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Virus Profile: W97M/Vale

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Virus Profile information details
Risk Assessment: Home Low | Corporate Low
Date Discovered: 12/30/1999
Date Added: 12/31/1999
Origin: N/A
Length: N/A
Type: Virus
Subtype: Macro
DAT Required: 4060
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

Modifications to either SCRIPT.INI or EVENTS.INI for mIRC or Pirch and/or messages as mentioned above.

Methods of Infection

Opening infected documents will directly infect the local Word environment and any document used thereafter.
   

Virus Characteristics

This is a virus for Word 97 documents. It is not able to replicate under the SR-1 and above releases of Word 97. It will turn off the macro warning feature of Word 97/2000 using registry modification. This virus consists of a single module named "Money". This virus contains some code to propagate by Outlook email, however this code is either avoided intentionally or accidentally, therefore does not execute. This virus does contain a method of spreading in mIRC and Pirch by modifications to the configuration INI files for each application.

This virus does have date activated payload of displaying different message boxes. All message boxes displayed are reference to political statements about the government of Brazil and is in Portuguese language. A rather lengthy message box is displayed on the following dates; May 9, September 25, December 25 and January 1.

The infected document is saved to the C:\WINDOWS folder as two different files, MONEY.DOC and DINHEIRO.DOC. These files are later sent via mIRC and Pirch scripts during Internet connections. The configuration file for mIRC is modified to send itself to user who join the same channel as the infected user.

Attempts to view the code within Word by the menu selection "FileTemplates" is thwarted by a fake error message with this text:

"Lamento voce nao possue nivel para esta operacao. Por Favor leia o Manual de instrucoes para maiores detalhes."

Translated into English, it means roughly
"It is not possible to perform this operation. Please read the Manual of instructions for more details."
Attempting to view the code using "ALT-F11" gives another fake error message with this text:
"Este programa executou uma instrucao ilegal por favor feche o Windows e reinicie."

Translated into English it means roughly "This program executed an illegal instruction please close Windows and restart."

This virus hooks the system event of opening documents in Word97 by the subroutine "Autoopen" thereby running its code. Another system event hooked is creation of new documents using the "New Document" icon within Word thereby running its code.

   
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.