Antivirus vendors are warning of a worm with high damage potential spreading across the Internet, with initial outbreaks Monday in Europe and Asia.

The Lovgate.C worm, a variant of an earlier worm with the same name, propagates itself by replying to e-mail in a user's in-box with an attachment containing the bad code, according to Trend Micro, among the first to release alerts about the pest. The worm then installs a backdoor port that allows a remote user to access and modify files on an infected user's system.

The self-replicating worm spreads through network shared folders and subfolders, as well as through the traditional method of an unsuspecting user's clicking on an e-mail attachment.