new evil ?

[deathand999]

something strange happened to me yesterday.. i have worked on the net for 10 years

and i never saw something like this. i am almost protected to most viruses using avg and

windows defender and disabling java ...

but this came creeping on me from behind.. i was chatting normally when something

got in to my email messenger hot mail.. i get a message that say look at my images

at my space and an rar file and i get the massage from any person from my contacts

that i am chatting with.. for my surprise i was chatting with a friend an i thought he sended

the file so i opened it and it was a backdoor virus..!!! i replied to my friend telling him

what the hell did you send me man? he said i didnt send anything and he added

what the hell did u send me? (the file got sended to him also throw my mail address and

to everyone i chat with online lol) i told him very fast oh oh don't open the rar but

it was too late.. he got hit also... after few minuets my os came to a slow death by poison

and i am now back on after a clean format. i didnt even have time to recored the viry name.

i have few question please :

1_ what the hell happened? i got hacked by a contact? or mail spam? or was it an attack

on msn at the holiday times? did anyone got that yesterday?

2_ is my email now infected? am scared to open msn. did i kill the viri by formating?

is it save to even open my mail via web browser?

[gunner154]

Your friend got infected first, and it ate into his messenger program and the virus made him send that message automatically to you. While your computer was infected, it might have used your messenger program to message others with the same file as well. Those who opened would be infected.

Formatting would wipe everything out, so don't worry. Unless it destroys the hardware, which isn't very common (if at all, I'm no virus expert).

I'm not sure about the email part. If you're using mail from a browser (which you seem to be using) it should be rather safe. If you're relying on Outlook, you might want to reconsider. But since you've done a wipe with formatting, it should be okay. Any other opinions on this?

[Andrew]

I've seen this happen before, and had a similar virus.

about 10 years ago I got a virus that would email a picture to a friend, which included the virus itself.

I've seen the msn messenger virus lots (I've not had it recently), and it can be very bad sending messages out to all your msn messenger contacts with a link to the virus (online), or as a file. But microsoft does not allow .exe etc files to be sent through messenger, so virus has resorted to providing a web link to the virus.

If you use msn messenger (or live), it would be infected (with some program running when it does, like the many plugins you can get for it). It is not likely that your hotmail account is infected (but you can change your password to be sure).

If you formatted, your msn should be fine (assuming you did a complete format and not just an OS reinstall).

It's quite easy to get viruses for msn messsenger because that is what everyone uses, so hackers target that code.

[gryphon]

You mentioned that you have received a message. If that is an IM message on MSN your email is save. If that was a email message on hotmail I think your email will be save by now.

First guess is that your friend has a problem. Second one is some one has been injecting stuff in your IM conversation. Not really that hard to do and even funny from time to time.

All in all, just a regular virus / trojan. After a clean install you should be ok again.

(MSN can be set to allow .exe file btw. )

[Andrew]

oh, maybe it is .php links or something they do not allow? I think I was thinking of url with .exe in it?

I remember MS banning certain file extensions in links (filtering text).

[deathand999]

it was an rar file

[Andrew]

And it was a file sent in an IM conversation? or a link to a rar file? Or a file sent from your friend to you by email?

[deathand999]

  was an IM  while i was chatting and the guy did not even send it but it came throw his address

and he got the file olso at same time and asked me about it,,

it was a file to download and the exe in it. i didnt even look as he was sending me pics

i opend and consumed ..