A new and possibly more virulent version of the "Code Red" computer worm was detected circulating the Internet over the weekend, attacking machines and leaving them vulnerable to other intruders, a leading Internet security site reported.
The Systems Administration, Networking and Security Institute (SANS) said in an advisory on its Web site that the latest variant of the computer virus seems to leave a "back door" in infected systems that makes them easy for an intruder to infiltrate.
Code Red surreptitiously infects computers running Microsoft's Windows NT or 2000 operating systems and its IIS Web server software and then makes infected machines scan the Internet for more victims.
If the new worm spreads as quickly as last week's Code Red outbreak, hundreds of thousands of Web sites could be left open to computer hackers. Machines that had already been "patched" with Microsoft software aimed at thwarting the virus were not vulnerable to the new Code Red, computer experts said.
The SANS Institute said several sources reported that the number of probes to their home networks had increased and that a new worm, similar to Code Red, started circulating Saturday.
The Internet security Web site said the most obvious difference between previous variants of Code Red and the latest one was that Web server logs will record a GET request containing "XXXXXX" instead of the familiar "NNNNNN'" of Code Red.
Code Red first became a threat in mid-July, when the worm hit some 350,000 machines, including the official White House Web site.
White House technicians had to change the IP address, the series of numbers and dots that identifies the physical address of each machine connected to the Internet, to avoid being shut down by the worm.
Last week, another version of the worm infected an estimated 300,000 computers worldwide, but it did not cause any measurable impact on Web performance.
Some undisclosed Web sites, however, had to be taken off-line because the worm halted or overloaded routers and systems. The worm also knocked out Web servers at companies of various sizes as it commandeered them to scan for new victims.
The worm spreads by latching onto computer servers and then randomly sending itself to 100 other IP addresses, which in turn start scanning the Internet for more computers to hit.
Why doesn't Telstra shut down the customer servers which are propagating the code red virus?? Customers who have not implemented the Microsoft patch BY NOW, should be shut down.
If I thought their ABUSE centre would act (which they have never done in the past) I would send them 2 days of logs from Zone Alarm which clearly indicate the code red attacks and the IP addresses of the offenders.
TECH Support ASSURE me that the Telstra ADSL servers are protected. Why don't I trust or believe them???