The Beagle gets meaner!
A few weeks ago we warned you about the Beagle (or Bagel) J worm. It's a nasty little Worm that uses really clever subject fields and spoofed addresses to gain your trust and get you to open it’s poisonous attachments. This Beagle strain is crafty but you still had to open the attachment to activate the virus.
Well, rules have changed! No longer do you have to open an attachment to activate the new Beagles R-T, as a matter of fact you don’t even need to open the email to activate it. This new strain of Beagle exploits the Microsoft "Internet Explorer Object Tag Vulnerability" which allows an HTML code to be downloaded and executed without any interaction from the end-user. This means if you have your email set to preview the message you could get this virus simply by highlighting the message line in your inbox - unless you are already patched. (To turn off the preview pane, check out our tip...)
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/email-tips/...viewpanefun.htm
Similar to the earlier strains of the Beagle using contacts in the infectee’s address book to propagate itself. The body of the message will appear to be blank but is actually an invisible HTML code that downloads and runs the worm from a remote site. Once the worm is installed it notifies the attacker and opens up ports, looks through your addresses, and sends infected emails to everyone. Once this is done your PC has become the Server that responds to the soon to be infected PCs that were emailed from your infected machine. In addition to this, the attacker has an open back door to your computer to run code on. As with the previous Beagle, this also attempts to replicate itself in networks including file-sharing networks, such as Kazaa, by attaching itself to shared files.
There are a number of different ways to protect yourself from this threat and I’ll start by saying update your Anti-virus. Next, get the Microsoft patch to fix the vulnerability. If you still feel a bit vulnerable, you can even tighten your ActiveX security settings, but it's not really necessary. However, here's how:
Open Internet Explorer and select Tools/Internet Options then the "Security" tab. Under the "Internet" icon click on the "Custom Level" button. Scroll through the list to the "Active X controls and plug-ins" section then under "Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins" select "Prompt". Click OK. Again, not a big deal if you have already installed the MS patch, but there it is if you want it.
Microsoft Patch
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...n/MS03-040.mspx
Stay safe out there,
A few weeks ago we warned you about the Beagle (or Bagel) J worm. It's a nasty little Worm that uses really clever subject fields and spoofed addresses to gain your trust and get you to open it’s poisonous attachments. This Beagle strain is crafty but you still had to open the attachment to activate the virus.
Well, rules have changed! No longer do you have to open an attachment to activate the new Beagles R-T, as a matter of fact you don’t even need to open the email to activate it. This new strain of Beagle exploits the Microsoft "Internet Explorer Object Tag Vulnerability" which allows an HTML code to be downloaded and executed without any interaction from the end-user. This means if you have your email set to preview the message you could get this virus simply by highlighting the message line in your inbox - unless you are already patched. (To turn off the preview pane, check out our tip...)
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/email-tips/...viewpanefun.htm
Similar to the earlier strains of the Beagle using contacts in the infectee’s address book to propagate itself. The body of the message will appear to be blank but is actually an invisible HTML code that downloads and runs the worm from a remote site. Once the worm is installed it notifies the attacker and opens up ports, looks through your addresses, and sends infected emails to everyone. Once this is done your PC has become the Server that responds to the soon to be infected PCs that were emailed from your infected machine. In addition to this, the attacker has an open back door to your computer to run code on. As with the previous Beagle, this also attempts to replicate itself in networks including file-sharing networks, such as Kazaa, by attaching itself to shared files.
There are a number of different ways to protect yourself from this threat and I’ll start by saying update your Anti-virus. Next, get the Microsoft patch to fix the vulnerability. If you still feel a bit vulnerable, you can even tighten your ActiveX security settings, but it's not really necessary. However, here's how:
Open Internet Explorer and select Tools/Internet Options then the "Security" tab. Under the "Internet" icon click on the "Custom Level" button. Scroll through the list to the "Active X controls and plug-ins" section then under "Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins" select "Prompt". Click OK. Again, not a big deal if you have already installed the MS patch, but there it is if you want it.
Microsoft Patch
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...n/MS03-040.mspx
Stay safe out there,