Fact Check

Bagle Virus

Information about the 'Bagle' worm.

Published Jan. 19, 2004

Claim:

Virus name:   Bagle (aka Beagle).


Status:   Real.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2004]




Subject: Hi
Test =)
hpmktvufprskitfnraawo

Test, yep.

Attachment: uvncxpxaspj.exe



Origins:   Bagle is a mass-mailing worm that affects only Microsoft NT or Windows-based systems. It searches files on infected systems with specified extensions (.wab, .txt, .htm and .html) for e-mail contacts and replicates by mailing itself out to those contacts as a message attachment. (The attachment name is a random string of letters followed by .EXE, just as the first line of the message is a random string of letters.) Bagle checks the current system date and does nothing if the date is 28 January 2004 or later.

Additional Information:



  W32.Beagle.A@mm W32.Beagle.A@mm (Symantec)
  WORM_BAGLE.A WORM_BAGLE.A (Trend Micro)

Last updated:   21 January 2008


David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.