Mydoom.b has programming flaws
Mydoom.b isn’t as virulent as was first feared, says Mikko Hyppoenen of Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure.
This variant of Mydoom.a, due to hit Microsoft and SCO Group, was thought to have been far more dangerous than the first since it builds on existing features, as well as adding extra ones.
But further testing has revealed programming flaws with the Mydoom.b version, says an AFP report here.
“It’s in the wild, but it’s not spreading nearly as high as everybody expected,” Hyppoenen says. “Our best bet is that there are some bugs in the virus’ computer code that we have not been able to find yet.”
Ominously, however, “It’s quite likely that we will have a new version soon, there is nothing holding the creator back, especially since the B version did not turn out to be that successful,” he’s quoted as saying by AFP.
The first worm targetted SCO on Sunday and this latest rev again aims at SCO, but this time also has Microsoft in its sights.
However – there are concerns that the SCO and Microsoft attacks might in effect be smoke-screens designed to take attention away from the fact that the bugs open backdoors in infected computers so the e-bug’s author can later remotely enter the machines at will, for whatever purpose.
