'Melting Worm' slithers into the wild

From...

March 17, 2000
Web posted at: 8:21 a.m. EST (1321 GMT)

by Kathleen Ohlson

(IDG) -- A new worm now "in the wild" has the potential to shut down Windows platforms and make the operating system permanently unusable.

Computer Associates International Inc. discovered the worm, Win32/Melting.worm, Tuesday, when customers started to find it in their e-mail systems, said Narender Mangalam, director of security solutions at CA. So far, it has hit some Fortune 1,000 software companies, he said.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Insurgency

"The risk level is moderate, and it hasn't caused too much damage because we believe we've caught it in time," Mangalam said.

The Melting Worm is unleashed through Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook running on Windows 95, 98, 2000 or NT, according to CA. Once launched, the worm puts a copy of itself into a Windows directory as MeltingScreen.exe and remains in memory. Files with .exe extensions in a system's Windows directory are renamed with .bin extensions.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

Top 10 anti-virus tools

7 virus killers compared

As the worm renames files, including ones critical to operating Windows, these changes may render the operating system useless.

The worm also starts to e-mail itself to all the names in a victim's Outlook address book and randomly executes other .exe files, Mangalam said. This potentially can take down a company's e-mail system.

Software company files lawsuit against 'hackers'
March 17, 2000
Teenager charged with computer hacking
March 8, 2000
'Coolio' denies February attacks; LAPD plans charges
March 3, 2000
FBI smokes out "Coolio" in computer attacks probe
March 2, 2000
Net crime does pay for cops
February 24, 2000
The coming privacy divide
February 24, 2000
Internet2 team seeks speedy apps
February 24, 2000
Insufficient computer security threatens doing business online
February 23, 2000
Avoiding future denial-of-service attacks
February 23, 2000
FBI investigation swamped with tips, continue to seek Midwest 'Coolio'
February 16, 2000

Top 10 anti-virus tools
(PC World)
Virus killer roundup
(PC World)
7 virus killers compared
(PC World)
Viruses: An anatomy of mass hysteria
(PC World)
Lessons from the Melissa mess
(Computerworld)
E-mail most common virus carrier
(Computerworld)
How to outsmart PC viruses
(PC World)
Let your ISP scan for viruses
(PC World)

Win32/Melting.worm Warning
Anti Virus Information Page
Viruses R'nt Us

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.