Kama Sutra: the final countdown

Status
Not open for further replies.

Osiris

Golden Master
Messages
36,817
Location
Kentucky
The destructive Kama Sutra worm has begun thrashing files on infected machines with incorrectly set system clocks. Even though the worm is programmed to first delete files on infected machines on Friday (February 3), its deadline is based on the clock of infected Windows PCs. Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure says it has already received two reports from users who've had files on their system overwritten by the worm.

The Kama Sutra worm (AKA Nyxem-D or Blackworm) first appeared on January 18, posing as a email message offering a variety of salacious content. Subject lines used in the malicious emails include: The Best Videoclip Ever, Fw: SeX.mpg, Miss Lebanon 2006 and ****in Kama Sutra pics. The worm only affects Windows PCs.

Windows users who fall for this ruse wind up with an infected machine and disabled security software. Worse still, Nyxem-D is also programmed to overwrite files on Friday February 3, and the third day of every month thereafter. The worm overwrites DOC, XLS, MDB, MDE, PPT, PPS, ZIP, RAR, PDF, PSD and DMP files on all mounted drives.

This old-school "trash your Windows PC" worm has infected an estimated 600,000 machines, with the US, India and Peru having the greatest number of infected machines, Security Focus reports. One US firm alone is responsible for around 75,000 infection hits, according to an analysis by security firm LURHQ.

Windows users are advised to run scans for infection using up-to-date anti-virus signatures. The worm attempts to disable most anti-virus products, so if you hit trouble on this score it's a good idea to either reinstall software or run web-based anti-virus scanners, such as Trend Micro's free House Call service. Symantec, among other security vendors, has published a free disinfection tool.
 
http://clamwin.com/

Clamwin gets rid of the virus, just incase anyone is looking for a free antivirus proggy that might suspect they have the worm.

Clamwin is also a lot more thorough then almost all antivirus programs available.
 
ClamWin is very good IMO. In the docs it shows how to put it on to a pen drive and use it to scan other computers without installation. Although it does a very deep scan, scan times are long and it isn't on-access, a feature soon to be added. A good AV to go with an on-access scanner.
 
The much anticipated Kama Sutra worm turned out to be rather flaccid. The worm was programmed to overwrite files on infected Windows PCs on Friday (February 3), but in the event only a few people got hit - even though many machines were infected at one time or another.

The Kama Sutra worm (AKA Nyxem-E or Blackworm) poses as an email message offering a variety of salacious content. Subject lines used in the malicious emails include: The Best Videoclip Ever, Fw: SeX.mpg, Miss Lebanon 2006 and ****in Kama Sutra pics. The worm, which can also spread across network shares, only affects Windows PCs.

Windows users who fell for this ruse wound up with an infected machine and disabled security software. Once infected, machines start to spew out additional copies of the worm. Worse still, Nyxem-E was also programmed to overwrite files on Friday February 3, and the third day of every month thereafter. The worm overwrites DOC, XLS, MDB, MDE, PPT, PPS, ZIP, RAR, PDF, PSD and DMP files on local drives.

Since its first appearance on January 16, an estimated 600,000 PCs worldwide were infected by the PC thrashing worm at some point, with the US, India and Peru thought to harbour the greatest number of compromised machines.

Security watchers said many users of infected machines cleaned up their act, so that only an estimated 20,000 machines were left infected on strike day. If those infected machines were not rebooted on Friday then no damage would have occurred.

The Nyxem virus family that spawned Kama Sutra (AKA Nyxem-E) first appeared in March 2004. The first worm in the series launched a DDoS attack against the "New York Mercantile Exchange" website (www.nymex.com). The motive and perpetrator of the virus series remains unknown
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom