Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, has discovered the first virus capable of infecting Macromedia Flash files commonly used on popular websites.
The SWF/LFM-926 virus targets webmasters who use Macromedia Flash to make their websites more attractive with animation and special effects. End users who browse an affected website may become infected if they download and open the Macromedia Flash file on their computer.
"Computer users visiting snazzy sites would get more than they bargained for if they downloaded this virus," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus. "The Macromedia Flash virus is not yet in the wild, but it is clear proof that virus writers continue to search for new ways to infect computer users. The best defence is to keep your security software up-to-date and practise safe computing."
Webmasters should put in place procedures and policies to ensure the integrity of the code they place on their websites, whether it be obviously executable (in the case of, for instance, EXE and COM files) or Macromedia Flash movies. Sophos has issued a detailed analysis and protection against the SWF/LFM-926 virus.
January also saw the first virus for the .Net platform. Called Donut, it is a simple, direct action infector. The virus author posted samples of this virus directly to several anti-virus companies on January 9th, 2002. Jimmy Kuo, director of anti-virus research for McAfee Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team, once suggested that it takes virus writers about 2 years to release the first virus for a new, virus-supporting platform. Donut is probably the first virus to be released before the (official) release of the platform it targets. Other than that, it is unremarkable - there is certainly no surprise that a virus can be written for .Net, all general-purpose operating systems are vulnerable to viruses.
F-Secure has a detailed analysis of Donut.