Waledac worm targeting July 4 spam offensive
The Waledac worm is gearing up for a spam campaign related to the July 4 holiday, a security researcher warned on Thursday.
Researchers analyzing the code of the worm, which has been deploying updates to previously compromised PCs, have discovered that at least 18 domain names have been registered related to fireworks and Independence Day that will be used to trick people into visiting a malicious Web site, said Pierre-Marc Bureau, a senior researcher at antivirus vendor ESET.
Starting any time now and lasting through the weekend, the spam e-mails will arrive in in-boxes with a message urging the recipient to watch a July 4 video. The e-mails are expected to include a link to a site with an executable that, instead of playing a video when double-clicked, will download malware that turns the visiting PC into another bot on the botnet, Bureau said.
The operators of Waledac are using holidays and other current events to lure new victims in order expand their botnet, and it's likely they are leasing out the botnet services to others, he said. Earlier this year, Waledac exploited Valentine's Day, spamming people with fake romantic greetings.
It is estimated that there are tens of thousands of computers infected with Waledac and that more than 20,000 will be used in the July 4 spam campaign, according to Bureau.
More information is on the ESET blog.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
There was ONE to date. In a manipulated, pirated copy of iWork. Folks who steal software get what they deserve.
And if correcting your endless stream of anti-Mac FUD makes me a troll, I'm fine with that.
"There was ONE to date. "
There's several now, to be honest. Got to keep up to date on these things when your job is supporting Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X systems. And yes, nearly all these come from illegal sites or pirated software. It doesn't matter what OS you use when you go out on the internet without protection or common sense.
Only been 30 minutes and the trolls are out in force.
This is about Waledac, in case u didn't actually read the article. Waledac is a Windows based worm. It only effects Windows.
His comment, while seemingly inappropriate, actually made sense. His iMac can't be effected by this attack.
- by baconstang July 2, 2009 12:26 PM PDT
- The article wasn't clear about windows only at first glance. I guess there are Mac botnets... at least that's what dark side keeps telling us.
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- by tm_anon July 5, 2009 9:03 PM PDT
- It's about Waledac. Waledac is Windows only and was mentioned in the article title as well as the body of the article.
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