Along with a slew of patches, Microsoft on Tuesday also did its monthly update of the Windows Malicious Software Tool, a free utility that detects and deletes a select number of worms, viruses, Trojans, and rootkits.
October's edition of the tool adds four new pieces of malware to the growing list of targets: Antiny, Gibe, Mywife, and Wukill.
Antiny is a name given to a family of worms that spread via a Japanese file-sharing application called Winny, and so is limited to Japan. The other three, however, are less selective in their victims, and use e-mail, and in some cases, network shares, to propagate.
All four are rated as "Moderate" threats by Microsoft, which uses a three-step system to rank malicious code.
A copy of the tool is automatically downloaded, installed, and run on Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003 on systems set to grab patches from Windows Update or Microsoft Update.
