Fears about the mounting threat of IM worms have been confirmed, as AIM is targeted by such malicious code once again. This time, a worm sends the message "hehe i found this funny movie" and encourages users to click on a hyperlink that downloads the worm code to their machine. The worm then connects to a public IRC server (botnet related, perhaps?) and continues to spread through further AIM messages.
While IMLogic rated the AIM worm as a "medium threat", a NetSec advisory warned that given the sophistication of new worms such as this, "it is a reasonable assumption that near-full system control may be possible".
The worm's spread appears to have slowed today however and there are now few reports of it still in the wild, according to Mikko Hypp"nen, director of antivirus research at F-Secure. Most major anti-virus companies have already updated their products to deal with the threat.