Kazaa is hit by a worm

Popular peer-to-peer (P2P) network KaZaA has, for the first time, fallen foul of a malicious worm.

Called "Worm.Kazaa.Benjamin", it creates a directory accessible to other users of the KaZaA network once it has infected a computer and regularly copies itself into this directory under a variety of different names.

When a network user conducts a search for a file under a name matching one of the worm's pseudonyms, the unsuspecting user is given the chance to download it from the infected computer, according to anti-virus specialist Kaspersky Labs.

In addition to using up free disk space, Benjamin opens an anonymous website from which it displays advertising banners. This way Benjamin's creator profits by the resulting increase in advertising displays.

Denis Zenkin, Kaspersky Labs Head of Corporate Communications, said in a statement: "This event once again demonstrates the necessity to filter all incoming files for viruses, regardless of how well protected this or any other network is. Before use all data should be run through a mandatory check for virus code using the latest virus database update."

Most anti-virus vendors have already updated their software to block the worm.

For more information, see http://www.viruslist.com/eng/viruslist.html?id=49790