The Netsky.Q variant was discovered on March 29th, 2004.
This worm spreads in email using different exploits and
social engineering.
NetSky.Q performs a DDoS against several websites and makes
the infected computers beep randomly.
F-Secure provides the special disinfection utility to eliminate
Netsky.Q worm infection. You can download this utility from our
ftp site:
ftp://ftp.f-secure.com/anti-virus/tools/f-netsky.exe
ftp://ftp.f-secure.com/anti-virus/tools/f-netsky.zip
Disinfection instructions can be found here:
ftp://ftp.f-secure.com/anti-virus/tools/f-netsky.txt
System administrators who are using F-Secure Policy Manager,
can distribute the tool as a JAR package automatically to all
workstations.
System administrators can download the JAR version from:
http://www.europe.f-secure.com/tools/f-netsky.jar
ftp://ftp.europe.f-secure.com/anti-virus/tools/f-netsky.jar
System Infection
Upon execution the worm copies its dropper to the Windows Directory
as 'SysMonXP.exe', which is added to the registry:
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] =
"SysMonXP" = "%WinDir%\SysMonXP.exe"
where %WinDir% represents Windows directory name.
The main DLL is placed to the same place with the filename
'firewallogger.txt' alongside with other temporary files
used by the worm:
'zipo0.txt'
'zipo1.txt'
'zipo2.txt'
'zipo3.txt'
'base64.tmp'
'zippedbase64.tmp'
The worm removes several registry values that belong to other worms.
Email Propagation
When collecting addresses NetSky.Q recursively searches through all hard
drives and checks the content of files with the following extensions:
.adb
.asp
.cfg
.cgi
.dbx
.dhtm
.doc
.eml
.htm
.html
.jsp
.mbx
.mdx
.mht
.mmf
.msg
.nch
.ods
.oft
.php
.pl
.ppt
.rtf
.sht
.shtm
.stm
.tbb
.txt
.uin
.vbs
.wab
.wsh
.xls
.xml
This variant of NetSky sends emails that look like error messages
from mail servers.
Here's an example of what messages sent by Netsky.Q can look like:
The emails are composed from the following parts:
Subjects:
Delivery Error <recipient@email.address>
Delivery Failure <recipient@email.address>
Delivery <recipient@email.address>
Mail Delivery failure <recipient@email.address>
Mail Delivery System <recipient@email.address>
Mail System <recipient@email.address>
Delivery <recipient@email.address>
Delivered Message <recipient@email.address>
Error <recipient@email.address>
Status <recipient@email.address>
Failure <recipient@email.address>
Failed <recipient@email.address>
Unknown Exception <recipient@email.address>
Delivery Failed <recipient@email.address>
Deliver Mail <recipient@email.address>
Server Error <recipient@email.address>
Delivery Bot <recipient@email.address>
Bodies:
Mail Delivery - This mail couldn't be displayed
Mail Delivery Failed - This mail couldn't be represent
Mail Delivery Error - This mail contains unicode characters
Mail Transaction Failed - This mail couldn't be converted
Mail Delivery System - This mail contains binary characters
Mail Delivery Failure - This mail couldn't be shown.
Delivery Failure - Invalid mail specification
Delivery Agent - Translation failed
------------- failed message -------------
The message has been sent as a binary attachment.
Partial message is available and has been sent as a binary attachment.
Received message has been attached.
Message has been sent as a binary attachment.
Translated message has been attached.
Received message has been sent as an encoded attachment.
Modified message has been sent as a binary attachment.
Note: Received message has been sent as a binary file.
The attachment name is created from one of the following
names:
message<random characters>
msg<random characters>
mail<random characters>
data<random characters>
The file extension is either '.pif' or '.zip'. In case of ZIP
files the filename inside the ZIP can be one of
data.eml<lots of spaces>.scr
mail.eml<lots of spaces>.scr
msg.eml<lots of spaces>.scr
message.eml<lots of spaces>.scr
The purpose of large number of spaces between the extensions is
to the hide the executable extension from the users' eyes, leaving
them with the harmless looking '.eml' to open.
The email can contain different endings that attempt to start the
attachment or make the user to do so.
1, A link with the format:
www.<recipient domain>/inmail/<recipient username>/mread.php?sessionid-<random>
2, An exploit for MS01-020 (IFRAME) to execute the attachment automatically.
More information on the vulnerability and patches are available from
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-020.mspx
3, Plain attachment with '.pif' or '.zip' extension
Payloads
Between 7th and 12th of April, 2004 NetSky.Q infected computers
will perform a Distributed Denial-of-Service attack against the
following sites:
www.cracks.st
www.cracks.am
www.emule-project.net
www.kazaa.com
www.edonkey2000.com
On 30th of March, 2004 NetSky.Q will make the infected computer
to beep randomly between 5AM and 11AM.
Detection for this malware was published on March 29th, 2004
in the following F-Secure Anti-Virus updates:
[FSAV_Database_Version]
Version=2004-03-29_01
Technical Details:
Gergely Erdelyi, March 29th, 2004;
Description Updated:
Alexey Podrezov, April 1st, 2004;
F-Secure Corporation
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