Russian New Year

Classification

Category :

Malware

Type :

-

Aliases :

Russian New Year

Summary

There is no virus by this name. However, there is a well-known security hole in Windows and MS Excel which is known by this name.

Removal

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.

Technical Details

This vulnerability, related to the CALL function of Excel, allows an attacker to send an HTML email or modify a HTML web page so that when accessed, the HTML page will automatically launch Excel and use that to run any program. This allows the attacker to do pretty much anything he wants on the host machine.

This attack is not widespread and no real-world incidents have been reported.

The problem has been partially solved by Microsoft by releasing patch for Excel 97 (this patch will disable the CALL command completely). Excel 95 can't be protected by this time.

Netscape and Internet Explorer can also be secured against this attack by updating to the latest version with latest patches. This does not prevent some attacks through HTML email though.

F-Secure Anti-Virus detects Excel files with embedded harmful CALL commands and will protect the user against this type of attack.

[By Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure]