V5M.Radiant.A

SUMMARY

V5M.Radiant.A is a macro virus written to infect Visio files. The virus, which does not carry a malicious payload, has never been seen in the wild.

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

Distribution

• Distribution Level: Low

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Several versions of Visio (4.5, 5, and 2000) support Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) version 5. The V5M.Radiant.A virus was received as a source code from a virus writer who intended to show that it is possible to write a macro virus that executes in Visio using VBA.

V5M.Radiant.A infects other Visio files when the infected file is closed. It also creates an HTML file called "C:INDEX.HTML" with the following content:

A Multitude of Suns
Orbit in Empty Space
They Speak with their light
to all that is dark.
To me they remain silent.

Greets to all the VX Community
And Radiant Angels
its...... Radiant

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.