Singing worm abuses victims

01 Feb 2005 16:20

Not only does the Cisum.A worm pose a security risk, it also taunts those who activate it

A worm that sings abuse as it infects a PC was discovered late last week by Panda Software, an antivirus firm.

Once the worm, dubbed Cisum.A, infects a computer, it displays the message, "You are an idiot" accompanied by chorus of people singing the words.

"I thought it was ingenious," said Mark Price, technical director for Panda. "It doesn't really do anything different from other viruses, but it shouts 'You're an idiot.' Most of them don't shout at you. That's a new one on me."

The worm travels as an email attachment called Project.exe. When opened, the file copies itself to the Windows registry and disables antivirus programs and firewalls, leaving computers more vulnerable to attack. It also stops variants of competing worms Bagle and Netsky from running. It then sends itself to contacts in the Outlook address book and looks for networked computers to infect.

An MP3 file of the "you are an idiot" chant can be downloaded here.

Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39186086,00.htm