Software can now produce encrypted worms

Perhaps buoyed by his recent notoriety, the creator of the tool that spawned the so-called Anna Kournikova virus last month has released an updated version of his worm-generation software. A BRAZILIAN HACKER known only as [K]alamar has refined his software to the point that it can now produce worms scrambled with two types of encryption, an anti-deletion function and the ability to carry a payload of an executable file. The software has reportedly surfaced on several Web sites. The spotlight first shone on [K]alamar in February when a Dutch cracker loosed a VBS worm that masqueraded as a photo of Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova. The suspect, known as OnTheFly, used [K]alamar’s previous worm-making software to create the virus, which spread quickly around the globe. Officials at security vendor Finjan Software Inc. said they reviewed the new tool and believe it has the potential to create worms that are much more malicious and harder to track than those that have come before. Meanwhile, the tool’s author makes an attempt to distance himself from any damage that users of his software may cause. In an “Agreement” statement riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, [K]alamar writes: “You have to agree to take full responsability of any damage caused by the files that you could create with this program...”