Breaking News: CNN helps WORM_NUWAR

A WORM_NUWAR variant is on CNN or rather CNN is on a new WORM_NUWAR variant. Using the Cable News Network (CNN) for its “click-me” gimmick, WORM_NUWAR.JO has the following message details in its latest spew of spam:


Subject:(any of the following)



  • White house news!
  • Incredible news!
  • URGENT NEWS!

Message body:(any of the following)



  • Full news included in attached file
  • Open file to get complete news.
  • Read more in attached file…

Attachment:(any of the following)



  • CNN latest news.exe
  • CNN news reader.exe
  • WWW-CNN-COM.exe
  • cnn agent.exe
  • cnn site explorer.exe
  • cnn.exe
  • news agent.exe
  • news reader.exe
  • webnews agent.exe
  • read me.exe

It may be using a different flavored spam but the meat of it is still same; it drops a Trojan, in this case TROJ_SMALL.DUL, into its infected computers. As with other NUWARs, this dropped Trojan downloads other malware components that reveals the true ingenuity of WORM_NUWAR’s attack. Read this article for an in-depth telling of NUWAR’s routines.