Vigilante virus tackles child porn

A vigilante virus is on the loose which infects Windows machines and shops supposed child pornographers to the authorities.

Only weeks after the 'helpful' Cheese worm was discovered, the Noped virus has started out on its 'crusade' to rid the web of child porn.

Noped arrives as a Visual Basic Script attachment on an email headed: "FWD: Help us ALL to END ILLEGAL child porn NOW." The message body reads: "Hi, just a quick e-mail. Please read the attached document as soon as you can. Thanks."

If the attached NOW.TXT............vbs is run, the virus will forward itself to all addresses in Outlook, before scanning the hard drive for .jpeg files matching a list which may indicate child pornography.

Should the worm find any such material it will forward a list of images along with a sample to any one of a number of government agencies.

The resulting message reads: "Hi, this is Antipedo2001. I have found a PC with known Child Pornography files on the hard drive. I have included a file listing below and included a sample for your convenience."

The virus will also display a large text file in Notepad on international laws concerning child pornography. It modifies the Windows Registry so that it runs every time Windows is restarted and changes the Internet Explorer home page to that of the virus writer.

The majority of antivirus firms have already posted a detection signature for the Noped virus on their respective websites.