Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against spam and
viruses, is warning of a new worm called Tanx-A (also known as
Bagle-B). Sophos has received several reports of this worm
spreading in the wild.
The Tanx-A (Bagle-B) worm spreads via email and arrives with the
subject line 'ID' followed by various random characters and the
message text 'Yours ID'. An attached .exe file, has a randomly
generated filename. If run, a remote access component allows
hackers to gain remote access to infected computers.
The worm harvests email addresses from infected PCs and, when
forwarding itself on to other computer users, spoofs the "From:"
field using addresses found on the computer's hard drive.
"Bagle-B tries to deceive computer users by spoofing the
sender's address, but the worm is easy to spot because of its
distinctive subject line," said Carole Theriault, security
consultant, Sophos. "The message is simple - don't open unsolicited
emails and don't automatically trust emails that appear to come
from a known contact. Practising safe computing and blocking
executable files at the email gateway will prevent infection from
this worm."
Like its predecessor, Bagle-A, this worm has a
built in 'dead date' and has been designed to fall dormant on 25
February 2004.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.