Worms Hits Google's Orkut

Google's Orkut social networking site hasn't enjoyed the popularity that others, such as MySpace and Facebook, have in the U.S. That being said, the site is quite popular in other countries, chiefly India and Brazil. The networking site was targeted by what appears to be a non-malicious hacker yesterday and the effect was quite astounding.

The worm used Orkut's scrapbook system to spread its message to hundreds of thousands of users in just a few hours. First an Orkut user would receive an e-mail that a new scrapbook entry had been sent to them. Upon viewing the new entry, the user would see the message “2008 vem ai... que ele comece mto bem para vc.” The message is Portuguese and reads as “2008 is coming... I wish that it begins quite well for you” in English. Not exactly what you'd expect from a super virulent worm virus.

The worm uses a feature of the scrapbook system that allows the use of JavaScript content in entries. After the message is viewed by the user, it deletes itself and adds the user to a user group named Infectados pelo Virus do Orkut, or Infected by the Orkut Virus. The code also sends a primer message to all of the infected user's contacts, and the cycle repeats itself. The virus at one point was spreading at 100 users per minute, and managed to infect over 600,000 accounts.

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Update : Google Stops Orkut Worm Attack