Sasser author trial ready to start ...

The alleged author of the Sasser worm Sven Jaschan will have his day in court starting on the 5th July. The 19 year old student will have his first day in court in the city of Verden, Germany where he will face charges of computer sabotage, data manipulation and disruption of public systems. Jaschan was indicted last September for allegedly creating the Sasser worm that was released in April 2004. Sasser exploited a vulnerability within the Windows Local Security Authority Subsystem Service, or LSASS to compromise vulnerable Windows systems on the Internet. As the worm did not require interaction with users to spread, it spread quickly to hundreds of thousands of Windows systems across the Internet. The vulnerability Sasser exploited was detailed in the Microsoft advisory MS04–011 which had been released earlier in April 2004. Jaschan is from Waffensen in Germany and was arrested in May 2004 after Microsoft received a tip from someone seeking a reward offered by Microsoft. German authorities said that Jaschan had confessed to creating and releasing Sasser and also a number of variants of the Netsky virus. If convicted of the charges Jaschan could face up to five years in prison.