Computer Associates urges renewed vigilance against 'Code Red` worm attack

Computer Associates (CA) is urging computer users to take precautions against the re-emergence of the self-propagating "Code Red" worm, a malicious computer program designed to exploit a known Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) vulnerability to cripple and deface Web sites, and cause widespread Internet outages and slowdowns.

In conjunction with other security organisations, CA is urging Web site managers to redouble their efforts to protect their servers and the Internet community as a whole by adopting sound security policies, immediately closing known security holes, and installing attack detection solutions such as CA`s eTrust Intrusion Detection. Previous outbreaks of the Code Red worm have already affected some 300 000 systems worldwide.

Organisations potentially affected by the Code Red worm include those with Internet site hosts running Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 or IIS 5.0 enabled and Index Server 2.0 installed, as well as Windows 2000 with IIS 4.0 or IIS 5.0 enabled and Indexing services installed.

Such organisations are encouraged to reboot their Internet host machines to remove the Code Red worm, and immediately apply the software patch that addresses the IIS vulnerability. Visit http://ca.com/virusinfo/virusalert.htm - CodeRed for additional information and links to software patches.