A trojan named ie0199.exe was mailed to a large group of recipients in January 1999. The spammed messages were faked to look like coming from Microsoft and claimed to contain an update for Internet Explorer. The email contained a 28kB big attachment called IE0199.EXE.
Based on the settings of your F-Secure security product, it will either move the file to the quarantine where it cannot spread or cause harm, or remove it.
A False Positive is when a file is incorrectly detected as harmful, usually because its code or behavior resembles known harmful programs. A False Positive will usually be fixed in a subsequent database update without any action needed on your part. If you wish, you may also:
Check for the latest database updates
First check if your F-Secure security program is using the latest updates, then try scanning the file again.
Submit a sample
After checking, if you still believe the file is incorrectly detected, you can submit a sample of it for re-analysis.
Note: If the file was moved to quarantine, you need to collect the file from quarantine before you can submit it.
Exclude a file from further scanning
If you are certain that the file is safe and want to continue using it, you can exclude it from further scanning by the F-Secure security product.
Note: You need administrative rights to change the settings.
The original mail looked like this:
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 20:00:26 -0500 From: "Microsoft Internet Explorer Support" IEsupport@microsoft.com To: "Microsoft Internet Explorer User" Subject: Please Upgrade Your Internet Explorer Microsoft Corporation 1 Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 US Dear Sir/Madam As an user of the Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corporation provides you with this upgrade for your web browser. It will fix some bugs found in your Internet Explorer. To install the upgrade, please save the attached file (ie0199.exe) in some folder and run it. For more information, please visit our web site at www.microsoft.com/ie/ -------------------------------------------------------- (c) 1995-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved
When the IE0199.EXE file is run, it extracts two files from its body (MPREXE.DLL and SNDVOL.EXE) and copies them to the Windows system directory. Note: the MPREXE.EXE executable file (not a DLL) is one of the standard Windows file.
The trojan then registers the MPREXE.DLL file in the system to force the system to run this file on each reboot. The registration is done depending on the Windows version either in the system registry, or in the SYSTEM.INI file in [boot] section in the "drivers=" string. The MPREXE.DLL file is pointed as auto-executed.
When executed the MPREXE.DLL file just executes the SNDVOL.EXE file and exits. The SNDVOL.EXE file enables auto-dialing by changing the system registry Internet options, randomly selects one of three Bulgarian Web servers (www.btc.bg, www.infotel.bg, ns.infotel.bg), connects them and sleeps for some time. The trojan does not perform any other actions.
As a result, the trojan causes lots of network traffic both inside the infected company and at the Bulgarian servers. The trojan has probably been written to cause denial-of-service attacks for the Bulgarian systems.
Variant:PHO.EXE
PHOTOS17.EXE
This is the same trojan as described above, but it has been distributed with different names - and within different emails. Here's one sample email:
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1999 07:24:32 +0200 (EET) From: Lidia Steward LidiaSt27@aol.com To:friends Subject: photos Hi, Look at the photos we talked about. I have archived them with WinZip. Lidia Attachment: pho.exe
Apparently, such messages have been sent to thousands of unsuspecting internet users with a mass-mailing program. The pho.exe file is a extracting executable that will drop the same AntiBTC trojan as described above.
Do not open email attachments sent by strangers.