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MySpace under 'virulent' worm attack
MySpace worm uses QuickTime for exploit
Jeremy Kirk

MySpace.com is currently under attack from what one security analyst has described as an 'amazingly virulent' attack caused by a worm that steals log-in credentials and spreads spam to promote adware. The worm is infecting MySpace profiles with such efficiency that an informal scan of 150 found that close to a third were infected, said Christopher Boyd, security research manager at FaceTime Communications Inc.


MySpace, owned by News Corp, is estimated to have at least 73 million registered users.

The worm works by using a cross-scripting weakness found around two weeks ago in MySpace and a feature within Apple's QuickTime multimedia player.

The exploit starts with a user who visits a MySpace profile infected with an embedded QuickTime movie. The movie loads JavaScript code that overlays a row of menu options on a MySpace profile with a bogus menu. A QuickTime function, called the HREF track, can direct the player to use JavaScript commands to load web pages into a browser frame or window.

The JavaScript feature in QuickTime has legitimate uses, "but there are a lot of legitimate uses for technology that can be misused", said Ross Paul, senior product manager with Websense.

If an option in the bogus menu is clicked, the user is directed to a fake login page hosted on another server where the person's log-in details are captured. Websense has posted a screenshot of the fake log-in page.

MySpace's "seemingly random tendency" to expire user sessions or log out users makes it less noticeable to victims that an attack is under way, according to a 16 November advisory by the Computer Academic Underground.

Additionally, the worm places an embedded QuickTime movie on the user's profile, which will then repeat the infection process for anyone who visits the profile.

The worm has another malicious function. Once a profile is infected, the worm sends spam to other people in the user's contact list.

Those spam messages contain a file that appears to be a movie but instead is a link to a pornographic site that also hosts adware from Zango, Boyd said. Zango, formerly 180 Solutions, settled last month with the US Federal Trade Commission for $3m (£1.5m) over complaints it didn't properly ask the consent of users before its adware was installed.

Boyd said he's heard anecdotal stories of users removing the worm's JavaScript manually from their profile, but the worm reappears after some time if one of their friend's profiles is infected. Several variants of the worm have also appeared, he said.

While some of the websites hosting the malicious QuickTime movie have been taken down, others have appeared, Boyd said.

The Firefox 2.0 browser was flagging some of the bogus login sites as phishing sites, Boyd said. However, phishing sites can be active for several hours before they are flagged, he said.

MySpace officials in London couldn't immediately comment this morning.

[Woollyback]

it's all these blo0dy emo's - this is what happens when you go weeks without a bath

[JBG]

Hah, the Camberwell Carrot!

[daxy1]

Hah, the Camberwell Carrot!

class i used to make a few carrots bladdy lavely... 

[jonnymac1979]

it's all these blo0dy emo's - this is what happens when you go weeks without a bath

Fuckinhell, was walking round Liverpool on Saturday afternoon at half time just after I'd left the boozer after trashing Wigan 4-0 to go to another boozer, and right by the law courts in Town, it was full of these hippy types with chemically straightened jet black hair and dead long fringes on one side of their head but shorter on the other, all on their skateboards and being just a general eyesore when there are far better ways to look and dress.

Are they those Emos you speak of?  It was like walking into a parallel universe where no one normal was (except me of course...).

[67-1161385641]

Yes they would be emo's. I haven't got a problem with emo core or the way they dress, I'd rather dress like an emo than a scally. Sacllies walking around with their hoods up is far more of an eye sore than emo's on rollerblades.

[Woollyback]

emo's don't bother me either tbh, they look daft but at least they're not knuckle-dragging @rseholes like the scally crowd in their trackies & fred perry jumpers having said that i wouldn't want one in the house or anything, it'd have so stay in a kennel outside 

[J*o*n*D*o*e]

it's all these blo0dy emo's - this is what happens when you go weeks without a bath

Fuckinhell, was walking round Liverpool on Saturday afternoon at half time just after I'd left the boozer after trashing Wigan 4-0 to go to another boozer, and right by the law courts in Town, it was full of these hippy types with chemically straightened jet black hair and dead long fringes on one side of their head but shorter on the other, all on their skateboards and being just a general eyesore when there are far better ways to look and dress.

Are they those Emos you speak of?  It was like walking into a parallel universe where no one normal was (except me of course...).

i know what you mean, i walked past there a few weeks ago with my son and i couldnt help but wonder wft, no doubt there students with nothing better to do other than make the city centre look an eyesore.

they need moving on, preferably into the mersey but from the look of half of them they would probably float.

[67-1161385641]

So would you rather see scallies hanging around there waiting for someone to mug or pick a fight with? I'd much rather walk through a group of emo kids who are just socialising then walk past a scally who will probably make some sarky comment to you before asking you if you have a mobile, which has happened to me several times this year. They may be eye sores but they aren't as bad as some dirty scally.

[adamnbarrett]

So would you rather see scallies hanging around there waiting for someone to mug or pick a fight with? I'd much rather walk through a group of emo kids who are just socialising then walk past a scally who will probably make some sarky comment to you before asking you if you have a mobile, which has happened to me several times this year. They may be eye sores but they aren't as bad as some dirty scally.

but they don't just socialise, they think they're all better than you because they wear black and have big fringes and scowl at you as you walk past.
Oh and it's your fault if you don't 'get' them.
They don't just socialise, they enjoy playing with their razor blades all day long and think the world is out to get them.

TBH I'm not particulary fond of either groups, I find them both quite intimidating.

[Woollyback]

nothing intimidating about an emo. what's he gonna do, clobber you with his art project?

[67-1161385641]

You're in the know better than me, Adam. From someone who doesn't know much about either, I'd much rather see these skaters draped in black down a dark ally than I would a scally with his hood up walking with his head down so you don't see his face. 

[67-1161385641]

nothing intimidating about an emo. what's he gonna do, clobber you with his art project?

That's one of the funniest things I've read on here since Sabre's rant about male swim wear.

[adamnbarrett]

nothing intimidating about an emo. what's he gonna do, clobber you with his art project?

[J*o*n*D*o*e]

So would you rather see scallies hanging around there waiting for someone to mug or pick a fight with? I'd much rather walk through a group of emo kids who are just socialising then walk past a scally who will probably make some sarky comment to you before asking you if you have a mobile, which has happened to me several times this year. They may be eye sores but they aren't as bad as some dirty scally.

have to been into Liverpool town centre on a saturday lately, its a bloody disgrace that these agents of doom are allowed to infest the city centre the way they have, get a life and start living it and  keep out of the way of people who want to get on with there`s..

they do nothing but bring the place down.

p.s sorry this went off topic