New Bagle opens another spam backdoor

The latest incarnation of the Bagle worm is spreading steadily, though infection relies on opening an attachment. Unknown online vandals with an apparent connection to spam email have created a new version of the Bagle computer worm that has spread somewhat successfully in the past 24 hours, antivirus companies said on Thursday. The mass-mailing computer virus, dubbed Bagle.AF or Beagle.AB by different security firms, opens a path for intruders to relay bulk email messages through the infected computer and attempts to contact one of almost 150 compromised German Web sites to let the attackers know of their latest conquest.

"It certainly is successful," said Oliver Friedrichs, senior manager for antivirus firm Symantec's security response centre. "It is definitely comparable to threats that we saw earlier this year such as MyDoom."

Symantec raised the virus to a threat rating of three on its five-point scale, while rival antivirus firm McAfee -- formerly Network Associates -- gave the program a medium danger rating.

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