Hackers plot to create massive botnet

Computer Associates has warned of a co-ordinated malware attack (CMA) described as among the most sophisticated yet unleashed on the net. The attack involves three different Trojans – Glieder, Fantibag and Mitglieder – in a co-ordinated assault designed to establish a huge botnet under the control of hackers. CA reckons that access to the compromised PCs is for sale on a black market, at prices as low as five cents per PC.

Glieder-AK: the "infantry element" of the malware attack infects systems, open up backdoors that exploited by the follow-on Trojans. On 1 June, 2005, eight new Glieder variants appeared in rapid succession and quickly spread. "The apparent objective is to get to as many victims as fast as possible with a lightweight piece of malware," CA said.

The Fantibag Trojan further disables the security features of compromised systems. It exploits networking features of target systems to prevent those systems from being able to communicate with anti-virus firms or with Microsoft’s Windows update site, so isolating infected systems.

The Mitglieder Trojan opens a backdoor on a compromised system, leaving them under the control of hackers.