IT
security experts have warned of a worm that purports to be Microsoft's
Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy tool. The
Cuebot-K worm spreads via AOL Instant Messenger, registering itself as a new
system driver service called 'wgavn'. It carries the display name 'Windows
Genuine Advantage Validation Notification', and runs automatically during system
startup. Users who view the list of services are told that removing or stopping
the service will result in 'system instability'. Once in place the worm disables
the Windows firewall, and opens a backdoor to infected computers which allows
hackers to gain remote access, spy.