac OS?
posted by ParisParamus at 6:05 PM on November 27, 2001

There are just a lot more Windows machines, and thus a lot more 'sploiters. Plus the insecure default configuration of Outlook makes it a plum target. But you can bet that if 90% of the machines around were Macs, there would be some "Steve Jobs loves you" viruses around.
posted by rodii at 6:10 PM on November 27, 2001

And everybody would hate Steve Jobs, richest man in the universe.

If there are ever enough Linux machines on desktops to make Linux viruses worth writing, the Linux world will get the same crap in the same amounts.
posted by pracowity at 11:09 PM on November 27, 2001

Oh no! I open every single attachment I get no matter what!

You don't have to open this attachment, it's self-executing. No, really. If you're using Outlook Express 5 and haven't got the most recent patches, you only have to preview the email to set the little bugger off.

It also strips email addresses from webpages stored in IE's cache. I had "WTF?" emails from people I've never had email contact with.

No more being smug about not opening attachments for me. Spent last night updating virus defs, downloading and learning how to use Opera and Eudora.
posted by ceiriog at 2:17 AM on November 28, 2001

I use The Bat!, ceiriog. You might want to try it. I enjoy it.

Save your time !! Extend your life !!
posted by gleemax at 9:10 AM on November 28, 2001

BT Openworld admits spreading virus. A company employee accidentally sent emails infected with the virus to an unknown number of its users on Friday, the first day the virus appeared, BT spokesman Tony Henderson said.
posted by Carol Anne at 12:16 PM on November 28, 2001

BT just struggle from bad customer service to worse. I wish someone would put them out of our misery.
posted by walrus at 12:30 PM on November 28, 2001