Cartoon trojan threatens P2P users

Illegal Japanese file-sharers warned off by anime character malware.

A series of trojans have been spotted targeting users of popular Japanese file-sharing system

Winny

. The trojans replace files with a series of image files, which contain pictures of Japanese

anime

characters and text instructing users to cease illegal file-sharing, threatening them with police involvement or even death.

The cartoons feature several popular characters from Japanese

anime

, and carry whimsical messages urging avoidance of the

Winny

system, which has been subject of copyright infringement law suits in Japan, including several threats to report users to the authorities. A recent conviction upheld against its creator is mentioned in one of the cartoons. One of them also contains a phone number, as yet unidentified.

‘These cartoons may look cute, but the trojan can do some nasty damage,’ said

John Hawes

, Technical Consultant at Virus Bulletin. ‘The warnings about the illegal nature of some file-sharing systems may be public-spirited, but the way in which it is being spread most certainly isn’t.’

The trojan, dubbed ‘Pirlames’ in some quarters, replaces files with a wide range of extensions, and is made available for sharing over the system disguised as a screensaver. More detail and screeenshots of some of the cartoons dropped can be found at

Sophos

,

here

.

Posted on 28 February 2007 by

Virus Bulletin