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Trojan horses steal bank details, passwords
By Dawn Kawamoto

Story last modified Mon Mar 27 06:51:18 PST 2006
News.com.com

Sana Labs discovered the other Trojan, which is distributed alongside a rootkit that hides it. The malicious software spreads via the Alcra worm, which directs infected Microsoft Windows PCs to Web sites where the programs are downloaded, Sana said.

The Trojan is able to unearth passwords and usernames used previously on a machine and does not have to track keystrokes, according to Sana. The security company said it has discovered 37,000 usernames and passwords, the majority for social networking Web sites, on log files in 7,000 locations.

Once the malicious software is loaded onto a PC, it communicates with a Russian Web server, which stores the usernames and passwords gleaned by the Trojan.

============ The 5 five firms who detect the new threat =============
Sana said the Trojan is well hidden by the kernel-level rootkit and that because of this, some antivirus programs may have difficulty detecting it. The company said that as of Monday, only five security applications--UNA, VBA32, Sophos, NOD32 version 2 and eTrust-Vet--were able to detect the threat.
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Microsoft warns of critical Internet Explorer bug
Monday, March 27, 2006 at 20:51 by Andy Holliday
Itvibe

Dangerous new exploits in Internet Explorer could put PCs and data at risk, Microsoft has confirmed.

All three flaws affect the software giant's Internet Explorer browser and the flaws - for which code has already been published on the internet, could be exploited to set an a virus free on the internet.

Potential viruses would come as an email attachment that conceals the code, or even redirect users to a site that will unleash the code on an unsuspecting person's PC, leaving the computer open to a remote attack. Once the PC is being controlled by a malicious user, it can then be used to launch attacks on other PCs which is also known as the machine being a 'Zombie'.

Microsoft said it would produce patches for the vulnerabilities in its next security update due on 11th of April, which shows that even fully patched versions of Internet Explorer 6 are vulnerable to the flaw, it seems, as are users with XP Service Pack 2.

Security firms said specially written websites and hijacked servers were already being used to host the malicious code that uses the loopholes to invade vulnerable machines.

In security bulletins about the trio of bugs, Microsoft played down the threat and said: "The attacks are limited in scope for now."

To avoid falling victim to any attack, Microsoft urged users to avoid websites they did not trust and to refrain from opening attachments on e-mail messages from unknown senders.
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