Virus writers create fake Wikipedia page for malicious patch

Internet Business News, Nov 6, 2006

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Virus writers have used a page of the online Wikipedia resource to link to a fake fix for a new version of the old Windows Blaster worm, which was first introduced in 2003.

The writers set up a page on the German Wikipedia, providing a link to a page they claimed would fix the bug, however those installing the patch were infected by a new Windows virus.

The hackers also issued a spam e-mail in German, including a message made to appear as though it was from Wikipedia, directing users to the malicious page and bogus patch.

Internet security company Sophos said that the openness of websites such as Wikipedia enables any computer user to edit pages, which can leave them vulnerable to malicious entries. It noted however that Wikipedia acted to identify and edit the article promptly and it is not thought that many users visited the page or downloaded the file.

The page has now been removed from the Wikipedia site and archived versions of the pages have also been deleted.

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