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Top 10 malware reported to Sophos in December 2005

W32/Mytob-EX is a mass-mailing worm and IRC backdoor Trojan.

W32/Mytob-EX runs continuously in the background, providing a backdoor server which allows a remote intruder to gain access and control over the computer via IRC channels.

W32/Mytob-EX can spread by sending itself as an email attachment to email addresses harvested from the infected computer.

Emails sent by the worm have characteristics from the following:

Subject lines:

Your password has been updated
Your password has been successfully updated
You have successfully updated your password
Your new account password is approved
Your Account is Suspended
*DETECTED* Online User Violation
Your Account is Suspended For Security Reasons
Warning Message: Your services near to be closed.
Important Notification
Members Support
Security measures
Email Account Suspension
Notice of account limitation

or random characters

Message text - one of the following:

The worm will insert the username and the email domain of the adresssee into the email.

Dear user <UserName>,

You have successfully updated the password of your <domain> account.

If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with your account, please contact <domain> customer service at: <sender@domain>
Thank you for using <domain>!
The <domain> Support Team

+++ Attachment: No Virus (Clean)
+++ <domain> Antivirus - www.<domain>

Dear user <UserName>,

It has come to our attention that your <domain> User Profile ( x ) records are out of date. For further details see the attached document.
Thank you for using <domain>!
The <domain> Support Team

+++ Attachment: No Virus (Clean)
+++ <domain> Antivirus - www.<domain>

Dear <domain> Member,

We have temporarily suspended your email account <UserEmailAddress>.

This might be due to either of the following reasons:

1. A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change of address).
2. Submiting invalid information during the initial sign up process.
3. An innability to accurately verify your selected option of subscription due to an internal error within our processors.
See the details to reactivate your <domain> account.

Sincerely,The <domain> Support Team

+++ Attachment: No Virus (Clean)
+++ <domain> Antivirus - www.<domain>

Dear <domain> Member,

Your e-mail account was used to send a huge amount of unsolicited spam messages during the recent week. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and confirm the attached document so you will not run into any future problems with the online service.
If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to cancel your membership.

Virtually yours,
The <domain> Support Team

+++ Attachment: No Virus found
+++ <domain> Antivirus - www.<domain>

Attachment name:

updated-password
email-password
new-password
password
approved-password
account-password
accepted-password
important-details
account-details
email-details
account-info
document
readme
account-report

or random characters

The zip file will contain the worm with double extension. The first extension will be one of doc, htm, txt followed by spaces and the second extension is exe, scr or pif.