Conficker C Finally Doing Something

Posted 04/09/2009 at 2:15pm | by Paul Lilly

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Streetlights didn't stop working, satellites never fell from orbit, and the internet didn't spontaneously combust. So what exactly did the Conficker.c worm manage to accomplish? Up till now, the answer is 'not much,' but Trend Micro warns the worm has started making its move.

It's been just over a week since Conficker.c was supposed to turn machines against man in an epic battle not even Will Smith (the actor, not the Editor-in-Chief) would be able to defeat, and while we can probably put such related fears to rest, Trend Micro security researchers say machines already infected with the worm have begun receiving a new payload through P2P. The payload is being detected as WORM_DOWNAD.E.

"Basically the component it's downloading via peer-to-peer is just a dropper -- so it drops yet another component, which we are in the process of finalizing analysis on now," Trend Micro researcher Paul Ferguson said in a conversation with eWEEK. "It looks like it has some rootkit capabilities, but beyond that right now I can't go into any additional detail, I don't have complete information in front of me."

Conficker.c received much media attention prior to April 1st, when the worm was expected to wreak all kinds of havoc. But April Fool's Day has come and gone without much movement from the worm, which either means the threat was grossly overblown, or its writers are waiting for the dust to settle.