The newest variant, dubbed "Mighty," exploits the same Linux Web server flaw that other versions of the Slapper worm have used to slice through the security on vulnerable servers. Russian antivirus company Kaspersky Labs said in a release Friday that more . . .
The newest variant, dubbed "Mighty," exploits the same Linux Web server flaw that other versions of the Slapper worm have used to slice through the security on vulnerable servers. Russian antivirus company Kaspersky Labs said in a release Friday that more than 1,600 servers had been infected by this latest variant as of Friday morning and are now controlled by the worm via special channels on the Internet relay chat system.

"In this way, 'Mighty' is able to leak out confidential information, corrupt important data, and also use infected machines to conduct distributed (denial of service) attacks and other nasty activities," Kaspersky Labs said in the advisory.

Slapper.D, also known as "DevNull," appeared on the Internet on Monday, according to security software firm Symantec. While the original Slapper worm and previous variants all created a homegrown peer-to-peer network to communicate among themselves, DevNull used a well-known hacking tool--called "Kaiten"--to let the compromised servers talk with their creator via a channel on Internet chat, said Elias Levy, security architect for Symantec.

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