Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Joanna Wolfe (919)677-0977" <wolfe AT oup-usa.org>]

FYI - From information week daily, more on PDF virus

** Not Everything Is Peachy With PDFs

Security firm Vigilinx Inc. is alerting customers of a first-ever worm that 
replicates using an Adobe portable document format (PDF). The PeachyPDF@mm 
worm mass mails itself through Microsoft Outlook. Not only does it send 
itself to 100 addresses from an infected users' address book, it also sends 
itself to the users' alternative E-mail addresses.

Jerry Freese, chief intelligence officer at Vigilinx, says the worm was coded 
by a hacker known as "Zulu," who also wrote the first E-mail worm BubbleBoy. 
"This guy is no script kid; he is an actual virus writer," says Freese. A 
user who opens a Peachy PDF sees a document that reads "You have one minute 
to find the peach!" An icon requests users to double click on an icon to 
"show the solution." If the user does so, and is running the full version of 
Adobe Acrobat--not just the reader--the worm propagates. 

Freese theorizes that the worm is a protest of the recent arrest of the 
hacker Dmitry Skylarov at this year's BlackHat/Defcon 9 conference. Skylarov 
was arrested for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He was going 
to deliver a presentation about reverse engineering Adobe E-books. "There are 
a lot of upset hackers about this," says Freese. He stresses that the only 
danger is jammed E-mail servers: Peachy doesn't pack a powerful payload. 
According to Vigilinx, users can download the latest virus definitions from 
Symantec, McAfee, and Central Command. - George V. Hulme

For more on this topic, read
Full Disclosure
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eEJZ0Bc5mz0510Quq0Ag

Service Kills Viruses Dead
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eEJZ0Bc5mz0510Qzn0Ai

Internet Goes Red
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eEJZ0Bc5mz0510QNt0A5


>Adobe, a company that previously was known for producing software, attempted
>a shaky foray into the word of copyright litigation and has since become the
>target of worldwide hatred.
>
>now, their seemingly innocuous .pdf format is attracting virus writers as if
>it were MS outlook.
>
> "What I'm concerned about here is that this could be a new frontier," said
>Richard Smith, chief technology officer of the Privacy Foundation. "It's
>considered to be a safe file format."
>
>if you only use acrobat reader, you are safe...    for now.
>
>http://www.zdnet.com/zdfeeds/msncobrand/news/0%2C13622%2C5095366%2C-hud00025
>ab%2C00.html
>
>d.m.
>yes, i understand that outlook express sucks. please be patient while my
>brain surgery takes place; increasing my IQ enough that i might be able to
>use a l33t mail client such as mutt, balsa or kmail.
>
>---
>Come and play at the InterNetWorkers Web site! 
>http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
>You are currently subscribed to internetworkers as: wolfe AT oup-usa.org
>To unsubscribe send a blank email to
>$subst('Email.Unsub')