Bugs and Fixes: Worms Find New Ways to Snare Your PC
The latest virus strains strike MSN Messenger and Adobe Acrobat, Palm hotsync problems, new Apple QuickTime for IE.Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing editor for PC World.
Think you're safe from worms? Guess again. These devious programs, which replicate by weaving around networks, are starting to show up in places I never expected.
Two of the most recent worms were found lurking in Microsoft MSN Messenger and Adobe Acrobat files. Both are fairly harmless, but they demonstrate how vulnerable our PCs are to smart bad guys.
First, the MSN Messenger worm: This pest, called W32/Annoying.Worm, appears in your instant messaging session masquerading as a picture file. If you click the file (named pic1234.exe), a fake error message will pop up, telling you that the file has been corrupted. Then the worm infects your system.
Afterward, every time you start your PC, the sneaky program loads too. The worm watches for you to begin a chat session and then pretends to be you. You'll see the worm shoot a message to your chat-mate that asks, "Hey, want me to send my new pic?" If the other person answers with "yes," "sure," or other similar affirmatives, it whisks off a copy of itself to the unsuspecting victim, and the cycle starts all over again.
Head over to Symantec or McAfee to get worm-removal instructions. If you run Symantec's Norton AntiVirus software, any virus definition file dated August 8 or later will protect your PC. Any McAfee DAT (virus definition) file numbered 4154 or later will block the worm's chokehold.
The second worm affects files that I always felt were safe, but no longer. Now, even Adobe Acrobat files can carry malicious intruders and target your in-box. Watch for an e-mail message that contains words or phrases on the Subject line such as "Find the peach" or "Joke." The tainted file may be named "joke.pdf" or "search.pdf."
Opening the file in Acrobat and clicking a prominent icon unleashes the worm; it mails a copy of itself to 100 names in your Outlook address book. Called VBS/PeachyPDF@MM, the worm needs the full Adobe Acrobat program (version 5 or later) to run amok; if you have only Acrobat Reader installed, you're okay.
You can get additional info from Symantec or McAfee. McAfee users who have DAT file numbered 4154 or later are safe. And Norton users are protected with virus definition files dated August 7 or later.
Palm Hotsync Blues
Do Palm handhelds zap PCs? Some Palm V owners think so and have sued the company. They claim that an electrical defect in Palm's HotSync serial port cradle has damaged their PCs' serial ports, and in some cases, their PCs' motherboards. At press time, Palm declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit.
The trouble seems to arise in the combination of charging and syncing the PDA. To be safe, disconnect the power to the cradle while using the HotSync feature, and disconnect the serial cable when charging your Palm. Hop to PalmInfocenter.com for links to discussions and lawsuit details.
In Brief
New QuickTime for Internet Explorer
Service Pack 2 for Internet Explorer 5.5, shipped by Microsoft earlier this year, doesn't allow existing Netscape plug-ins to run within IE. Apple's QuickTime plug-in, for example, lets Windows and Macintosh users play audio and video files on their computers--but it won't work with IE 5.5 SP2 or the new IE 6. Apple recently released an ActiveX plug-in that allows QuickTime to run happily with IE 5.5 SP2 and IE 6. Visit Apple's site to grab the free download.
HandEra Fixes Microdrive Snag
Until recently, IBM's 340MB CompactFlash (CF) Microdrive cards--tiny high-capacity hard drives--would not work with HandEra 330 handheld Palm devices. HandEra has released a patch to fix the problem. See HandEra's site for a link to the download.
Bugged?
Found a hardware or software bug? Tell us about it via e-mail at bugs@pcworld.com.