Overly broad permissions can turn one compromised account into a much larger security problem. Learn how to reduce unnecessary access, review privileges, and apply least privilege across modern Linux systems. Review Linux Privileges×

Alerts This Week
Warning Icon 1 524
Alerts This Week
Warning Icon 1 524

Zotob and Mytob Malware Analysis: Recent Arrests and Insights

Calendar Aug 30, 2005 • User Avatar Anthony Pell
1 min read
General Esm H446
Topics%20covered

Topics Covered

security research cyber threat malware analysis botnet malware evolution
One of the two men arrested last week on charges of creating and mailing the Zotob bot worm also authored some, but not all, of the many Mytob worms in circulation, a security firm said Monday. Finnish anti-virus vendor F-Secure identified Farid Essebar, 18, who was arrested by Moroccan authorities, as the author of some Mytobs. "We know that [Essebar] had also authored several of the Mytob variants since February this year," F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen wrote on the company's blog. "However, he's not behind all of them."

Early analysis by others, including Ken Dunham, senior engineer with VeriSign iDefense, pegged Zotob and Mytob as close relations. "Hackers took the Mytob worm code and replaced the e-mail function in Mytob with the exploit of the MS05-039 vulnerability," said Dunham two weeks ago when the Zotob attack first began.

The link for this article located at Information Week is no longer available.