Gladiator Research and Security

Security researchers have seen a new worm, called Waledac, quickly spreading throughout many networks.  Many of these researchers feel that Waledac bears a striking resemblance to one of the most devastating worms of all time, Storm.  Like the Storm worm, Waledac is spread through emails that appear to be holiday themed “e-cards.”  So far, users and researchers have seen both Christmas and Valentine’s Day e-cards being used.

Recently, researchers have discovered millions of PC’s that have been infected with the Conficker worm, also commonly known as Downup and Downadup.  Conficker is a rather nasty worm that can quickly spread itself around networks once entering in a few possible ways.  The majority of systems are first compromised via a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Server service.  This vulnerability, described in MS08-67, could allow remote code execution through specially crafted NETBIOS traffic.  The worm has also been found on compromised web servers and can be installed when users try to view web pages served by the compromised server.