Summary

Mare.D is a network worm that propagates by exploiting vulnerabilities in the Mambo content management system and the PHP XML-RPC library. The worm installs several backdoors to the compromised system.

Additional Details

The main component of the Mare.D worm is written in C and compiled with the GNU C compiler. Mare.D consists of several components, written in C, shell script and Perl.

Propagation

Mare.D scans random hosts for vulnerable installations of the Mambo content management system and PHP XML-RPC. Exploiting these vulnerabilities the worm downloads a small shell script that installs the rest of the components:
Payload

During infection Mare.D installs several backdoors to the compromised system. Two of them, 'cb' and 'ping.txt' are connectback shell backdoors, that connect to a remote host on 8080/TCP and open an interactive shell on the infected host. The third one is an IRC-controlled backdoor, written in Perl, which joins an IRC channel an awaits commands.

The main component of the worm also listens on 27015/UDP port for commands from the worm author. Through this port the attacker can issue different commands, for example update of the main component.

Detection

Mare.D is detected with the following F-Secure Anti-Virus updates:

[FSAV_Database_Version]
Version = 2006-02-17_02

Write-up: Gergely Erdelyi

Technical Details: Gergely Erdelyi, February 20, 2006

Description Updated: Gergely Erdelyi, February 20, 2006