Virus poses as Microsoft security patch

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/0930msvirus.html

By Matt Berger
IDG News Service, 09/30/02 

A virus posing as a security patch from Microsoft is circulating on
the Internet, Microsoft confirmed Monday.

The virus is being distributed in a hoax e-mail that advertises a
patch for a series of vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer
Web browser and Outlook software. The authentic patch for those flaws
was actually released in February. Microsoft said that it has not
updated the patch and that the e-mail is in fact fraudulent.

The e-mail uses a Microsoft address and has the subject line "Internet
Security Update." It tells users to immediately run an attached ".exe"  
file with the name q216309.exe, which a Microsoft spokeswoman
confirmed is a virus.

A similar hoax e-mail was distributed in March carrying the
W32.Gibe@mm worm, which installed a backdoor Trojan if opened that
allowed remote access to a user's computer.

The company first saw the e-mail early Monday after being alerted by
IDG News Service and could not comment on how widely it may have been
distributed. Microsoft is urging users to not run the attachment and
referred users to information on its Web site about other hoax e-mail.




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