Worm Transcodes MP3s To Infect PCs

snydeq writes "Kaspersky Labs has discovered malware that inserts links to malicious Web pages within ASF media files, posing a danger to Windows users who download music files from P2P networks. Infected files launch IE and load a page that asks the user to download a codec. The download, a Trojan horse, installs a proxy program to route other traffic through the PC. The malware also has worm-like qualities, according to Secure Computing. It searches for MP3s, transcodes them to WMA format, wraps them in an ASF container, and adds links to further copies of the malware, all without modifying the .MP3 extension."

Comments

What player?

[Blice]

TFA doesn't say what media player is vulnerable to this...

I have a feeling this exploit doesn't work in VLC.

A few days ago I played a movie in VLC on a Windows machine and half way through the VLC error log opened and had some interesting things in it. It was trying to place some files into some directories, and then lastly was trying to open a website.

So it wasn't able to do those things, but I can't help shake the feeling that if I had played it in Windows Media Player it would have done some damage. Though it could have also been an exploit for a specific player like Realtime, Xvid, etc..

Disclaimer: I'm not associated with VLC, although I do really like it.