Code Blue Targets China Firm

Central Command, an antiviral software firm, has analyzed the new worm and located the DoS attack code.

We are monitoring systems for Code Blue but at this time, we have yet to see any Code Blue-like activity here at Central Command," Vice President Steven Sundermeier said. "The worm so far seems to be limited to China."

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BEIJING--A new Internet worm has emerged in China akin to the Code Red worm, which caused $2.4 billion in estimated cleanup costs on Internet-linked computers last month, a computer security expert said Friday

The "Code Blue" worm has similarities with the Code Red worm, which caused widespread problems, said a worker at the police-run Computer Virus Treatment Center in Tianjin, about 54 miles from Beijing.

We've already gotten hold of the virus and we're analyzing it," said the worker, who declined to be named.

He said his office had no estimate of how many computers or servers had been infected with the new worm.

The Code Blue worm exploits a different weakness in the software from the Code Red viruses, the Tianjin worker said. It slows infected computers, which eventually crash, the official Xinhua news agency said

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Code Blue deemed bigger threat than Code Red

CHINESE ANTI-VIRUS RESEARCHERS have uncovered a modified variant of the Code Red worm, dubbed Code Blue, that has the potential to cause more damage to users of Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 than earlier Code Red variants, according to a statement released Friday by Beijing-based software vendor Kingsoft.

The company did not give an indication of just how many users have so far been affected by the worm. But like earlier variants of Code Red, Code Blue launches a DoS (denial of service) attack. Unlike other variants that launched a DoS attack against the White House Web site, the Code Blue worm instead attacks an IP address (211.99.196.135) associated with the Web site of a Chinese network security provider, NSFocus Information Technology.

Code Blue is deemed to be more threatening to users than earlier Code Red variants because unlike Code Red, Code Blue gradually increases its usage of system resources and if not stopped can bring computers running Windows NT or Windows 2000 to a halt, the Kingsoft statement said. By comparison, computers affected by Code Red were largely able to continue functioning normally with no obvious degradation in system performance.

By comparison, Code Blue exploits multiple system vulnerabilities, including a Web server folder traversal vulnerability first announced by Microsoft late last year, the statement said. The Web server folder vulnerability in IIS is exploited by using a malformed URL address to access files and folders on a specific drive. This gives a malicious user control of a machine, including the ability to change or delete data and upload and run code on the server.

Information on the Web server folder traversal vulnerability and a patch can be found on Microsoft's Web site at www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/Security/Bulletin/ms00-078.asp. In addition, Kingsoft has developed a software tool that can detect and remove the Code Blue worm. It can be downloaded for free at www.iduba.net/download/other/tool_010907_CodeBlue.htm.

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