F-Secure Virus Descriptions : NPad

NAME:	NPad
ORIGIN:	Indonesia

For more information on Word macro viruses, see WordMacro/Concept.

WordMacro/NPad consists of a single AutoOpen macro; this makes it language independent, ie. this macro virus is able to infect localized versions of Word as well as the english Word. The AutoOpen macro is encrypted and cannot be viewed from Tools/Macro menu.

NPad has apparently been written in Indonesia: it contains these texts:

        D0EUNPAD94, v.2.21, (c) Maret 1996, Bandung, Indonesia
        Macro MsWord virus, multiplatform, multi versi

NPad adds an entry to WIN.INI/Registry under Windows and uses it as generation counter. When the virus has replicated 23 times, it scrolls the above 'D0EUNPAD94' text on the status row of Word and zeroes the counter.

NPad is one of the most common Word macro viruses.

NPad might have been written by the same author as Bandung virus.

[Analysis: Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure]