Joshi

SUMMARY

Joshi is a virus that displays the following message if the infected computer is booted on January 5 of any year:

type Happy Birthday Joshi

It then halts the computer. The system continues normally if the user responds appropriately and enters the following:

Happy Birthday Joshi

If not, the system hangs.

Threat Assessment

Wild

• Wild Level: Low
• Number of Infections: 0 - 49
• Number of Sites: 0 - 2
• Geographical Distribution: Low
• Threat Containment: Easy
• Removal: Easy

Damage

• Damage Level: Low
• Payload Trigger: January 5
• Modifies Files: Floppy boot sectors, master boot records

Distribution

• Distribution Level: Low
• Target of Infection: DOS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Joshi can survive a warm boot (Ctrl+Alt+Del). To clear the virus from memory, the user must shut the system down (power off) or use the Reset button.

Joshi stores infectious code to side 0, track 0, sectors 2 through 6. The original master boot record is copied to side 0, track 0, sector 9.

Recommendations

Symantec Security Response encourages all users and administrators to adhere to the following basic security "best practices":

• Turn off and remove unneeded services. By default, many operating systems install auxiliary services that are not critical, such as an FTP server, telnet, and a Web server. These services are avenues of attack. If they are removed, blended threats have less avenues of attack and you have fewer services to maintain through patch updates.
• If a blended threat exploits one or more network services, disable, or block access to, those services until a patch is applied.
• Always keep your patch levels up-to-date, especially on computers that host public services and are accessible through the firewall, such as HTTP, FTP, mail, and DNS services (for example, all Windows-based computers should have the current Service Pack installed.). Additionally, please apply any security updates that are mentioned in this writeup, in trusted Security Bulletins, or on vendor Web sites.
• Enforce a password policy. Complex passwords make it difficult to crack password files on compromised computers. This helps to prevent or limit damage when a computer is compromised.
• Configure your email server to block or remove email that contains file attachments that are commonly used to spread viruses, such as .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files.
• Isolate infected computers quickly to prevent further compromising your organization. Perform a forensic analysis and restore the computers using trusted media.
• Train employees not to open attachments unless they are expecting them. Also, do not execute software that is downloaded from the Internet unless it has been scanned for viruses. Simply visiting a compromised Web site can cause infection if certain browser vulnerabilities are not patched.