Hi,
There are always a lot of emails regarding warnings about virus/worms that
blow up your computers if you click on a file named blah blah asking you
to circulate the email around. Most of them are Hoax and false alarms and
I hate those spams.
But this time it seems that it is serious. There is a new security issue
and some people are taking advantage of it and exploits are currently
running in wild.
The systems affected are Microsoft Windows XP (all Service Pack versions)
and Microsoft Windows 2003 (again all versions). There is no
update/fix/patch on this issue as the code exploiting this was released
before the Microsoft could issue any solution! (this is not the regular
case).
The virus/worms/attacks using this will be in form of an image with
extention of .wmf and might be coming to your pc from an untrusted
website, from an email that carries it, or from Instant Message that
somebody sends you a picture. As a result, to avoid that, take extra
caution not to follow links that go to suspecious websites, don't open
suspecious emails and don't accept images on IM from unknow contacts.
If you are wondering where have I got the info from, I've done
extensive research on this issue in the company I'm working in.
Also you can check this security blog regarding the exposure and other
stuff:
http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?date=2005-12-28
And this is a movie of what happens to a PC that visits the malicious
website as an example of such frauds/attacks:
http://www.websensesecuritylabs.com/.../wmf-movie.wmv