We have detected a new Santy variant which also targets vulnerabilties in older versions of php.
This new variant is more advanced/dangerous in a number of ways:

-Uses yahoo next to google to search for vulnerable sites.
-Targets next to 'phpBB pre 2.0.11' sites, also sites that use an older version of php.
-New Santy variants try to install a Bot, giving the masters control.
-Most sites have got huge bandwidth, this would make a spam run or DDoS extremely effective - although this is a side effect.

We detect the latest Santy variant as Net-Worm.Perl.Santy.e, the installed bot as Backdoor.Perl.Shellbot.b.
There are also some other new Perl Backdoors.

We would like to urge everybody to make sure their php is up to date. (Next to phpBB of course).
If you aren't the hoster of your site, contact the hoster even though it's christmas, malware doesn't wait till next week.