full-disclosure - Xmas virus on the cards ?

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From: secsquirrel at lycos.com (security squirrel)
Subject: Xmas virus on the cards ?

Hi all - 

I noticed this article at http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151553 and it looks alarming - however did not find any more details. 

If I understand well an HTML file is renamed to JPG and attached to an email. However I did not manage to reproduce this. 

This is my summary of the article: 

1. xmas card emails to LEAD to innocent images which are not images but have viruses

2. Mail Filtering systems should handle images just like HTML files + educate

3. ISS reports that this was on a hacker mailing list 

4. techniques to bypass firewalls by MISLABELLING html files as JPGs

5. Steven Darrall is a senior consultant at ISS X-Force Security Assessment Services

6. The problem is caused by Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) web browser automatically opening files labelled with .jpg or .gif extensions.

7. Hackers have posted a proof-of-concept file in which the content was a script that caused the browser to download and install a virus according to Darrall

8. The site serving the virus has since been shut down

Is the image and attachment or is it simply a link to a .jpg file on an HTTP server? Did anyone manage to reproduce this or can point to the original post on the "hacker mailing list" which describes this?

- Sec-Squirrel :)

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