Bad Bunny: Much ado about nothing

McAfee Avert Labs received a proof of concept virus Bad Bunny a.k.a StarOffice/BadBunny. Its a multi-platform macro virus written in StarBasic and which executes on Linux, MacOSX and Windows. It is capable of infecting JavaScript, Ruby and Perl script files and also attempts to perform a denial of service attack on antivirus vendor sites by sending large ICMP packets continuously.

Sounds pretty malicious right? In all likely hood this virus will not be seen in the wild. Such proof of concepts are written more to show off the so-called elite skills of the author and are usually submitted to AntiVirus vendors by the virus authors to get media attention. Nowadays with all the keen media interest in computer security, all it takes is to add a bell or whistle and a little proof of concept makes headlines.

This virus group had previously released a proof of concept virus targeting StarOffice christened StarOffice/StarDust which downloaded a picture of the porn star Sylvia Saint. In this variant it downloads something on similar lines – a pornographic image of a man dressed as a rabbit making out with a scantily clad woman in the woods. Sigh!

Makes you reflect on Peter Ferrie’s motivating words for such virus authors. “So imagine you’re a virus writer, someone who specialises in one-of-a-kind viruses, and you want to do something that’s really new and different. What should it be? How about quitting?”

Take the cue guys. Get a life!