New Variant E of the Blaster Worm Appears

Panda Software’s Virus Laboratory has detected the appearance of the new variant E of the Blaster worm. Like its predecessors, this malicious code exploits the RPC DCOM vulnerability recently discovered in some versions of Windows. By exploiting this flaw, Blaster.E can get into computers directly from the Internet through port 135.

Blaster.E is very similar to previous variants, which vary only in the name of the file created on the affected computer, which in this case is MSLAUGH.EXE.

Blaster.E is programmed to carry out denial of service attacks (DoS) on the website kimble.org when the system date is between August 16 and December 31, 2003. This website points to the IP address 127.0.0.1 and as a result, infected computers will end up attacking themselves.

The RPC DCOM vulnerability in Windows that Blaster.E exploits consists of a buffer overflow in the RPC interface. Microsoft has classified this flaw as ‘critical’ and it affects systems with Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, and Windows Server 2003. Panda Software advises network administrators, IT managers and home users to immediately install the patches released by Microsoft to fix this vulnerability.

In order to avoid falling victim to Blaster.E, users are advised to update their antivirus solutions immediately.