The Register®

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/29/trojan_calling_card/

Virtual postcard delivers Trojan

VXers deliver spyware calling card

By John Leyden

Posted in Security, 29th June 2005 10:29 GMT

Watch Now : Virtual Machine Movement with Hyper-V

A spam campaign that poses as a virtual postcard delivery is being used to lure surfers into infecting their PCs with a Trojan horse.

Windows users who follow the web link in the junk emails are roped into visiting a website which exploits well known vulnerabilities to install the Clsldr-D [1] Trojan horse and other malicious code onto vulnerable PCs. The malicious emails are being sent from a variety of domain names.

"There's a very real risk that some people will think one of these emails is from a long forgotten friend or work colleague and follow the link out of curiosity," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for anti-virus firm Sophos. "If you receive an unexpected virtual postcard it may prove wise to simply delete it."

The use of bogus e-cards to deliver malware is fairly uncommon but not unprecedented (examples here [2] and here [3]). The revival of the tactic illustrates that malware these days is delivered as often through maliciously constructed websites as via infected email attachments. ®

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