Christmas malware comes early

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 28 Nov 2008 at 08:36

Desperate high-street shops aren't the only ones cashing in on Christmas before December's even arrived - malware writers are taking full advantage too.

Websense Labs claims to have detected the first piece of seasonal malware.

The campaign masquerades as an electronic Christmas greetings card from postcards.org. The email shows an animated Christmas scene, but links through to a file called postcard.exe that leads to a Trojan backdoor that's been used in previous malicious spam campaigns.

If executed, the file could grant hackers access to resources on the infected machine, via an IRC session.

Victims are shown a picture of a Christmas tree during the installation process in an almost laughable attempt to distract their attention.

The malware writers clearly have their fingers on the economic pulse, with e-card sites aggressively promoting their services as a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional Christmas cards this year.

Bah humbug.