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Worm:W32/NetSky.O

Classification

Category:

Malware

Type:

Email-worm

Aliases:

  • NetSky.O
  • W32/Netsky.O
  • I-Worm.Netsky.o

Summary

The Netsky.O variant was discovered on March 16th 2004.The O variant follows the footsteps of the earlier ones. This variant uses four different fake antivirus scanner messages mentioning four different major antivirus companies including F-Secure.

Removal

Technical Details

System Infection

Upon execution the worm copies itself to the Windows System Directory with the filename 'AVBgle.exe' which is added to the registry as

[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] = "MsInfo" = "%SysDir%\AVBgle.exe"

The worm removes several registry values that belong to other worms.

Email Propagation

When collecting addresses NetSky.O recursively searches through all hard drives and checks the content of files with the following extensions:

.pl .htm .html .eml .txt .php .asp .wab .doc .vbs .rtf .uin .shtm .cgi .dhtm .adb .tbb .dbx .sht .oft .msg .jsp .wsh .xml

Emails composed from different components randomly chosen from predefined sets.

Possible subjects:

Re: Mail Authentification Re: Delivery Protection Re: Secure delivery Re: Protected Mail Delivery Re: Protected Mail System Re: Protected Mail Request Re: Secure SMTP Message Re: Extended Mail System Re: Error Re: Message Error Re: Administration Re: Test Re: Thank you for delivery Re: Failure Re: Bad Request Re: Delivery Server Re: Mail Server Re: SMTP Server Re: Notify Re: Status Re: Extended Mail Re: Encrypted Mail

Email bodies are chosen from:

You have received an extended message. Please read the instructions. New message is available. Now a new message is available. You got a new message. SMTP: Please confirm the attached message. Bad Gateway: The message has been attached. Protected message is available. Waiting for authentification. Protected message is attached. Please authenticate the secure message. Follow the instructions to read the message. Please read the attachment to get the message. Encrypted message is available. Delivered message is attached. Forwarded message is available. Secure Mail System Beta Test. Protected Mail System Test. Your requested mail has been attached. For further details see the attachment. For more details see the attachment. First part of the secure mail is available. Waiting for a Response. Please read the attachment. Partial message is available. ESMTP [Secure Mail System #334]: Secure message is attached. Please confirm my request.

Attachment names can be one of

message.pif msg.pif details.pif data.pif document.pif readme.pif

All messages end with a fake antivirus scanner message chosen from four different variants:

+++ Attachment: No Virus found +++ Panda AntiVirus - You are protected +++ www.pandasoftware.com +++ Attachment: No Virus found +++ F-Secure AntiVirus - You are protected +++ www.f-secure.com +++ Attachment: No Virus found +++ Norman AntiVirus - You are protected +++ www.norman.com +++ Attachment: No Virus found +++ Norton AntiVirus - You are protected +++ www.symantec.de

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