A new variant of this massive e-mail virus has emerged and infiltrated Internet users' mailboxes with fake quote messages.
Like previous versions, Bagle.AQ is spread through attachments in compressed e-mail in ZIP format. Both the name of the attachment and the content of the message contain different information but are related to the words "price" or "new price".
According to Vincent Gullotto, Vice President of McAfee's Rapid Response Center, the difference in the new virus is that it contains a JavaScript code that has been available for three years. Once activated, this code will lead the victim's computer to various web sites to get the Bagle code.
Bagle.AQ began to spread from yesterday morning and quickly became a headache for some corporate e-mail systems with thousands of messages bearing the virus.
Gullotto said that such a rapid onset of the virus was due to the fact that it exploited the JavaScript trick and targeted a very large number of original e-mail addresses. "Hackers use a technique very similar to spamming to launch new viruses," Gullotto said.
However, similar tricks will not be able to help this variant persist as long as the mail filtering system begins to update and block. "I do not think Balge.AQ will last more than 24 hours," Gullotto said. "We should be prepared for another version."
The first Bagle virus appeared earlier this year and is a typical e-mail worm that is typical of this kind of destructive program. To date, the Bagle family has produced dozens of variants, the peak time is the authors of this virus "compared" with the author of NetSky virus.
