Fergie's Tech Blog

IM worm speaks your language

Get outta here! No freekin' way! :-)

Joris Evers writes in C|Net News:

A new MSN Messenger worm often talks to people in their own tongue as it hunts for new victims, security experts have warned.

The worm, dubbed Kelvir.HI, tailors the language of its attack message to the compromised system, said David Jaros, the director of product marketing at security vendor Akonix Systems, on Wednesday. It can send messages in English, Dutch, French, German, Greek (English alphabet), Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Spanish and Turkish, he noted.

"It appears to check which language the Windows client is configured to use," he said. "This is the first time that we have seen a worm that checks the system settings and then sends a specific message."

When it hits an English system, the worm sends out the following message: "haha i found your picture!" The message is sent to everybody on a user's contacts list. The message includes a Web link that when clicked on will download malicious software that installs a backdoor and furthers the spread of the worm, Jaros said.

The worm is a variant of the Kelvir pest that first surfaced in February. To date, there have been 103 variants of Kelvir, according to IM security company Akonix.

posted by Fergie @ 8/24/2005 02:52:00 PM