A worm targeting newly announced flaws in Microsoft's Windows operating system is circulating on the Internet, an anti-virus software maker has said.

Trend Micro Inc. said the Zotob virus exploits security holes in Windows 95, 98, ME, NE, 2000 and XP platforms and can give hackers remote access to affected systems, according to Reuters.

The worm drops a copy of itself into the Windows system folder as BOTZOR.EXE and modifies the system's host file in the infected machine to prevent the user from getting online help from anti-virus Web sites, Trend Micro said.

The virus can also connect to a specific Internet relay chat server and give attackers remote control over affected systems, which can be used to infect other unpatched computers in a network.

While early reports suggested Zotob was spreading rapidly, its impact has actually been limited because it targets Windows 2000, an older version of the software, Microsoft said. It poses no threat to computers running the newer Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the company added.

Microsoft warned of three "critical" security flaws in its software last week, including one that could allow attackers to comandeer a computer.

Computer users should update their anti-virus pattern files and apply the latest Microsoft patches to fix the security flaws, Trend Micro said.

Source: Xinhua/agencies