Koobface worm to users: Be my Facebook friend

A worm that hit Facebook last December has resurfaced, a security researcher said today, and is now hijacking user accounts -- not only for that social networking service, but also for MySpace, Friendster, LiveJournal and others.

The Koobface worm is again making the rounds on Facebook, said Jamz Yaneza, a research project manager with Trend Micro Inc. "But this is an improved version with some interesting functions," he said.

Like the variant that hit Facebook late last year , the newest Koobface tries to dupe users into clicking on a link that's included in a message from a friend. Clicking on the link displays a fake error message claiming that Adobe System Inc.'s Flash is out of date, and prompts the user to download an update.

The update is nothing of the sort, but is instead an executable file that installs the Koobface worm.

"Koobface.az," as Trend pegged the worm, rifles through a compromised PC, sniffs out browser cookies associated with 10 different social networking sites, uses the usernames and passwords within those cookies to log on to each service, searches for the infected user's friends, and then sends those people messages that include a link to the worm.

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