Global worm blasts Windows

An internet worm called 8216;8216;Blaster8217;8217; that attacks Windows operating systems spread across the globe on Tuesday, infecting...

An internet worm called 8216;8216;Blaster8217;8217; that attacks Windows operating systems spread across the globe on Tuesday, infecting and crashing home and office computers faster than technicians could install safeguards. A computer security expert said the worm, which specifically targets computers running Windows XP and Windows 2000, could spread for a few days before tapering off. At least 124,000 computers using Microsoft Corp.8217;s Windows software have been infected worldwide, according to a sample by Symantec Corp.8217;s Security Response sensor network.

8216;8216;Corporate networks are getting hit pretty hard,8217;8217; said Alfred Huger, a senior director of engineering at Symantec. 8216;8216;Hundreds of machines are rebooting throughout the environment.8217;8217;

Johannes Ullrich of the SysAdmin, Auditing, Networking and Security Institute SANS Institute said the rate at which the worm was spreading seemed to be slowing a bit late Tuesday afternoon.

Computers infected by Blaster scan the Internet looking for other machines running Windows that have an open security hole 8212; one that has not been 8216;8216;patched8217;8217; or given a fix from Microsoft. The worm then sends itself to those computers. Windows 2000 and XP computers in North America were getting scanned or infected after being connected to the Internet for an average of 25 minutes, Huger said. Although some corporate networks were slowed by the worm, no impact on overall Internet traffic was detected.

The worm, also called MSBlaster or LoveSan, surfaced on Monday in the US and quickly spread, taking advantage of a security hole discovered last month in Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. Patches for the hole, except for Windows NT 4.0, which the company no longer supports, were put online by Microsoft.

The worm crashes some systems and infects others, but otherwise does no damage, Microsoft said. 8216;8216;It8217;s certainly not a good thing,8217;8217; Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall said. But, 8216;8216;it has not spread at the speed with which more notorious worms, such as Slammer and I Love You and Code Red, did.8217;8217;

That is because the worm was poorly written, according to Symantec8217;s Huger, who said that new variations of it could be more virulent. Because Blaster does not spread through e-mail like worms typically do, most anti-virus software will not block it. However, these applications will let computer owners know if they have been infected and can help clean up the worm. Reuters