F-Secure Virus Descriptions : Marijuana

NAME:	Marijuana
ALIAS:	I-Worm.Mari, W32/Mari@MM

Marijuana is an Internet worm written in Visual Basic. The worm is a PE EXE file 45056 bytes long. It is not packed or encrypted. Several minor variants are known.

When run, the worm installs itself as SYSTEM32.EXE file into C:\Windows\ or C:\WinNT\ folder depending on operating system used. If operating system installed into a different folder or on a different drive the worm fails to install itself to system. After installation the worm modifies Run keys in the Registry and WIN.INI file to make sure its copy is started every time Windows loads. The worm then stays in memory as a service process.

After that the worm opens Outlook Address Book, looks for e-mail addresses there and sends itself as SYSTEM32.EXE to all these addresses. The infected message looks like that:

 Subject:     Hi!
 Body:        check this out!!!
 Attachment:  system32.exe

Then the worm stores the address to which it sent itself into Windows Address Book to avoid sending duplicate messages to the same address.

The worm changes Windows registered user name to 'Im A Pot Head!' and organization info to 'Stoner's Pot Palace'. The worm also changes Internet explorer startup page to 'my.marijuana.com' and sets window title to 'Marijuana Explorer (LEGALIZE IT!!!)'.

Being acrive the worm shows a bush-like icon in system tray and when a user clicks on it, the worm displays the following message:

 IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ

 I think i speak for every pot smoker in North America when i
 say: *Legalize Marijuana*...I mean if people with AIDS, Cancer
 and other deaises can use it then why cant the rest of us (pot
 smokers) use it?, I dont think that's very fair (Do you?). If
 it's legal to grow and use in places like: Australia (for
 personal use) then why not in North America? If doctors are
 useing it as a treatment for illness then it must not be *THAT*
 harmful (So why can't other people use it?). I really do think
 the federal goverment should consider legalization of marijuana.
 Well that's really all i have to say on the matter, but i do
 hope somebody, somewhere listens to what i have to say and does
 not just regard this as just another *virus* because it's more
 then that, it's a message, a message for freedom, the free dom
 to smoke up and have the chose to do so *WITHOUT* fear of
 punishment from the law and the goverment. Thank you for your
 time.

When a cursor is placed on the icon, the 'LEGALIZE IT!!!' tooltip message is shown.

At 4:20 and 16:20 the worm displays a message:

 The Marijuana Virus!!

 Its 4:20, Time to toke up :)

To delete this worm from infected system it is enough to delete SYSTEM32.EXE file from Windows or WinNT folder. In case file is locked it should be deleted from pure DOS (Win9x systems) or renamed with non-executable extension with immediate Windows restart (NT systems).

[Analysis: Alexey Podrezov; F-Secure Corp; July 2001]