MS06-040 fears spread

Exploit worm stories continue to appear, but threat believed minor.

Reports are proliferating across the Internet, warning of the dangers faced by users of older operating systems from worms exploiting the vulnerability patched by

Microsoft

‘s

MS06-040

release last week. At least two separate worms, variously named

Cuebot

,

Wargbot

,

MocBot

, and

Graweg

, are reported to be taking advantage of the flaw.

The flames of fear were fanned last week by an announcement from the US

Department of Homeland Security

, instructing

Windows

-using citizens to get themselves up to date. With the vulnerability only affecting unpatched machines running

Windows 2000

and versions of

XP

before Service Pack 2, and AV companies releasing detection updates for the worms over the weekend, the dangers of a widespread epidemic are generally agreed to be minimal.

See some of the many reports about the worms

here

,

here

or

here

, and check the statement from the

Department of Homeland Security


here

.

Microsoft

‘s

MS06-040

patch is available

here

.

Posted on 15 August 2006 by

Virus Bulletin