The first
virus to target Sun Microsystems’ StarOffice productivity suite has
been discovered on the internet by security company Kaspersky
Lab.
Kaspersky has
called the virus Stardust, but reports that so far no systems have
been infected by the virus in the wild.
Stardust uses
macros to try and infect StarOffice. Macros can be set up by users
to automate certain tasks within a document, such as repeated
calculations on spreadsheets.
A virus using
macros typically infects a template, which is then read when
opening other documents, infecting them also.
The Stardust virus
is contained in a StarOffice document, which uses macros, and which
is designed to infect global templates.
Turning off macro
features in applications can block such viruses.
Kaspersky says
Stardust is a proof-of-concept virus, meaning it so far isn’t being
maliciously spread, but Kaspersky warns that it could be copied by
others with malicious intent.