Virus.MSWord.Afeto

Parent class: VirWare

Viruses and worms are malicious programs that self-replicate on computers or via computer networks without the user being aware; each subsequent copy of such malicious programs is also able to self-replicate. Malicious programs which spread via networks or infect remote machines when commanded to do so by the “owner” (e.g. Backdoors) or programs that create multiple copies that are unable to self-replicate are not part of the Viruses and Worms subclass. The main characteristic used to determine whether or not a program is classified as a separate behaviour within the Viruses and Worms subclass is how the program propagates (i.e. how the malicious program spreads copies of itself via local or network resources.) Most known worms are spread as files sent as email attachments, via a link to a web or FTP resource, via a link sent in an ICQ or IRC message, via P2P file sharing networks etc. Some worms spread as network packets; these directly penetrate the computer memory, and the worm code is then activated. Worms use the following techniques to penetrate remote computers and launch copies of themselves: social engineering (for example, an email message suggesting the user opens an attached file), exploiting network configuration errors (such as copying to a fully accessible disk), and exploiting loopholes in operating system and application security. Viruses can be divided in accordance with the method used to infect a computer:

• file viruses
• boot sector viruses
• macro viruses
• script viruses

Any program within this subclass can have additional Trojan functions. It should also be noted that many worms use more than one method in order to spread copies via networks.

Class: Virus

Viruses replicate on the resources of the local machine. Unlike worms, viruses do not use network services to propagate or penetrate other computers. A copy of a virus will reach remote computers only if the infected object is, for some reason unrelated to the virus function, activated on another computer. For example: when infecting accessible disks, a virus penetrates a file located on a network resource a virus copies itself to a removable storage device or infects a file on a removable device a user sends an email with an infected attachment.

Read more

Platform: MSWord

Microsoft Word (MS Word) is a popular word processor and part of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Word files have a .doc or .docx extension.

Description

Technical Details

This is an Internet worm that spreads through e-mail by using Microsoft Outlook. This worm is Word macro-program written in VBA (the macro-language for Microsoft Office).

When an infected document is opened, the worm macro gains contorl, scans all local drives and looks for a JPG-file less than 50,000 bytes in size. The first found file is then inserted in an active document (current infected document). The worm then creates new messages and sends them. New messages are created for the first eight messages in the MS Outlook "Sent items" folder. The messages are created according to the following involved rules:

• as an address in the field "To:" the worm sets the address from a message in the "Sent items" folder
• as a subject and body message, it sets the subject and body from next message in the "Sent items" folder
• an active document with the worm body is attached to the message

For example, the "Sent Items" folder contains the following messages:

Message 1

To: name1@domen1.com
Subject: Hello!
Text: Do you remember me?

Message 2

To: address2@host2.com
Subject: Good bye.
Text: Today I'm leaving...

Message 3

To: nick3@server3.com
Subject: News.
Text: Great news. ...

Outgoing messages (in folder "Outbox") with a worm will appear in the following way:

Message 1

To: name1@domen1.com
Subject: Good bye.
Text: Today I'm leaving...

Message 2

To: address2@host2.com
Subject: News.
Text: Great news.

Message 3

To: nick3@server3.com e.t.c.
...
Attach: Infected document

An infected document contains a JPEG file that has been selected by the worm as well as a worm macro-program.

In this way, the worm sends an infected message to the first eight recipients, whose addresses have been found in the folder "Sent items". But for all this, in many instances, the worm breaks confidential correspondence.

Read more

Find out the statistics of the vulnerabilities spreading in your region on statistics.securelist.com