Red Hat India claims to have tamed the new virus 'Lion'
that is rapidly spreading on Linux machines all over the world. In a statement
issued, the company officials maintained that the solution to the problem was
available through the Red Hat website since January 2001.
The Lion worm virus is known to be capable of changing
network settings, stealing passwords and eliminating some security measures
making the machines vulnerable to further attacks.
"There has been a flurry of discussions surrounding
the Lion worm virus. Though the bug is now getting notoriety, Red Hat has had
the patches available for their customers on Red Hat website and through the Red
Hat network since January 2001," said Javed Tapia, Director, Red Hat India.
Red Hat provides customers with automated updates and
patches. Customers and anyone connecting to the Internet on a constant basis can
install patches issued by the vendor.
Lion worm virus uses security exploits in BIND- which
were originally discovered by computer researchers and affect Red Hat Linux
versions 5.x 6.x and 7 running ISC BIND.
Lion is a new worm very similar to Ramen worm. It
infects Linux machines with the BIND DNS server running. It is known to infect
the BIND version. It was spread via an application called Randb. Randb scans
random class B networks probing TCP port 53. Once it hits a system, it then
checks to see if that system it then checks to see if that system is vulnerable.
If so it then exploits the system using the exploit called name. It then
installs the torn root kit.
Red Hat India is a joint venture between Red Hat Inc and
Clover Technologies. It is largest open source company in the world with a
market share of 65 percent.