Posted by Cheryl (12.36.128.30) on March 16, 2001 at 08:14:59:
Alerts have been issued for Magistr, which is an advanced virus from Sweden. It is capable of mass mailing itself to all entries in an EMAIL address book. It can be highly destructive to PC's and network systems.
This new virus mutates so that it always generates a unique attachment name. Fortunately, this new virus is only beginning to spread and is not currently in an outbreak mode. We will have protection in place for our Internet EMAIL tonight and a McAfee 4129 update soon (which detects this virus).
We are in a high cycle of activity, so please be careful with any EMAIL attachment at home or work. For this new virus, the following are recommended precautions:
Prevention Steps
1. Please avoid and delete any attachments ending in EXE (e.g., CFGWIZ32.EXE, CFGWIZ31.EXE, PSTORES.EXE, PSTORER.EXE, etc. -- the name can vary with 8 random characters and EXE at the end).
2. The EMAIL message will be unusual and of a non-business nature (e.g., 7-8 lines of random text, containing 1 to 6 attachments).
3. Most likely the EMAIL messages will be from someone you know, (since most viruses use EMAIL address books where your name might be registered by a business associate or friend).
http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/stories/main/0,5594,2693125,00.html
http://vil.nai.com/vil/virusSummary.asp?virus_k=99040
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.magistr.24876@mm.html