viral warning (all seems calm)

From: Pamela Tom (pdtom@ucdavis.edu)
Date: Sun Dec 02 2001 - 19:48:26 PST

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    To: Seafood HACCP Mailing List
         IFT Seafood Technology Division Mailing List

    Fr: Pamela Tom, UC Davis HACCP, and IFT Division List Owner

    Please excuse the cross posts in case you are receiving duplicate
    messages.

    Fortunately, the mailing lists have NOT transmitted the worm described
    below. BUT, some of the mailing list subscribers are infected, and are
    sending me messages directly.

    Therefore, I want to alert you to be cautious of messages that contain the
    words, "Audio/X-WAV 39kb; 'Attached Text'" that you might receive from
    your colleagues.

    For the past couple of days I've been receiving these weird messages.
    Initially I thought that they were worms, but I couldn't find any
    definitions either with McAfee or Symantec and I didn't recognize the
    senders.

    However, today I received messages from two different colleagues on the
    HACCP mailing list and the IFT Seafood Technology Division mailing list.
    They have been notified that their subscription has been deleted until
    they can disinfect their computer.

    Consequently I became more diligent in trying to track the worm, and I
    found its identity:

                         W32.Badtrans.B@mm

    Information on the worm is on the web at:

    http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.badtrans.b@mm.html
    http://vil.mcafee.com/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=99069&

    The message text of each worm is consistent and contains the text in the
    body of the message: audio/X-WAV, attached text. The worm also modifies
    the sender's e-mail address. In today's two messages, the worm added "_"
    at the beginning of the subscriber's e-mail address. An actual example of
    the message is attached below:

    >From _name@food.teithe.gr Sun Dec 2 19:02:11 2001
    Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2001 08:29:05 +0200 (EET)
    From: name <_name@food.teithe.gr>
    To: pdtom@ucdavis.edu
    Subject: Re: IFT Annual Meeting Information on the Website

        [ Part 2, Audio/X-WAV 39KB. ]
        [ Unable to print this part. ]

        [ Part 3: "Attached Text" ]

    NOTE TO SEAFOOD HACCP MAILING LIST SUBSCRIBERS, the University of
    California's computer folks are meeting December 13, 2001 to discuss
    firewall options in preventing the transimission of viruses via mailing
    lists. The computer folks estimate that the software will cost about
    $80,000 to purchase. I informed the computer folks of my endorsement for
    anti virus protection for the mailing list and that the viral damage
    resulting in countless work hours lost are far greater than the cost of
    the software. Hopefully in mid-December I'll have some positive news to
    share about UCD and its firewall policy. (Currently, there is no
    firewall. However, over Thanksgiving weekend, there were numerous viruses
    that affected other systems on campus. This mailing list and the
    SeafoodNIC were spared.)

    --------------------------------------------------------------
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    Files from the seafood HACCP listserv are now archived at:
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    --------------------------------------------------------------
    ======================================================================
    Pamela Tom, Program Representative - Sea Grant Extension Program
    Web: http://seafood.ucdavis.edu - Seafood Network Information Center
    Mailing Address: Food Science & Technology Dept.
                      University of California
                      One Shields Avenue
                      Davis, CA 95616-8598 USA



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