W32.Passion.27648

SUMMARY

W32.Passion.27648 is a worm that usually comes as an ICQ_GREETINGS.EXE program attachment in email. The size of this attached program file is 27,648 bytes.

Symantec Antivirus Research Center has received reports of this worm from the field.

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
• Target of Infection: MS Outlook

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Similar to W32.Badass.24576, the W32.Passion.27648 worm routine appears to be a straight Visual Basic porting of W97M.Melissa payload routine. In fact, it is so similar that it marks its activation in the Windows Registry, also. The marker is the value "... by diejkdls"

If the marker is present, the worm routine is not activated.

Every time it is executed, the worm attempts to perform malicious activities:

• format d: /autotest /q /u
• format e: /autotest /q /u
• format a: /autotest /q /u
• format f: /autotest /q /u
• format u: /autotest /q /u
• format b: /autotest /q /u
• deleting files c:*.c*, d:*.c*, c:WinNtSystem*.c*, c:WinNt4System*.c*, c:WindowsSystem*.c*, c:WinNtSystem*.o*, c:WinNt4System*.o*, c:WindowsSystem*.o*, c:WinNt*.i*, c:WinNt4*.i*, c:Windows*.i*

The worm also registers itself in Windows Registry to start every time Windows begins. The registry key is in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun

as the value "ICQ99b". The Data Value is "C:ICQ.EXE."

The worm adds two Windows Registry keys.

First of two Registry keys added:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsNTCurrentVersionWindowsRunICQ99b

with the same value set to "C:ICQ.EXE. "

Second of two Registry keys added will add a particular user information in the virus to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsNTCurrentVersionWindowsCurrentVersion

There are also strings of MyPics and Passion.exe inside the worm program.

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.

REMOVAL

As with other worms or trojan horse programs, the detected file must be deleted. There is no need to remove the marker from the Windows Registry. In fact, its presence deactivates the worm routine.