RE: Virus? Trojan?

From: Nick FitzGerald (nick@virus-l.demon.co.uk)
Date: 01/13/03

  • Next message: Tibor Biro: "Re: Hacked web server"
    Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 12:39:18 +1300
    From: Nick FitzGerald <nick@virus-l.demon.co.uk>
    To: 'Incidents List' <incidents@securityfocus.com>
    
    

    "James C Slora Jr" <Jim.Slora@phra.com> wrote:

    > > So far today, I've received two email messages from
    > > kbl-zrz2519.zeelandnet.nl [62.238.233.233]
    >
    > > which, apparently, claimed in its HELO message to *be*
    > > our local MX (which of course was who it was talking TO).
    > > Sounds to me like a bug in the sending software.
    >
    > > The other thing these messages had in common was a
    > > 33KB .scr ("screen saver") executable attachment.
    > > Norton doesn't recognize this as a known threat, but
    > > I don't want to be the first to learn the hard way what
    > > it does.
    >
    > I've gotten 4 more Yaha-M-infected messages from this same source today. I

    I think that is unlikely, as they are infected with Yaha.K. However,
    as you did not identify the scanner that told you Yaha.M, I'll grant
    that you may just be repeating incorrect information given you by
    your scanner. A week or so back these were the unique names reported
    among products representing some 20-odd different scan engines:

      1 Lentin.H
      1 I-Worm.Lentin.i
      1 Lentin.K
      1 HLLM.Yaha.1
      3 I-Worm/Yaha.K
      5 Yaha.K
      1 Yaha-K
      1 Yahaa.K
      1 Worm/Yaha.M
      1 Yaha.N
      1 WORM_YAHA.K

    To ease the comparison, I removed any standard platform indicating
    precursors (such as "W32" or "Win32") and all standard or otherwise
    modifiers (such as "@mm" and ".Worm") after any standard sub-variant
    name part. Further simplifying, by removing non-standard name
    components before the family name (e.g. "I-Worm", "WORM_") and
    accepting non-standard delimiters (e.g. "-" instead of "." for the
    sub-variant delimiter) we get:

      1 Lentin.H
      1 Lentin.i
      1 Lentin.K
      1 Yaha.1
     10 Yaha.K
      1 Yahaa.K
      1 Yaha.M
      1 Yaha.N

    And, assuming that "Yahaa" was a typo on the part of ... (well, it
    doesn't really matter), we get:

      1 Lentin.H
      1 Lentin.i
      1 Lentin.K
      1 Yaha.1
     11 Yaha.K
      1 Yaha.M
      1 Yaha.N

    So, I guess it's easy to see where the naming confusion could come
    from. This was not helped by the fact that MessageLabs listed Yaha.K
    as Yaha.M for a while. It is now listed there as W32/Yaha.K!e2a2
    (note MessageLabs' use of the new "!" name modifier indicating the
    "!" and everything to its right is not officially part of the name).

    > received a few at around the same time you did, starting December 31 when
    > Yaha-M had not yet been listed. The sender must have one of the first
    > infected computers. They may be a member of this list or someone who visits
    > the list archives.

    The problem here is that that machine has been infected with Yaha.K
    and not Yaha.M -- at least, I am still receiving, and have only
    received, Yaha.K messages from that machine. The latest one I
    received had a Date: header (created by the virus) of:

       Date: Fri,10 Jan 2003 13:23:41 PM

    Yaha.K was discovered before Christmas, and although that machine
    seemed to start spewing out Yaha Email as Yaha.M was first being
    reported, it is not infected with Yaha.M but with Yaha.K as a simple
    anaylsis of the file attached to its Email shows.

    I agree that the sender may be on this list or a frequenter of the
    archives. If you are reading this and are a cable (the "kbl" of
    "kbl-zrz2519.zeelandnet.nl" is, at a guess a contraction of the Dutch
    for "cable")customer of zeelandnet.nl, please head to one of the AV
    sites for a description of Yaha.K (or one of the names above!) and
    find out how to fix it and then do something about getting protected
    so as to reduce the likelihood of becoming infected again.

    > Since the infections are still coming I've notified the administrator of
    > zeelandnet.nl - hopefully they will hunt the user down and help them clear
    > the infection.

    So have I -- the problem is they decided the best action was to
    prevent that IP accessing their mail server:

       Thanks for the message.

       The user is blocked for outgoing e-mail to block this virus.

    As they don't really say how or what they have blocked, and the
    messages keep coming, I guess they have blocked access to their own
    mail servers, which the virus will not try to use except when it
    tries to send itself to an address for which a zeelandnet.nl mail
    server is the mail-exchanger (AFAICT, Yaha.K's SMTP engine tries to
    resolve MX records in the DNS then sends its mail directly to that
    SMTP server rather than relying on any "local" SMTP servers to relay
    for it).

    -- 
    Nick FitzGerald
    Computer Virus Consulting Ltd.
    Ph/FAX: +64 3 3529854
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This list is provided by the SecurityFocus ARIS analyzer service.
    For more information on this free incident handling, management 
    and tracking system please see: http://aris.securityfocus.com
    


    Relevant Pages

    • RES: NDRs from spamming
      ... Since you will start sending out lots of NDRs to domains out there, ... your email server use to attach the original message (so message content ... By default, your mail server will issue a NDR for each NDR it receives, ... We are receiving lots of NDRs from hundreds of non-existent ...
      (Incidents)
    • RE: Setting up a mail server
      ... another server has already done that. ... Setting up a mail server ... >need something robust enough to handle at least 15000 emails per day. ... >will only be receiving not sending. ...
      (Fedora)
    • Re: Mails "Bounce" feature
      ... Accept the message during its dialog with Z, but bounce the message ... So if Z is a genuine mail server ... email is accepted by the receiving server, ... this should be done by the receiving mail server ...
      (comp.sys.mac.apps)
    • Re: disappearing emails with pop3 connector
      ... >> email from the web hosting company. ... >> worldofgymnastics.com and everyone is receiving their email just fine ... >> server or the worldofswim.com mail server. ...
      (microsoft.public.exchange.misc)
    • Spy-Ware Detection for Small Networks
      ... Firewall/Proxy HTTP/Mail server/Caching DNS/DHCP/Samba File Server for ... spyware/malware, ... I've seen some IP lists that will prevent ... Looks to me that at least IE infections still contiunes. ...
      (Security-Basics)