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
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