The Unix/Froot-A worm, also known as Wanuk, exploits a vulnerability in both x86 and Sparc versions of Sun’s Solaris 10 operating system that can open a backdoor through which hackers could gain remote access to computers.
The Froot worm can send broadcast messages in various forms including ASCII art messages.
“Most attacks today are targeted at computers running Microsoft Windows, but that doesn’t mean that businesses running Unix and other operating systems don’t need to take security seriously,” Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said.
“This worm takes advantage of a security hole in Solaris’ telnet service that was first disclosed last month.
Vulnerable businesses would be wise to install the vulnerability fix from Sun, and consider disabling telnet,” Cluley added.
