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Ohio State University logo Office of Information Technology Technology Support Center (8help)

Virus Alert: W32/ProLin@MM



Known as "ProLin," or pro-Linux, the bug politely places instructions on how to recover from infections on the victim's computer.

The worm arrives via e-mail with the subject line: "A great Shockwave flash movie."

The message reads: "Check out this new flash movie that I downloaded just now ... It's Great Bye" and the attachment is called CREATIVE.EXE. But clicking on that attachment triggers a series of events in the victim's computer that amount to an advertisement for the Linux operating system. It renames all JPG and ZIP files on the victim's computer with the appendage "change atleast now to LINUX." It then drops a text file called MESSAGEFORU.TXT, which offers the following advice:

"Hi, guess you have got the message. I have kept a list of files that I have infected under this. If you are smart enough just reverse back the process. i could have done far better damage, i could have even completely wiped your harddisk. Remember this is a warning & get it sound and clear... - The Penguin." The Linux mascot is a penguin.



OIT's OSU SLS page has updates for McAfee Virus Scan that detect this virus.

More nformation is available on McAfee's Web Page

Current Record: 432

Create Date: 12-01-2000
Last Reviewed: 06-26-2007


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