Last weekend a new version of Santy appeared which is even more dangerous. Santy.e doesn't only targets phpBB but it also attacks other PHP scripts that are vulnerable to the file inclusion exploit.
Just like the original Santy the new variant of this worm uses Google to identify websites vulnerable to this exploit.
"This can only be prevented with decent, secure coding," said Kaspersky Labs. "Every site [that uses PHP] is potentially in danger."
Kaspersky noted that it had already received reports of Websites attacked by infected systems, and that some servers have been compromised or dramatically slowed down as their loads climbed under constant probing.
Like earlier Santy variations, Santy.e uses Google to identify exploitable Web pages written in PHP which use the vulnerable functions "include()" and "require()." Santy.e, however, also throws Yahoo's and AOL's search engines into the mix, learning a lesson from the originals, which were stymied when Google blocked their searches.
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