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Low-risk JPEG bug raises new concerns
Friday, June 14 2002
by Matthew Clark


E-security firms issued warnings on Thursday of a new kind of virus, one that
infects computers through image files. 

The bug, called W32/Perrun or the "JPEG infector," is claimed to be the first
of its kind by security company Network Associates, who said the low-risk virus
presented a "limited threat to consumers and corporations." 



In describing the virus, Network Associates said Perrun had two parts: One part
of the bug consists of infected JPEG images that contain the viruses' payload but
do not corrupt the image itself. The second half of the bug is a viral program
that extracts the code from the images and infects other JPEGs on the system as
they are opened. This means that computers would need to be infected by the
extractor virus first, before any dangerous code hidden in an image file can do
any damage. 



All of this means that users cannot be infected by just opening a JPEG image on
the Web. Instead, a virus on an infected computer copies code into a digital
image and waits for the JPEG to move to other infected systems. The virus on
those systems will then read the code fragment in the JPEG image and follow the
instructions.



What's more, it is reported that the virus has not been released on the Internet
but has been sent only to major anti-virus companies by the creator of the code.
The extractor file only infects computers running Windows.



"It seems to be more of a proof-of-concept than anything else," explained
Dermot Williams, managing director of Systemhouse Technology Group in Dublin. "We
have had definitions since yesterday, and by accounts it's a very low-risk
virus." 



Nevertheless, some anti-virus experts are saying that Perrun, though generally
considered to be an almost non-existent threat by recent viral and worm
standards, demonstrates the continually evolving threat viruses can pose as
creators look for new ways to "slip something under the radar."