My free AVG software has found an .EML file to be infected on my Windows 2000 machine. The .EML file was resident in a folder called .trashes, which was created when I linked to the folder from my Apple Mac OS X Ibook over the network. The .EML file was infected with I-worm/nimda. It was also cleaned and removed by the software. Can you tell me how this file would have got into that folder, and are there any viruses out there that could specifically look for this type of folder on a Windows machine and then infect it?


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Many worms now make use of openly shared folders under Windows to propagate. If you share a folder and enable writing to it, the worm will take advantage and copy itself to this folder. It does not matter what the name of the folder is.

A good idea is to password protect the folder, so someone writing to it has to input the password.


For more information on this topic, visit these other SearchSecurity.com resources:
Virus Prevention Tip: Top virus threats, part two: Nimda
Featured Topic: Learn about Nimda
Best Web Links: Malware

This was first published in August 2002

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