[thelist] [ADMIN] Trojan alert

Madhu Menon webguru at vsnl.net
Sun Nov 10 21:27:02 CST 2002


Hi folks.

This is just a note to let you know that a new virus or Trojan is on the
loose, and I'm posting a warning here only because it looks fairly
convincing and may fool many people.

Yesterday, thelist admin address (which is not used for anything but
handling admin matters for thelist) received a mail purporting to be from
Yahoo. The text of message said:

[message]

From: support at games.yahoo.com
To: thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org
Date: 10 Nov 02 21:21:02
Subject: Yahoo! Games
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200

Yahoo! Team is proud to present our new surprise
for clients of Yahoo! and Yahoo! Mail.

We plan to send you the best Yahoo! Games weekly.
This new service is free and it's a gift for the 5th
anniversary of Yahoo!. We hope that you would like it.

The whole Yahoo! Team want to express our gratitude to
you, the people who help us to improve Yahoo! so much,
that it became the most popular worldwide portal.

Thank You!

We do our best to serve you.

-------------
Yahoo! Team.
www.Yahoo.com

<<Attached file: Yahoo!Chess.exe>>

[/message]

It looks convincing at first glance. The mail headers, however, show that
it came through a server in Bulgaria, and it's clearly a virus/trojan. The
attached file, Yahoo!Chess.exe *didn't* trigger any virus alerts on my copy
of Norton Antivirus so I haven't clicked on it. A search on Google shows
that it's the W32/Oror-B virus. Actually, it's a mass-mailing worm. From
the virus description, it pretends to be from many a credible source.
http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99787.htm
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32ororb.html

That, and the fact that Yahoo is 8 years old (founded in 1994) and not 5,
exposes this as a hoax.

I'm done now. Please go back to your regular work now, and keep your eyes
open. :)

Regards,

Madhu


<<<   *   >>>
Madhu Menon
Admin - http://www.evolt.org
madhu at members.evolt.org





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