F-Secure Virus Descriptions : Staple

NAME:

Staple

VBS/Staple is a mass mailing worm written in Visual Basic Script.

VARIANT: Staple.A

This worm arrives in a email message with the following content:

    Subject:    RE:Injustice

    Body:       Dear <name of the infected user>
                Did you send the attached message, I was not expecting this from you !

    Attachment: injustice.TXT.vbs

When executed, the worm copies itself to the Windows System directory as "injustice.TXT.vbs". Then it sends itself to 50 random recipients from each address book. The worm also sends several infected messages to email addresses in Israel.

Next the worm shows a message related to Middle-East war, as follows:

    PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGIES FOR DISTURBING YOU.
    Remember that one day YOU may be in this situation.
    We need every possible help.
    Israeli soldiers killed in cold blood 12 year old Palestinian child
    Mohammad Al-Durra, as his father tried to protect him in vain with
    his own body. As a result of the indiscriminate and excessive use of
    machine gun fire by Israeli soldiers, journalists and bystanders
    watched helplessly as the child was savagely murdered.
    Palestinian Red Crescent Society medic Bassam Balbeisi
    attempted to intervene and spare the child's life but live
    ammunition to his chest by Israeli fire took his life in the process.
    The child and the medic were grotesquely murdered in cold blood.
    Mohammad's father, Jamal, was critically injured and permanently
    paralyzed. Similarly, approximately 40 children were slain, without
    the media taking notice or covering these tragedies.
    THESE CRIMINAL ACTS CANNOT BE FORGIVEN OR FORGOTTEN!!!!

Finally VBS/Staple.A opens six Internet Explorer browser windows, and connects to related web sites.

VARIANT: Staple.B

The second variant of VBS/Staple propagates in messages that have following content:

    Subject:    hotstuff for you
    Body:       Dear <recipients's name>
                CHEK THE ATTACHED HOT STUFF .. !
    Attachment: hotstuff.gif.vbs

Otherwise VBS/Stable.B@mm behaves like the original one.

[Analysis: Katrin Tocheva and Sami Rautiainen, F-Secure; March - May 2001]