F-Secure claims discovery of first Windows Vista virus

Chicago (IL) - Antivirus specialist F-Secure today published a note that it has sighted the first virus models that aim at Microsoft’s next generation operating system "Vista", formerly code-named Longhorn.

At this time, the publication is a proof-of-concept and aims at the Microsoft Command Shell (MSH), a Unix-like command line component and scripting language that is expected to replace shells such as cmd.exe or command.com in Microsoft’s server applications and possibly Windows Vista. "Second Part to Hell", an Austrian member of the hacker group ready rangers liberation front (RRLF) published five simple scripts for MSH in the group’s magazine.

F-Secure said that the possibility of MSH viruses was forecasted last year by researcher Eric Chien of Symantec at the Virus Bulletin 2004. In his presentation Eric concluded that the shell may have "enough functionality to allow a variety of malicious threats including file-infecting viruses."

For now, the scripts published to be very simple. A seven-line script that is capable to overwrite itself. The author claims that script is also capable to add just its own code to another script. However, the added code cannot be executed at this time, the author said.