W97M.Jedi

SUMMARY

The "Jedi" virus is a Word97 macro virus that displays some text in a pop-up message box upon exit of Word97.

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

The virus will change the default name of the creator of any macros created after an infection to the name "O.B.1. Canobi". This virus does not add any new files to the system, does not delete any files, nor does it try to stealth itself.

Known Variants:

W97M.Jedi.A, B, C, D, E, F

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

Before starting up Word97, delete the NORMAL.DOT file in the TEMPLATES directory in the path where Word97 is. Start up Word97 and open the file without executing macros by pressing and holding the Shift key at the same time clicking the "Open" button in the file browse dialog. Once the document is loaded, choose the "Select All" option from the "Edit" menu. The text in the document will now be highlighted, so you can select "Copy" from the "Edit" menu to put the contents into the clipboard. You can now close this document (Do not close the Word97 program - only your document). Select "New…" from the "File" menu and create an empty document. Now select "Paste" from the "Edit" menu to copy the contents of your document to the new file. You can now save this file as the same name as the originally infected file to replace it with an uninfected version. Please keep in mind that this manual repair will remove all macros from the file, including any that may be legitimate and valuable. It is recommended that you use Norton AntiVirus to clean this virus in order to retain the non-viral macros in the document. To change the user information back, select the "User Information" tab from the "Options…" selection under the "Tools" menu.