Conficker, also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido, is a computer worm targeting the Microsoft Windows operating system that was first detected in November 2008.[1] The worm uses a combination of advanced malware techniques which has made it difficult to counter, and has since spread rapidly into what is now believed to be the largest computer worm infection.
The origin of the name Conficker is thought to be a portmanteau of the term "configure" with German word Ficker, which means "fucker."[3][4] On the other hand, Microsoft analyst Joshua Phillips described the name as a rearrangement of portions of the domain name trafficconverter.biz,[5] which was used by early versions to download updates.
Discovery:
The first variant of Conficker, discovered in early November 2008, propagated through the Internet by exploiting a vulnerability in a network service (MS08-067) on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta. While Windows 7 may have been affected by this vulnerability, the Windows 7 Beta was not publicly available until January 2009. Although Microsoft released an emergency out-of-band patch on October 23, 2008 to close the vulnerability, a large number of Windows PCs (estimated at 30%) remained unpatched as late as January 2009. A second variant of the worm, discovered in December 2008, added the ability to propagate over LANs through removable media and network shares. Researchers believe that these were decisive factors in allowing the worm to propagate quickly: by January 2009, the estimated number of infected computers ranged from almost 9 million to 15 million. Antivirus software vendor Panda Security reported that of the 2 million computers analyzed through ActiveScan, around 115,000 (6%) were infected with Conficker.
Recent estimates of the number of infected computers have been more notably difficult because of changes in the propagation and update strategy of recent variants of the worm.
TRY macafee antivirus for the detection of w32.downadup.b.
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