[Alsfastball] New Bagle Variant Called 'Worst of the Year'

[Al Doran]

New Bagle Variant Called 'Worst of the Year'

New Bagle Variant Called 'Worst of the Year'
By <mailto:dennis_fisher at ziffdavis.com>Dennis Fisher
July 19, 2004 <http://www.eweek.com/article2/#talkback>
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Another version of the tenacious Bagle virus is on the loose, and some 
security experts and administrators say it is among the more persistent 
viruses they've seen all year.

Bagle.AI, which was discovered Monday, is quite similar to the 
<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1623365,00.asp>dozens of other 
variants in its family, and there seems to be little reason for its success 
rate. It arrives via e-mail, usually with a subject line of "Re:" and a 
spoofed sending address. The body text is random, as is the name of the 
attachment.

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The attachment has one of several file extensions, including .scr, .exe, 
.zip, .cpl and .com. In some instances, the Zip file is password-protected, 
in which case the body of the infected e-mail includes a password, pass and 
key, all of which are random numbers, according to McAfee Inc.'s analysis 
of the worm. The name of the attachment often contains the term MP3 in one 
form or another.

Once it executes, Bagle.AI copies itself to the Windows System directory in 
a file named WinXP.exe and opens TCP port 1080 and UDP port 1040. It 
appears that the worm uses these ports to communicate with its creator and 
report back each time it infects a new machine.



McAfee, based in Santa Clara, Calif., said it received more than 150 
submissions of Bagle.AI on Monday. Bill Franklin, president of Miami-based 
Zero Spam Network Corp., which provides a managed e-mail security and 
anti-spam service, said his company's servers have been bombarded by copies 
of the new variant all day.

"This is by far the worst one of the year," Franklin said.

The latest member of the Bagle family is the fourth variant to be released 
since Thursday, when 
<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1624336,00.asp>Bagle.AF hit the 
Internet.