Shoutbox

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Originally posted by Ars Technica

Windows Live Messenger is in all its glory right now. The application, currently in beta, is in hot demand by IMers everywhere. Since the only way to get into the program is through invitation, even eBay has capitalized on the program's demand by selling the rare invites. Now, a website called msgr8beta.com is capitalizing on the instant messaging program's popularity by delivering a virus disguised as the new beta.

The executable is named BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE, and it installs a worm that will send invites to everyone on your buddy list, asking them to install via a link to msgr8beta.com. On the backside, the virus connects to a botnet server, which allows remote commands to be executed on infected PCs. F-Secure, the anti-virus company that discovered the worm, has named it "Virkel.F," which stems from its relative named "Kelvir."

The msgr8beta website was registered to a Mark Nicholas of Richmond, U.K. on December 24, 2005. There is a good chance that the site is registered under stolen contact information, but no word has surfaced yet.  Currently, I am not able to reach the site.  It was either taken down by the ISP or overloaded with traffic from people trying to download what they think is the new Messenger.  I'm inclined to go with the latter.

As things currently stand, the only way into the Windows Live Messenger program is through invitation, which can come from someone already involved in the program or from Microsoft directly. Microsoft has made no mention of when the program will be widely available.

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Other Sources :

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Move over Santa Claus Worm and say hello to a huge new worm posing as MSN Messenger 8 beta leak or aka Windows Live Messenger, but called 8 purely for the benefit that people who know nothing about Live click the link.

So, what does this new worm do and why is it so dangerous? Well a website (msgr8beta.com) claimed to host a leaked version of MSN Messenger 8, which lured innocent people into downloading it, by announcing fake features that are sure to get more clicks to the lethal link, it claimed to include real-time smiles and functionality with Windows Media Player 10, of course, this is all a lie.

In reality a worm is installed called "Virkel.F" and spreads to all your Messenger contacts, which you really do not want to get the blame for trust me, burpia (an older, famous worm last year) caused a lot of arguments all around the world by disabling the internet, flashing pornographic images and switching your mouse clicks randomly.

The worm surprisingly is not brand new what so ever but a variant of an older family of IM viruses named "Kelvi". Which source code was posted thus making many coders taking an easy advantage for writing a worm.

The domain, has now been blocked and confirmed to be registered on December 24th by "Mark Nicholas," of Richmond, U.K” however attempts to contact this person were not successful and they may not exist, that being said the worm can still spread via contact by contact so the hype is not yet over.

Remember do not accept anything from your contacts unless your are 100% sure what it is.

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Originally posted by John Anderton
I read the same exact thing on http://msgstuff.com and remembered something about the new virus so i thought you posted it

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