http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/08/1033538931238.htmlOctober 8 2002
"Another Linux worm, known as Mighty, is making the rounds, according to information available from Russian anti-virus vendor Kasperksy Labs.
Kaspersky Labs has so far registered over 1,600 infected systems worldwide.
Mighty uses the same vulnerability in OpenSSL that the Slapper worm and its variants, Slapper.B and Slapper.C used and spreads in similar ways with some differences.
Mighty has the same source code spreading method as Slapper: to ensure compatibility with all versions of OpenSSL, but one of the worm's components (sslx.c, which is responsible for penetration via the security system vulnerability) does a fresh recompile on each computer.
Mighty also sets up a backdoor utility (designed to gain unauthorised control) which connects to one of the remote IRC channels from where an attacker can operate. It can this leak out information, corrupt data, and use infected machines to conduct distributed denial of service attacks."
this OpenSSL vulnerability has been around for quite a while now! I guess some Linux users are as bad at updating their systems reguarly as Windows users are.