Dr.Web warns against AutoIt warms

9th December 2008

The company Dr.Web reported on a significant increase in the flow of new viruses, distributed by means of USB Flash Drive, CD / DVD, external hard drives, etc…
These malicious codes are created in the programming language AutoIt. In recent months, a significant percentage of virus infections occur through the automatic launch of malicious software from removable disks. According to the Dr.Web classification, this malicious code is called Win32.HLLW.Autoruner.
The increased flow of new viruses on removable devices is due to the spread of the language AutoIt.
As a result of such viruses` activity, after converting source program text we have not a script, but an executable file. Thus, it is very difficult to analyze them.
The problem of viruses transmission via removable devices is becoming increasingly acute. For example, removable media are already forbidden in the U.S. Army. This policy was also taken in many companies.
Dr.Web recommends that Windows users should disable the auto-run of removable devices (USB Flash Drive, CD / DVD, external hard drives, etc.) in order to significantly reduce the likelihood of contamination of malicious code.