New Trojan Horse Targets Microsoft Office Word 2003

Discussion in 'spyware news and general information' started by NICK ADSL UK, May 19, 2006.

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  1. NICK ADSL UK

    NICK ADSL UK Administrator

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    Microsoft Word users should be extra careful about the files they download because hackers are exploiting an unpatched vulnerability in the popular word-processing software.

    Security vendor McAfee warned users Thursday of a new Trojan horse program, called BackDoor-CKB!cfaae1e6, that secretly installs software on a computer. For the program to work, however, hackers must first trick users into opening a malicious Word document. Once that has been done, the results can be nasty.

    Installed, the malware lets hackers "execute any external commands, download additional Trojans, capture desktop screen shots, monitor and record keystrokes or passwords," McAfee said in a statement on its Web site.

    Unlike viruses and worms, Trojan horse programs do not make copies of themselves that keep spreading throughout the Internet. Hackers directly distribute the programs, which are often disguised as useful or interesting downloads.

    Symantec confirmed that hackers are circulating the malware via malicious Word document e-mail attachments. But at present its use is "limited to attacks against select targets," Symantec said in a note on its DeepSight threat analysis service. The Trojan horse works on Microsoft Word 2003, but causes Word 2000 to crash without installing the malware, Symantec said.

    http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125798,00.asp
     
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