Worm surge exploits Microsoft vulnerability

By Colin Barker, ZDNet UK
Thursday, January 08, 2009 10:45 AM

Business systems are being attacked by a worm exploiting a known Microsoft vulnerability, IT security experts have warned.

Both US-CERT and security organization F-Secure have issued warnings, urging IT professionals to apply the Microsoft patch.

The malware attacks the vulnerability outlined in MS08-067, a Windows Server service flaw that was patched in October. The worm launches a dictionary attack to attempt to crack user passwords, and uses server-side polymorphism and modification to the Access Control Lists (ACL) "to make network disinfection particularly difficult", F-Secure said in a blog post.

A sign of infection is that user accounts get locked out of the Active Directory domain as the worm tries to crack passwords, said F-Secure.

A removal tool is available at the F-Secure website, as is a detailed description of the malware F-Secure calls Downadup.AL.


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