Virus researchers at Sophos are suggesting that the W32/MyDoom-A worm,
currently spreading widely across the internet, may have been
deliberately constructed as a weapon in the current round of "Linux
wars". The worm launches a distributed denial of service attack
against the website of SCO, who have recently courted controversy
in the Linux community. Such an attack could potentially knock
SCO's website off the internet.
In May 2003 US-based SCO claimed that versions of the Linux open
source operating system use code owned by SCO. It has begun
offering Linux users a licence to protect them against possible
legal action. Leading Linux developers such as Linus Torvalds, the
inventor of Linux, have denied that Linux source code contains any
SCO intellectual property. SCO has also launched legal actions
against IBM, Red Hat, and Novell.
"Rows between SCO and the open source community have been
continuing for some months. The MyDoom worm takes the Linux Wars to
a new intensity," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "It appears that the author of
MyDoom may have taken the war of words from the courtrooms and
internet message boards to a new level by unleashing this worm
which attacks SCO's website. If we ever get our hands on MyDoom's
creator my guess is that he will be an open source sympathiser. Of
course, it's the last kind of assistance the open source community
would want at this time."
Once the MyDoom worm has infected a PC it attempts to spread via
mass-emailing, and turns the computer into a "zombie" which can
unwittingly launch the attack against SCO's website between 1 and
12 February.
"All computer users should ensure their computers are adequately
protected against these kind of attacks with updated anti-virus and
firewall software," continued Cluley.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.