The Agobot.AX variant was found on 26th of November 2003. This backdoor has functionality similar to its previous variants, but it is more powerful than earlier versions. Generic description of Agobot and information on previous Agobot variants can be found here:
The most important step of disinfection is the installation of security patches for the vulnerabilities exploited by Agobot.
Detailed information and patches are available from the following pages:
RPC/DCOM (MS03-026, fixed by MS03-039):
https://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-039.asp
RPC/Locator (MS03-001):
https://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-001.asp
WebDAV (MS03-007):
https://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-007.asp
The neccessary patches can be downloaded from the pages above under the "Patch availability" section.
F-Secure Anti-Virus can detect and delete the Agobot infected files.
A False Positive is when a file is incorrectly detected as harmful, usually because its code or behavior resembles known harmful programs. A False Positive will usually be fixed in a subsequent database update without any action needed on your part. If you wish, you may also:
Check for the latest database updates
First check if your F-Secure security program is using the latest updates, then try scanning the file again.
Submit a sample
After checking, if you still believe the file is incorrectly detected, you can submit a sample of it for re-analysis.
Note: If the file was moved to quarantine, you need to collect the file from quarantine before you can submit it.
Exclude a file from further scanning
If you are certain that the file is safe and want to continue using it, you can exclude it from further scanning by the F-Secure security product.
Note: You need administrative rights to change the settings.
There are some differences in this backdoor variant comparing to its previous variants. They are described below.
The Agobot.ax backdoor copies itself as SCVHOST.EXE file to Windows System folder and creates startup keys for this file in System Registry:
On Windows NT-based systems the backdoor can start as a service.
The backdoor is controlled via an IRC bot, that is created on a certain IRC server in a specific channel when the backdoor's file is active. The following oprerations can be performed with via a bot:
The bot can harvest email addresses. It has the functionality to read user's Address Book and send the list of email addresses to the bot operator.
The backdoor can scan subnets for exploitable computers and send a list of their IPs to the bot operator. The scan is performed on ports 80, 135 and 445 for RPC/DCOM (MS03-026), RPC/Locator (MS03-001) and WebDAV (MS03-007) vulnerabilities.
The backdoor can perform the following types of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks:
The attack can not be performed on the following sites:
When spreading to local network, Agobot.ax probes the following shares:
Agobot.ax tries to connect using the following account names:
When connecting, Agobot.ax uses the following passwords:
Agobot.ax has a huge list of processes that it is trying to terminate:
Agobot.ax also terminates processes belonging to other malware:
Agobot.ax tries to steal CD keys from the following games:
This variant of Agobot also steals Windows Product ID.