A war of the worms is being waged on computers, as a newly released beast attempts to slither into unprotected systems and pluck last week's worm from infected machines.

After removing its predecessor MSBlaster, the new worm, which -- just to add to the confusion -- has been dubbed WORM_MSBLAST.D, Nachi and Welchia by various security and antivirus firms, then politely patches the machine against the vulnerability that MSBlaster exploited.

Despite the worm's seemingly helpful nature, some security experts are not amused.

"Presumably this was a well-intentioned action, but where does it all end?" wondered Mike Fergamo, a systems administrator. "Next week will we have an antiworm for the antiworm's antiworm?"

But some users welcomed the worm.

"My computer hasn't been right since it was infected last week," said Nadine Lovell, a Manhattan textile designer. "This afternoon it's working perfectly again."

A scan of Lovell's system confirmed her machine had indeed been infected with the new Blaster variant.

"Thank you, worm!" said Lovell.

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