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Trojan-AIM

ALIAS:Instant Messenger trojan, AIM trojan, ICQ trojan, MSN trojan
ALIAS:Trojan-AOL, Trojan-MSN, Trojan-Yahoo, IM-TROJAN

Summary

Instant Messenger Trojan (generic description)

An Instant Messenger Trojan is usually a standalone program that affects a certain Instant Messenger (IM) client. There are a few widely used instant messenger networks - ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL and a few others. All these networks have specific clients that are available to all subscribers. Some instant messenger clients, for example Trillian, can connect to multiple IM networks.

Disinfection

Allow F-Secure Anti-Virus to disinfect the relevant files.

For more general information on disinfection, please see Removal Instructions.

Additional Details

Instant Messenger trojans are usually standalone programs that are sent by hackers to their potential victims in e-mails or instant messages. IM trojans are most frequently used to steal user's IM account information. When such trojan is run, it tries to locate an IM client's user information and to send it to a hacker via e-mail or using the existing IM client. That way a hacker gets all data he needs to connect to an IM network using victim's credentials.

Most famous IM trojans: Ypager, Ikmet, Spy, ICQSteal.

Writeup: Alexey Podrezov, July 14th, 2003;

Description Updated: Alexey Podrezov, November 17th, 2004;