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December 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Santa IM worm leaves virtual coal
A new worm exploiting Santa Claus is making its way around the IM networks of AOL, MSN, and Yahoo. The worm, called IM.GiftCom.All, tries to get unsuspecting users to click on a link to a Santa Claus Web site.
Because the links appear to come from trusted contacts, IM worms can be particularly effective in duping users into opening malicious files.
In the case of IM.GiftCom.All, the offending link can install a rootkit payload on the user's computer, according to IM vendor IMlogic.
The rootkit is usually named gift.com and it hides on the user's system, where it attempts to shutdown desktop antivirus software and starts collecting the infected user's information for broadcast over the Internet, according to IMlogic.
Infected users may also spread the worm by unwittingly sending the Santa Web site URL to people on their buddy list.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on December 20, 2005 02:28 PM
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