Anti-virus companies have warned users of a new Internet worm that arrives posing as an e-mail from the network administrator and gets users to activate the virus by promising details of an e-mail account expiry.
The relatively harmless, but annoying little worm called "MiMail" is likely to clog mail servers and slow down networks, say the experts. Reputed to be the work of Russian virus writers, MiMail is spread by e-mail and arrives disguised as an attachment called message.zip. The virus searches for e-mail addresses on the infected system and sends itself to these recipients. MiMail does not appear to have any other side effects.
Virus tracking company, Central Command, says MiMail is spreading globally at an alarming rate. Preliminary virus tracking reports show that US-based computer users are the hardest hit so far.
Users are advised that e-mail with the subject line "Your account" followed by a number and a message claiming the e-mail address is about to expire, is likely to be a delivery of the MiMail virus.
Symantec spokesman Zubeir Shah says the message invites the recipient to open the attachment for details, but this will activate the virus. Shah says users should delete the e-mail without opening the attachment. He advises that companies should also ensure the latest Microsoft patches are installed, and as always, the virus definitions have been updated.
Information security company, Kaspersky Labs, says when the MiMail attachment is opened, a built-in Java script enters via Exploit.SelfExecHTML and copies itself onto disk files. Microsoft discovered the Exploit.SelfExecHTML problem in March 2002 and has released a patch for Internet Explorer.
Kaspersky Labs recommends downloading this patch to prevent future security threats attempting to exploit the vulnerability of Internet Explorer.
Kaspersky Labs head of anti-virus research Eugene Kaspersky says the rapid spread of MiMail is a reminder that dangerous programs are not only found in EXE files. He says it is always a good idea to check all files for viruses before booting up.
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