Worm uses familiar brands to lure people

Worm uses familiar brands to lure people Posted by Robert Vamosi

Ho-ho-ho. This isn't an offer for a real coupon book from McDonald's. It's a new mass-mailing e-mail worm.

(Credit: Websense)

On Tuesday security vendor WebSense issued an alert warning that holiday coupon e-mails from familiar companies may be malicious code in disguise, in this case a mass-mailing e-mail worm.

The warning cites one spoofed McDonald's e-mail that claims to present their latest discount menu, and asks the recipient to print out the attached coupon. A similar mailing pretending to be from Coca-Cola asks recipients to print out details about their new online game, and also offers recipients a chance to win Coca-Cola drinks for life. Websense says the attached zip file contains files named either coupon.exe or promotion.exe, both of which contain dropper files for remote access Trojan horses.

Previously, Websense issued an alert for a holiday-themed animated postcard.

This cute holiday card could install a worm on your PC, says McAfee.