Anti-virus vendors warn that new variants of the Bagle and MyDoom Internet worm are spreading around the world.
Following a fairly quiet 'virus season`, the new variants W32/Bagle-AI and W32/MyDoom-N started spreading around the world this week.
Local Sophos distributor Netxactics says the worms were released in the wild this week, and have been spreading steadily.
While McAfee has given the worms low to medium ratings, Computer Associates International (CA) has raised its threat assessment for the Bagle and MyDoom variants, warning that virus incidents and the number of variants are climbing alarmingly.
"With five Bagle variants in six days, several new techniques and the re-emergence of MyDoom, there is an intense threat environment across the Internet," says Sam Curry, VP of eTrust security management at CA.
"There is also increased probability that a new variant of the Netsky worm may emerge as the original 'race to Z` was between Bagle and Netsky," says Curry.
"The release of these new worms ensures these virus families continue to snag new victims with each new variant," Netxactics says.
Sophos reports that Bagle-AI is an e-mail-aware worm that forges sender addresses to confuse the recipient about the worm`s origin. Its subject and message bodies give the impression that the attachment contains pictures, music or information about certain animals, which may suggest the authors are targeting younger, less security-conscious computer users.
This variant of Bagle can sometimes arrive inside a password-protected zip file, where the required password is in the body text, increasing the perception that the e-mail is legitimate.
MyDoom-N, also e-mail-aware, attempts to fool recipients into thinking the message is an automated mail delivery communication. It opens a backdoor onto the infected machine, allowing unauthorised users to access the computer remotely without the user`s knowledge. Backdoors can be used by spammers, turning the infected machine into a spam generator, or by hackers intent on stealing sensitive or financial information about the user.
"With new variants emerging steadily and infecting PCs the world over, these Bagle and MyDoom families are certainly rattling the cages of unprotected users," says Netxactics CEO Brett Myroff.
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