New OpenOffice proof-of-concept widely noted

Odd payload, not spreading danger, brings attention to cross-platform worm.

A new proof-of-concept malware exploiting the

OpenOffice

document format has made headlines across the world, despite little chance of affecting users in the wild. The worm, dubbed SB/BadBunny-A by

Sophos

, has gathered wide media coverage thanks to its strange payload, a downloaded pornographic image of a man dressed in a furry rabbit costume.

The free, open-source


OpenOffice


suite, backed by

Sun Microsystems

, includes a macro language called

StarBasic

, which the worm uses to drop its payloads and spread. Several attempts at writing malware for

OpenOffice

have been seen in the past, but this is thought to be the first which is capable of spreading if run on different operating systems.

It is designed to act differently under

Mac

,

Linux

and

Windows

to ensure it can still operate in each environment, dropping files written in Ruby, Perl or JavaScript and manipulating popular chat systems. It also attempts to attack the websites of several anti-virus companies.

Like many proof-of-concept malware attempts, the worm is thought to have been submitted by its creators and is not thought to have been seen by anyone outside a virus lab. Commentary on the discovery can be found at

Sophos


here

and

here

, with more technical analysis

here

.

Posted on 23 May 2007 by

Virus Bulletin