Spreading Stration worm pretends to be security patch

The W32/Stratio-AN worm has been aggressively distributed by its author since the early hours of Monday morning. It spreads via email using a variety of disguises, including one which ironically poses as a warning that the recipient’s computer has been determined to be infected by a worm:

Subject line: Mail server report.

Message text:
Mail server report.

Our firewall determined the e-mails containing worm copies are being sent from your computer.

Nowadays it happens from many computers, because this is a new virus type (Network Worms).

Using the new bug in the Windows, these viruses infect the computer unnoticeably. After the penetrating into the computer the virus harvests all the e-mail addresses and sends the copies of itself to these e-mail addresses

Please install updates for worm elimination and your computer restoring.

Best regards,
Customers support service

Attached file: Update-KB7859-x86.zip (which contains the file Update-KB7859-x86.exe)

“This new offspring of the Stration worm is being seen widely at email gateways today, attempting to infect unsuspecting computer users,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. “Anyone accessing their email has to learn to resist the temptation of opening unsolicited attachments, and ensure their anti-virus protection is kept fully up-to-date.”

Sophos experts believe that the worm is using the disguise of a worm warning to play on concern about an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft’s software.