FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- 18th May 2003

The Fizzer Task Force, part of the irc/unity project, is pleased to announce a breakthrough regarding the notorious Fizzer worm. A member of the Task Force has successfully decompiled the worm to reveal the command list and how to gain access to the commands.

The worm itself contains a variety of commands for replicating itself over AOL Instant Messenger and through email, amongst other methods. An "uninstall" command that instructs the worm to remove itself is built-in, as is a command to pop up a message on an infected user's screen.

Members of the Fizzer Task Force have confirmed that these commands do seem to remove the worm. IRC operators from many different networks are currently taking advantage of these built-in commands to alert users that they are infected, and then removing the worm.

The Fizzer Task Force highly recommends that all Internet users run an anti-virus program to remove any traces that the worm may leave behind, as the uninstall mechanism in a virus is not to be trusted. If you have been infected, it is also very important that you change your passwords, as Fizzer contains a key-logging aspect which could have transmitted everything you have typed since infection to a remote site.

It is important to note that without the unprecedented intra-network cooperation that this worm has triggered, it would have been impossible to have made so much progress in so little time; the Fizzer Task Force has been operational for under a week and has already discovered how to remotely remove this worm.

Our thanks go to all networks who have contributed to this project, and we hope they will continue to contribute to the irc/unity project, to help stamp out any future threats.

Ends
 

Related Links

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