Trojan trap set at 'Survivor' site

A Web site likely to attract fans of the CBS-owned television series Survivor could contain a nasty surprise for its visitors.

The site, owned by a party that has licensed the word "survivor" in a top-level US domain -- not linked to the television network -- today contained a smorgasbord of malicious code embedded in HTML scripts.

A concerned Web user alerted ZDNet Australia about the site after noticing that content on the site had triggered his anti-virus software.

Users who visit the site without adequate anti-virus protection on their PCs are at risk of being infected by three trojans coded into scripts maliciously embedded in its content: VBS/Psyme, Debeski and Java Script/IE.startgen.d.

The trojans take advantage of known exploits in Microsoft ActiveX, Internet Explorer and Java virtual machine.

While anti-virus vendors only rank the script trojans as moderate or low risks, they may be designed to prompt a computer accessing the site to automatically download a secondary payload from another location on the Internet.

At this stage anti-virus vendors that ZDNet Australia approached today have not revealed what the payload is, but miscreants have recently contrived similar forms of attack into maliciously designed HTML e-mails MessageLabs detected this month.

Advertisement

Talkback 3 comments

    I don't care. I'm still voting ...Anonymous -- 14/05/04

    I don't care. I'm still voting for Rupert!

    How about listing the name of ...Anonymous -- 16/05/04

    How about listing the name of the web page. Is it the CBS site or another site that comes up if you are doing a search. I like the idea of having a warning, but at least give all the details of the affected site.

    It says its "not linked t ...Anonymous -- 17/05/04

    It says its "not linked to the television network ". And obviously they didn't give the location because they don't want people to get infected.

Add your opinion

Latest Videos

Sponsored content

Power Centre - Content from our premier sponsors

Blogs

  • David Braue Can not-so-smart meters help the NBN?
    It was interesting to witness Conroy's recent enthusiasm to spruik the NBN's role in supporting the Smart Grid, Smart City initiative. What a pity that Conroy hadn't yet seen the damning report from the Victorian auditor-general about that state's smart-meter roll-out.
  • Array Can the Telco Reform Act be win-win?
    In the second of our two programs looking at the Senate Inquiry into the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment Bill, we hear from shareholders, bureaucrats and industry groups.
  • Array Has New Zealand's smiling assassin delivered?
    One year into its tenure, how has the new New Zealand Government performed on issues of technology and telecommunications?
  • More blogs »

Tags

Back to top

Featured