VIRUS ALERT No. 129 - Friday, June 6, 2003.

I-Worm.Tanatos.b (aka Bugbear.b)

Tanatos.b is a worm virus spreading via the Internet as an email attachment. The worm also infects Windows EXE files, spreads over local networks and has a built-in backdoor routine.

The worm itself is a Windows PE EXE file about 72KB in length when compressed by UPX and encrypted over UPX compression. The decompressed size is about 170KB. The worm's code is written in Microsoft Visual C++.

Tanatos.b has the following text strings in its body:

                             w32shamur
                             W32.Shamur
                             tanatos

Installing

While installing the worm copies itself to the Windows start-up directory under a random name. No regstry keys are affected.

The worm also creates following files in the Windows system directory:

                             gpflmvo.dll - keylogger DLL (about 6K of size)
                             zpknpzk.dll - its internal data file
                             shtchs.dll  - its internal data file

Tanatos also creates the following file in the Windows directory: %rnd name%.dat - its internal data file
and the next file in the Temp directory:

                             vba%rnd%.tmp file - worm installed copy

Spreading

To send infected messages the worm uses a built-in SMTP engine. The worm searches for victim emails in following files on the available disks:

                             *.ODS, INBOX.*, *.MMF, *.NCH, *.MBX, *.EML, *.TBB, *.DBX

The infected messages have different Subject, Body, and File Attachment names that are selected from many variants:

                            Subject:

                            The file attachment name is randomly selected by several methods:

                            1. The worm looks for *.INI files in ??? and in case a "%filename%.INI" file is found, the worm sends itself with the "%filename%.%ext" name where %ext% is randomly selected from the list: ".scr", ".pif", ".exe".

                            2. The worm randomly selects attached file names from following variants:

                             readme, Setup, Card, Docs, news, image, images, pics, resume, photo, video, music, song, data

                            The file name extension is also randomly selected from the same variants:

                            ".scr", ".pif", ".exe".

                            3. The worm looks for *.BMP, *.DOC, *.GIF, *.JPG, *.RTF and other files and uses their full
                                names as the %filename% for the infected attachment. In this case
                                they have double extensions, for example:

                             doc1.doc.exe
                             euro.gif.scr
                             table.xls.pif

                            4. "setup.exe"

                            The infected emails randomly have the IFrame security breach that runs upon the opening the an
                            infected email. In the rest of the messages the worm activates only when a user clicks on the
                           attached file.

Infecting EXE files

While infecting a file the worm writes itself to the end of the file. The worm's copy is "incorporated" into the victim machine's file structure as a "standard" .EXE file in the "Program Files" directory. Copy names include:

                             winzip\winzip32.exe
                             kazaa\kazaa.exe
                             ICQ\Icq.exe
                             DAP\DAP.exe
                             Winamp\winamp.exe
                             AIM95\aim.exe
                             Lavasoft\Ad-aware 6\Ad-aware.exe
                             Trillian\Trillian.exe
                             Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\ZoneAlarm.exe
                             StreamCast\Morpheus\Morpheus.exe
                             QuickTime\QuickTimePlayer.exe
                             WS_FTP\WS_FTP95.exe
                             MSN Messenger\msnmsgr.exe
                             ACDSee32\ACDSee32.exe
                             Adobe\Acrobat 4.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe
                             CuteFTP\cutftp32.exe
                             Far\Far.exe
                             Outlook Express\msimn.exe
                             Real\RealPlayer\realplay.exe
                             Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe
                             WinRAR\WinRAR.exe
                             adobe\acrobat 5.0\reader\acrord32.exe
                             Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe

                            in Windows directory:

                             winhelp.exe
                             notepad.exe
                             hh.exe
                             mplayer.exe
                             regedit.exe
                             scandskw.exe

Infecting - networks

The Tanatos.b worm accounts for all network resources, then copies itself to available resource (drives) startup folders using random .EXE names or the name, "setup.exe". The worm also looks for "standard" .EXE files (the same list as above) on shared resource drives, and infects them.

Backdoor

                            Tanatos.b opens port 1080

                            - reports disk and file info
                            - copies, deletes requested file
                            - reports active applications
                            - terminates requested application
                            - runs local file by master's request
                            - receives a file from master and runs it
                            - logs keyboard and sends it to master
                            - opens HTTP server

Other

Tanatos.b terminates active debuggers, anti-virus and firewall processes:

ZONEALARM.EXE
WFINDV32.EXE
WEBSCANX.EXE
VSSTAT.EXE
VSHWIN32.EXE
VSECOMR.EXE
VSCAN40.EXE
VETTRAY.EXE
VET95.EXE
TDS2-NT.EXE
TDS2-98.EXE
TCA.EXE
TBSCAN.EXE
SWEEP95.EXE
SPHINX.EXE
SMC.EXE
SERV95.EXE
SCRSCAN.EXE
SCANPM.EXE
SCAN95.EXE
SCAN32.EXE
SAFEWEB.EXE
RESCUE.EXE
RAV7WIN.EXE
RAV7.EXE
PERSFW.EXE
PCFWALLICON.EXE
PCCWIN98.EXE
PAVW.EXE
PAVSCHED.EXE
PAVCL.EXE
PADMIN.EXE
OUTPOST.EXE
NVC95.EXE
NUPGRADE.EXE
NORMIST.EXE
NMAIN.EXE
NISUM.EXE
NAVWNT.EXE
NAVW32.EXE
NAVNT.EXE
NAVLU32.EXE
NAVAPW32.EXE
N32SCANW.EXE
MPFTRAY.EXE
MOOLIVE.EXE
LUALL.EXE
LOOKOUT.EXE
JEDI.EXE
IOMON98.EXE
IFACE.EXE
ICSUPPNT.EXE
ICSUPP95.EXE
ICMON.EXE
ICLOADNT.EXE
ICLOAD95.EXE
IBMAVSP.EXE
IBMASN.EXE
IAMSERV.EXE
IAMAPP.EXE
FRW.EXE
FPROT.EXE
FP-WIN.EXE
FINDVIRU.EXE
F-STOPW.EXE
F-PROT95.EXE
F-PROT.EXE
F-AGNT95.EXE
ESPWATCH.EXE
ESAFE.EXE
ECENGINE.EXE
DVP95_0.EXE
DVP95.EXE
CLEANER3.EXE
CLEANER.EXE
CLAW95CF.EXE
CLAW95.EXE
CFINET32.EXE
CFINET.EXE
CFIAUDIT.EXE
CFIADMIN.EXE
BLACKICE.EXE
BLACKD.EXE
AVWUPD32.EXE
AVWIN95.EXE
AVSCHED32.EXE
AVPUPD.EXE
AVPTC32.EXE
AVPM.EXE
AVPDOS32.EXE
AVPCC.EXE
AVP32.EXE
AVP.EXE
AVNT.EXE
AVKSERV.EXE
AVGCTRL.EXE
AVE32.EXE
AVCONSOL.EXE
AUTODOWN.EXE
APVXDWIN.EXE
ANTI-TROJAN.EXE
ACKWIN32.EXE
_AVPM.EXE
_AVPCC.EXE
_AVP32.EXE
LOCKDOWN2000.EXE

The Tanatos.b worm also gets cached passwords and sends them to its "master".


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