Antivirus companies warned PC users Tuesday that future Macromedia Flash movies could carry malicious viruses and worms.
The caution came after an unknown virus writer sent just such an infectious program to U.K. antivirus company Sophos. Dubbed SWF/LFM-926, the new program does little but infect Flash files on a PC when the movie is played.
"It's really a proof of concept, as opposed to something that you should lie awake at night worrying about," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for the Abingdon, England-based company. "But whenever a new vulnerability like this is found, other copycats tend to create more malicious variants."
The SWF/LFM-926 should mainly be a concern to Web site designers who use Flash animations to add pizzazz to their sites, Cluley said. Flash technology, created by digital media company Macromedia, is typically used on sites to add interactive user interfaces and multimedia presentations.
Macromedia went even further, calling the vulnerability through which the virus spread "not that serious."
"Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time, people play Flash movies from the Web in their browser," said Pete Santangeli, vice president of engineering for Flash at the San Francisco company. "That's completely safe."
It's only when a Flash file or movie is played on a PC through a standalone player included with Macromedia's authoring tools for Web designers that this type of virus can actually infect a PC.
When the infected Flash movie is played, the virus displays the message "Loading.Flash.Movie..." and drops a 926-byte DOS file onto the PC. This file--named V.COM--is run by the virus and infects all other Flash files in the current directory. The SWF/LFM-926 virus' name is derived from the abbreviation for Shockwave Flash, as Macromedia Flash used to be known, the displayed message and the size of the file.
The virus will infect only Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems, but has not yet been seen circulating the Internet. Moreover, since the virus doesn't have a way to spread quickly, it's unlikely to infect a large number of PCs in its current form, said Craig Schmugar, virus research engineer for security-software maker Network Associates.
"It won't be a very effective spreading method if they only use Shockwave Flash," he said, citing NAI tests that confirmed the virus will not spread when the Macromedia Flash is played in a Web browser.
"It is a double-edged sword," he said. "They have given their authoring community an ability to create increased functionality. For the most part, Macromedia has been strict about security; it would have been difficult for them to see this coming."
The virus is not the first to try to fool those PC users with a weakness for Flash movies. In December 1999, the ProLin worm spread through e-mail by posing as a Flash movie, but in reality it was a simple Windows program file.
SWF/LFM-926 is a pure virus, meaning the program infects files and can only spread when the compromised file is moved to another system.
Macromedia will release a workaround to disable the file association between Flash files and the local Flash player within a couple of days, Macromedia's Santangeli said. In addition, the company plans to close the hole in the player by the next version.
For the time being, e-mail users will have to add the SWF file format to their list of attachments of which to be wary.
"Just as we have seen a first Adobe Acrobat file infector and the first AutoCAD file infector, this is just a new way to get into the PC," Sophos' Cluley said. "It does show that the virus writers are always looking for new battlegrounds."
MACS R FAIL. LINUX is a lot better. basically linus ripped their OS from Mac, but hey who cares? it runs a lot better. and less overheat (laptops)
I know a guy who's worked on developing Linux...
And sure, Linux is pretty awesome. When it works. It kept crashing on my PC.
Of course, my PC was crappy, but still.
Macs are not fail just because there might be something better out there. Things are not fail because they're not THE BEST. Grayzones, dear. Remember they exist.
Also... No, I really have nothing to be on topic with. :<
Macs are not fail just because there might be something better out there. Things are not fail because they're not THE BEST. Grayzones, dear. Remember they exist.
well macs overheat like crazy, I played Spore (tm) on my sister's mac book pro, the thing's internal temp shot up to 60 degrees C. seriously... 2 fans...and it can't cool a laptop.
Yeah. If you don't have real proof from real sources then don't post it.
Agreed. I can post many things that look real, but are completely bogus. Although, I've seen this before, but from only European sources.
Well, not really relevant to the topic, and Zophia already asked him to remember the source. Besides that, it is no problem to find the article on a various number of websites. Whether or not they are reliable is up to you to determine.
Good thing I have a Mac
Well, maybe use said mac's keyboard to write longer, more relevant posts.
Anyway, I trust in my anti virus programme (I hope it trust in me), and well... There is vira out there always, you can hardly do anything anymore. Like eat potatoes. Oh wait, that is cancer... Critique and a anti virus programme, and hope for the best.
Well, maybe use said mac's keyboard to write longer, more relevant posts.
My post is relevant the OP said this virus was for PC users and I have a Mac. Macs can't get Viruses that are for windows and they have a very reliable anti-virus program and spyware program to prevent the very few viruses that are for Mac
Um, this really isn't news. There are vulnerabilities in almost every piece of software ever written, and developers try to patch up most of the holes before their boat sinks.
There was a Javascript vulnerability in Adobe Reader for god's sake.
My post is relevant the OP said this virus was for PC users and I have a Mac. Macs can't get Viruses that are for windows and they have a very reliable anti-virus program and spyware program to prevent the very few viruses that are for Mac
Now, that was not that hard, now was it? What I meant was that simply writing you have an mac is not really constructive for the debate, and could have been left out without changing the course of the debate.
I also think more people should get Macs. :P They're no 100% virus proof, but there sure as heck isn't nearly as many risks.
Well, in the other direction; if more people own Macs, there will be more vulnerabilities seeing as the greater % of those interested in hacking/infecting machines will be programming their malware to effect macs, since they would be a larger part of the computing demographic.
As for the warning? It's nothing new from a security perspective.
