Teen uses worm to boost popularity

Using a self-propagating worm that exploits a scripting vulnerability common to most dynamic websites, a Los Angeles teenager made himself the most popular member of community website MySpace.com earlier this month.

While the attack caused little damage, the technique could be used to destroy website data or steal private information — even from enterprise users behind protected networks, according to an internet security firm.

The unknown 19-year-old, who used the name "Samy," put a small bit of code in his user profile on MySpace, a 32-million member site, most of whom are under age 30. Whenever Samy's profile was viewed, the code was executed in the background, adding Samy to the viewer's list of friends and writing at the bottom of their profile, "... and Samy is my hero."

"This is an attack on the users of the website, using the website itself," says Jeremiah Grossman, chief technical officer at WhiteHat Security.