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Virus Profile: W97M/AntiSocial.e

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Virus Profile information details
Risk Assessment: Home Low | Corporate Low
Date Discovered: 9/1/1999
Date Added: 9/3/1999
Origin: N/A
Length: N/A
Type: Virus
Subtype: Macro
DAT Required: 4043
Removal Instructions
   
 
 
   

Description

This is a virus detection. Viruses are programs that self-replicate recursively, meaning that infected systems spread the virus to other systems, which then propagate the virus further. While many viruses contain a destructive payload, it's quite common for viruses to do nothing more than spread from one system to another.

Indication of Infection

Email propagation as mentioned above, registry modifications as mentioned above.

Methods of Infection

Once the global template file is infected, all documents used on that system will become infected. Email propagation maximizes the potential spread of the virus.

Aliases

W97M/Skeptic
   

Virus Characteristics

This is a Word'97 and Word'2000 infector which uses the class module and gets the control when the infected file is opened. Most of the body is encrypted, only 5 lines are visible. They decrypt the body in "Sixtieth_Skeptic" function and launch this function which is doing the rest of work.

First thing the virus does is infecting the global template file. All opened files are then infected too. The virus contains a bug which makes it non-polymorphic but encrypted.

The virus drops C:\SS.BAS and C:\SS.VBS files. First contains the VBS source of the virus (only 5 first lines are actually readable VBA source as the body below is encrypted) . Second file is a short VBS script (WSCRIPT.EXE which comes with Win98 and Windows2000 by default but not with Win95) - which would reinfect NORMAL.DOT if it is cleaned or removed. To do this the filename C:\SS.VBS is entered in the following Registry key so that this script is run on every reboot:

HKEY_CURRENT_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current\Version\Run

Then the virus checks the key called "Sixtieth Skeptic" in the following Registry key

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office

and if it contains a string "Where's Jamie?" the virus quits.

If the key is not there the virus gets the Outlook address list and sends itself to first 60 addresses assigning the following attributes to the Email:

Subject: Important Message From ... (here goes the user name taken from Winword's environment) Body: Look what I found...

After that the virus sets the Registry key to read "Where's Jamie?" so it would not send Emails out from the same machie twice.

   
All Users :
Script,Batch,Macro and non memory-resident:
Use current engine and DAT files for detection and removal.

PE,Trojan,Internet Worm and memory resident :
Use specified engine and DAT files for detection. To remove, boot to MS-DOS mode or use a boot diskette and use the command line scanner:

SCANPM /ADL /CLEAN /ALL

Additional Windows ME/XP removal considerations


Users should not trust file icons, particularly when receiving files from others via P2P clients, IRC, email or other mediums where users can share files.

AVERT Recommended Updates :

* Office2000 Updates

* Malformed Word Document Could Enable Macro to Run Automatically (Information/Patch )

* scriptlet.typelib/Eyedog vulnerability patch

* Outlook as an email attachment security update

* Exchange 5.5 post SP3 Information Store Patch 5.5.2652.42 - this patch corrects detection issues with GroupShield

For a list of attachments blocked by the Outlook patch and a general FAQ, visit this link .
Additionally, Network Administrators can configure this update using an available tool - visit this link for more information .

It is very common for macro viruses to disable options within Office applications for example in Word, the macro protection warning commonly is disabled. After cleaning macro viruses, ensure that your previously set options are again enabled.