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Windows 'Worm' Virus Slithers

Computer Associates identifies virus that travels through Outlook.

By Kathleen Ohlson, Computerworld   

Computer Associates International discovered the worm, Win32/Melting.worm, on Tuesday, when customers started to find it in their e-mail systems, says Narender Mangalam, director of security solutions at CA. So far, it has hit some Fortune 1000 software companies, he says.

"The risk level is moderate, and it hasn't caused too much damage because we believe we've caught it in time," Mangalam says. CA markets InoculateIT, a virus detection and prevention program.

The Melting Worm is unleashed through Microsoft's Outlook running on Windows 95, 98, 2000, or NT, according to CA representatives. Once launched, the worm puts a copy of itself into a Windows directory as MeltingScreen.exe and remains in memory. Files with .exe extensions in a system's Windows directory are renamed with .bin extensions.

As the worm renames files, including ones critical to operating Windows, these changes may render the operating system useless.

The worm also starts to e-mail itself to all the names in a victim's Outlook address book and randomly executes other .exe files, Mangalam says. This potentially can take down a company's e-mail system.

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