Trend Micro on Tuesday issued a medium risk alert for worm Bagle.X to warn users against this latest worm variant, which has been sighted in France, United Kingdom, United States and Latin America.
Unlike the previous variants that utilised vulnerabilities in Internet explorers to automatically execute, Worm_Bagle.X utilises social engineering, incorporating the domain name of the recipient's e-mail address to appear to be from a colleague, a Trend Micro press release said in New Delhi.
The worm affects Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP platforms and may also be known by the following aliases: W32.Bagle.W@MM.
The worm spreads via e-mail (mass mailing) and network shares. It is designed to terminate processes associated with anti-virus and security programmes to avoid detection.