AIM Virus - w32.allim

Message

Matt · #1 Post by **Matt** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:02 pm

This is an AIM virus. Anyone who has AIM should watch out.

I got the virus from deatvert, and it presents itself as perfectly harmless. As a quote such as Please tell me that this isn't you, lol! Is this you? etc. The 'this' is a link to a file with a name such as 745424164.jpg.exe. Unlike it claims, it is infact an exe, not a picture, and it is important not to run this!! If you run it, every so often, it sends a message to everyone on your Buddy List, spreading the virus.

If you are on my buddy list, you're at my peril, but it's probably spread a lot further than when I contracted it last night.

Anyone who has a fix for this would be loved, but until then, guys, remain Vigilant :roll:

_jaye_ · #2 Post by **_jaye_** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:27 pm

Actually, this happened on MSN a while ago in...May? My friends got the virus too and apparently the messages are sent by themselves (

). I got the message once but that time I was lucky as my friend put up on his msn name, "If I messaged you and gave you a link, I swear I didn't do that! It's not me!" So I didn't get affected.

Is this a recent thing?

Stijn · #3 Post by **Stijn** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:29 pm

Anyone who is unintelligent enough to accept and/or run that program deserves it. XD

Matt · #4 Post by **Matt** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:57 pm

Stijn wrote:Anyone who is unintelligent enough to accept and/or run that program deserves it. XD

Excuse me?

Firstly, there is no way of knowing that you are downloading an exe until you have downloading it.

With hindsight, I accept I was being a little optimistic running it, but without file extensions I didn't think at all before running it...

Shifty · #5 Post by **Shifty** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 4:09 pm

I had gotten something just like that, but it was on msn.... Went something like lol you'll like this along with the clickable link. Some girl who was on my list but I hardly ever talked to started cursing at me, even though I told her to ignore it right away.

There was this downloadable thing my dad sent me that got rid of it, but I can't say it will work the same for AIM.

Ammer · #6 Post by **Ammer** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 4:17 pm

Stijn wrote:Anyone who is unintelligent enough to accept and/or run that program deserves it. XD

That wasn't a very nice statement.

Twizzler0171 · #7 Post by **Twizzler0171** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 4:25 pm

Stijn wrote:Anyone who is unintelligent enough to accept and/or run that program deserves it. XD

Erm. I get sent images by my friends via that method quite often. If by chance I had recieved a message from one of my friends saying that - I probably would have accepted the thing.

Thank you for the warning Matt, very appreciated.

Trick · #8 Post by **Trick** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 4:59 pm

Stijn wrote:Anyone who is unintelligent enough to accept and/or run that program deserves it. XD

I wouldn't go that far, if something comes from someone on your friends list who you know well many people wouldn't suspect a thing.

Just remember to always look at the file name properly before accepting a download, if it says it's a picture but doesn't end in a typical image file extension, and especially if it ends in .exe then cancel!

Meh, I hate viruses :roll:

Stijn · #9 Post by **Stijn** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:09 pm

If you hover the mouse over a link, it shows you the URL. I assume the URL you see ends in ".exe". Or if the person sends you the file, you are also able to see the file extension.

I might just be paranoid, but I always check URLs and doublecheck what people are sending me. What I said wasn't a rude statement, it was just my opinion.

It teaches you to not just click every link you see.

Yoshi · #10 Post by **Yoshi** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:17 pm

Shifty wrote:I had gotten something just like that, but it was on msn.... Went something like lol you'll like this along with the clickable link. Some girl who was on my list but I hardly ever talked to started cursing at me, even though I told her to ignore it right away.

There was this downloadable thing my dad sent me that got rid of it, but I can't say it will work the same for AIM.

Yep. There were actually two versions of that floating around. One of them was a .pif file, something I've never even heard of. I didn't click it...but my sister did. Oi, cleanup was a little messy, although System Restore became the lifesaver here. :)

Xil · #11 Post by **Xil** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:54 pm

Matt, you may wanna clarify the title of the thread, that way more people will know whats going on.

Besides that, thanks for the update.

Matterbug · #12 Post by **Matterbug** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 6:12 pm

Here's a page with lots of info on it-

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.allim.a.html

#13 Post by **Hunter Lupe** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 6:16 pm

If anyone on my friends list suddenly decided to say "Please tell me that this isn't you, lol! Is this you?", I wouldn't need a file transfer dialog to tell me something is wrong.

Kuri · #14 Post by **Kuri** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 6:21 pm

Oh man, I was SO close to getting this. Firefox has been a bit wacky for me, so I haven't been able to use it, to make a long story short when I click on a link it opens in firefox, firefox isn't working so the link didn't work. I blocked the person when I realized it wasn't really a picture. I was very lucky. I have friends all the time who give me links to pictures, that's why I didn't think anything of it.

Zero! · #15 Post by **Zero!** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:27 pm

I almost got it. Someone sent me something like that, I clicked on it and it said "you are downloading (blahblah).exe". When I saw it was an .exe file, I knew it was a virus, and cancelled it.
Thanks for the warning that it's still going on. Everyone, don't trust your friends! :lol: