Outbreak Name: Bagle-GT*

Outbreak Date: 4-21-06

Dangerous Worm Turns Infected Computers into Zombies Outbreak Filters Protects Users 18 hours and 28 minutes Before First Traditional AV Solution

Background

IronPort's Virus Outbreak Filters protects customers within the critical period between the first exploit of a virus outbreak and the release of an AV signature. During the recent Bagle variant outbreak, Outbreak Filters protected customers 18 hours and 28 minutes before traditional AV vendors** provided protection.

Potential Damage from Outbreak

Bagle-GT is a dangerous worm that spreads by telling users to open an attachment through various social engineering techniques. Once opened, the virus replicates further through email harvesting.

The virus also opens a backdoor that remote hackers can use to take over the computer. Alarmingly, this backdoor uses the HTTP protocol to communicate, making it difficult for network administrators to detect. Once taken over, hackers can use the computer to to send spam and host spyware. Remote hackers can also install key loggers and screen scrapers onto the infected PC to steal personal, confidential and financial information without the user's knowledge.

Timeline

* As named by Sophos.
** Calculated as publicly published signatures from the following vendors: Sophos, Trend Micro, Computer Associates, F-Secure, Symantec and McAfee. If signature time is not available, first publicly published alert time is used.