An unknown group of VXers has released a new version of the Bagle worm.

Bagle-Y (AKA Cherry Bagle) spreads by either email or network shares. It opens back doors on infected PCs and turns them into zombie clients in DDoS or spam networks. The worm also tries to terminate various security and anti-virus applications, as well as processes associated with the NetSky worm. Most AV vendors rate Bagle-Y, which was first spotted today, as medium-risk.

Finnish AV vendor F-Secure reports that the executable file icon in infected emails "looks like cherries on a stalk". The worm can attach itself as an executable file with COM, EXE, SCR and CPL extension, as a password-protected ZIP archive and VBS or HTA files. The number of spreading mechanisms distinguishes Bagle-Y from its numerous sibblings.

The worm can attach an image of a girl to its message so as to appear more legitimate. There are images of three girls inside the worm's body, F-Secure reports.

As usual, users are advised to minimise risk of infection by not clicking on unknown email attachments. Updating AV signature files is another sensible precaution. Mac and Linux users are - as usual - immune. ®

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