Miss World Virus finds few takers
Internet vandals have created an email-borne virus which attempts to
trick users into spreading it by promising pictures of Miss World
candidates.
The Miss World bug is yet another mass mailing worm, which uses
exactly the same tricks as the Anna Kournikova virus, Hompage bug
(et all) to spread.
The latest bug contains a highly damaging payload, which among
other things attempts to format a user's hard disk drive and overwrite
essential Windows files (including system.dat). However early
indications are that it is not spreading - giving rise to the hope users
have finally learned their lesson about suspicious email attachments.
MessageLabs, a managed services firm which scans its user's for
malicious code, has intercepted just two copies of the bug. Last
week a virus which promised to offers naked pictures of Jennifer
Lopez also proved to be something of a damp squib - so maybe the
old tactic of using sex to spread infectious code is running out of
steam, we hope.
The Miss World virus arrives as an infected attachment in an email
from a source the potential victim is likely to know, because it
spreads by forwarding itself to addresses obtained from an infected
user's Microsoft Outlook address book. In this case the message is
likely to have the subject line "Miss World" and a message featuring
the phrase "Enjoy the latest pictures of Miss World from various
Country".
According to antivirus firm Sophos, opening the infected attachment
(which might be called 'MWld.exe', 'MWrld.exe' or 'MissWorld.exe')
launches a flash animation featuring a birthday cake and the
message "I fall more in love with you each day!"
The worm also shows images claiming to be contestants in the Miss
World beauty contest. Images shown include those claiming to be
Miss Africa (who appears with her head replaced with that of a
gorilla) and Miss UK (whose head is replaced with Rowan
Atkinson's Mr Bean)
