Conficker wakes up, updates via P2P, drops payload
April 8, 2009 – 5:41 PMThe Conficker worm is finally doing something–updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers and dropping a mystery payload on infected computers, Trend Micro said on Wednesday.
Researchers were analyzing the code of the software that is being dropped onto infected computers but suspect that it is a keystroke logger or some other program designed to steal sensitive data off the machine, said David Perry, global director of security education at Trend Micro.
The worm also tries to connect to MySpace.com, MSN.com, eBay.com, CNN.com and AOL.com as a way to test that the computer has Internet connectivity, deletes all traces of itself in the host machine, and is set to shut down on May 3, according to the TrendLabs Malware Blog.
Because infected computers are receiving the new component in a staggered manner rather than all at once there should be no disruption to the Web sites the computers visit, said Paul Ferguson, advanced threats researcher for Trend Micro.
“After May 3, it shuts down and won’t do any replication,” Perry said. However, infected computers could still be remotely controlled to do something else, he added.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10215678-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1009_3-0-20
You must be logged in to post a comment.