hey guys,

I just received an e-mail from someone that I usually don't exchange e-mails with... just a technical correspondant... the subject of the email was:

Zach Van Nest

and the attachment was:

Zach Van Nest.xls.lnk
(multiple extension)



at first, I had no idea what the email was about... and I read the body of the e-mail and it was just plainly stated: "need your advice on this" (or something like that, i forgot exactly)

I saved the attachment to my desktop, and I read the email again... the message got my curiosity but the simplicity of the message also got me suspicious... a random person emailing me asking for advice... lol

so I goto google and search for "Zach Van Nest" and I come up with nothing but random names.. nothing about virus...

since i got a new HD, i didn't have a virus program installed and altho i searched for it ... i couldn't find the CD (go figure).

well, i went to the usual virus sites looking for those online virus checking things... then i went to panda's site and tried the online virus checker thingie... scanned my emails and BOOM - the exact same email was shown to be infected with W32.Sircam.Worm!

so, i goto mcafee to research on this worm... and it was added 7/17/01... just tuesday!

well... i read the article... searched for the files that indicates the infection and found none... checked the registries and found no suspicious entries... so im safe (i think)...

next thing i know, i goto norton's site and it shows in big letters .. "Virus Alert" and similar to McAfee....

just a warning... don't ever run attachments unless you are expecting it!

Any attachments I get I'll only open from known individuals and even then, if it's not something I expected I send them a note asking what it is and wait for a response. The viruses aren't built to reply yet. :)

yea... thats what im afraid of... that word... 'yet'


arg... why do people waste their time making viruses... maybe we should infect them with ebola and let them know what it feels like to be infected with a virus... errr, nvrmind thats just the morbid side of my mind talking ;)

g'luck

if a file has double extension it is usually a virus

Someone emailed me that virus three days ago, before it was detectable by any of the virus scanning tools. Of course I was suspicious, given that it came from someone I had never corresponded with before and it was talking about a travel expense report.

I submitted the virus to a number of the virus hunting companies for inspection; I think I must have been one of the first people to see this one.

I usually get all the viruses the first day they come out ...but i didn't got that one. :( Can i have it? :D!!

Originally posted by Kiwi
I usually get all the viruses the first day they come out ...but i didn't got that one. :( Can i have it? :D!!

:eek: What's wrong with you ! ? ?

:D

Actually I happen to know . . . . .

aw. . . .never mind :rolleyes:

How do you stop all attachments from passing through your server...especially inbound emails. Is there a way to parse them from the email?

This is for a linux 6.2 server

john

Yea my girlfriend downloaded it off her hotmail to my PC. It wiped out all exe's except internet explorer (including norton). Lucly I was able to go to virus.com and run a batch program that removed it and then install norton antivirus again and all seemed to be resored. I got lucky and my girl has been forbayed from downloading junk to my PC now :)