RSSNew AIM Worm Dupes iTunes Fans
By Ed Oswald | Published July 21, 2005, 1:29 PM
A new worm has been discovered on the AOL Instant Messenger service that dupes users into thinking it is a file for the popular iTunes music player software. The worm appears in an IM with the message "this picture never gets old" and a link to what appears to be an image URL. However, it is not an image and is rather an executable file called "iTunes.exe" which will install several spyware applications including "Internet Optimizer," "Media Ticket," and "180 Search Assistant."
Trend Micro, which discovered the worm and issued a warning about it, said that the file also opens a "backdoor" allowing hackers to send commands to the computer from an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) chat room. The hackers could download or execute files on the machine as well as send AIM messages to other users on the infected user's buddy list. The worm affects all versions of Microsoft Windows.
If it requires one to execute it, how does one become infected? I'm at a lost...What would you open ITUNE.exe anyway...just go download the actual one from Mac website if you need one...
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|Hey, it's a link from an untrusted sender! Let's click it! What? It was an image but now it's actually an executable file? Let's run it. (I mean, it says iTunes, so it HAS to be OK.)
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|im so with you man.... but hey not everyone can be smart...
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|These are some of the worst adware/spyware programs around. And they're a pain in the a** to remove particularly that Internet Optimizer.
They should have been busted a long time ago...
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|Even if the filename woud be Worm.exe people will still open it! This worm I think is made by an advertising company :)
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|If you use even 1% of your brain this shouldn't be a problem.
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|Yeah but the problem is most computer users don't.
Thats also pretty large for a percentage since the average person only uses 10% actively.
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|real mp3 listeners will not be affected though ;-)
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