[CLUE-Talk] New virus, jpeg infector.

[David Anselmi]

Picked this up on the Risks Digest.  There's a new virus that infects 
image files, article at 
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20020613/D7K4F4EG1.html.

"As with any computer threat, the best way to protect a computer is to 
have updated antivirus software."

That statement is so ridiculous you probably don't want to read the article.

"In its current form, an infected JPG file cannot infect another 
computer on its own. But Gullotto said there's no reason a virus writer 
couldn't make the picture itself able to infect other computers.

That evolution should make computer users think twice about sending 
pictures - or any other media - over the Internet, Gullotto said."

This is brazen FUD, when you follow the URL at the bottom to 
http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99522.htm and see how the "virus" 
works.  In short, if you run an executable that hooks itself into the 
registry then when it opens an image file for you it will run the 
"virus" the image contains.  Mr. Gullotto (head anti-virus researcher at 
McAfee) should know better than to call this a new kind of virus.

Unless MS makes this a feature of their next OS, turning images into the 
next virus delivery mechanism, the way they did with Word and then 
email.  I guess it's not that farfetched.

Dave