A worm, dubbed Sasser by antivirus firms, was spreading slowly throughout the Internet on Saturday, taking advantage of a vulnerability in unpatched Windows systems to infect new hosts.
The Sasser worm began spreading Friday night and seems to be moving at a pace far slower than previous worms such as MSBlast and Code Red, said Alfred Huger, senior director of security firm Symantec"s response team.
Symantec initially rated the Sasser worm as a two on its five-point scale of threats. A five is the highest danger rating on the scale. Rival antivirus firm Network Associates rated the threat a medium danger, and the Internet Storm Center, which monitors network threats, raised its general Internet danger level to yellow, essentially a medium rating as well.
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News source: CNET News.com