F-Secure Worm Information Pages : Mare.D

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.
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: - /tmp/.temp/cb - Connectback shell backdoor
- /tmp/.temp/https - IRC-controlled backdoor
- /tmp/.temp/ping.txt - Connectback shell backdoor
- /tmp/.temp/httpd - Main worm component
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.
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
F-Secure Corporation
|