The Hindu Business Line : Sasser pattern of attack changing

SYMANTEC, the Internet security solutions provider, has tracked 23 submissions for Sasser.B, the Internet worm rated as Level 4, in India. Pattern of attack is changing and vulnerabilities are being exploited.

Currently, the Symantec Security Response is seeing 150 submissions per hour.

``Over the last several weeks Symantec security response has monitored a shift in malicious threat propagation,'' said Mr Alfred Huger, Senior Director, Symantec Security Response, in a statement.

``During the first several months of the year, most of the threats we tracked spread through e-mail. However, now we are tracking more threats that are exploiting vulnerabilities to spread. Users need to be diligent in patching systems, updating virus definitions and implementing best practice solutions.''

Within recent weeks, several critical vulnerabilities have been disclosed and in some cases, worms and other automated tools have been launched exploiting these vulnerabilities.

Exploit code has been made publicly available for all of these vulnerabilities.

The W32.Sasser.B.Worm attempts to exploit the vulnerability and has impacted systems worldwide.

This spreads by scanning randomly chosen IP addressed for vulnerable system.

If the system is promised, an attacker could gain complete control of the machine and perform actions on the affected machine similar to a user or administrator, such as erasing files and stealing information.