WORM_AUTORUN.HEQ

This worm arrives by connecting affected removable drives to a system. It arrives on a system as a file dropped by other malware or as a file downloaded unknowingly by users when visiting malicious sites.

It drops an AUTORUN.INF file to automatically execute the copies it drops when a user accesses the drives of an affected system.

Arrival Details

This worm arrives by connecting affected removable drives to a system.

It arrives on a system as a file dropped by other malware or as a file downloaded unknowingly by users when visiting malicious sites.

Installation

This worm drops the following copies of itself into the affected system:

• %User Profile%\M-1-25-8784-4125-7572\winsvc.exe

(Note: %User Profile% is the current user's profile folder, which is usually C:\Windows\Profiles\{user name} on Windows 98 and ME, C:\WINNT\Profiles\{user name} on Windows NT, and C:\Documents and Settings\{user name} on Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003.)

It creates the following folders:

• %User Profile%\M-1-25-8784-4125-7572

(Note: %User Profile% is the current user's profile folder, which is usually C:\Windows\Profiles\{user name} on Windows 98 and ME, C:\WINNT\Profiles\{user name} on Windows NT, and C:\Documents and Settings\{user name} on Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003.)

Autostart Technique

This worm adds the following registry entries to enable its automatic execution at every system startup:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Microsoft® Windows Update = "%User Profile%\M-1-25-8784-4125-7572\winsvc.exe"

Other System Modifications

This worm creates the following registry entry(ies) to bypass Windows Firewall:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\
FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile\AuthorizedApplications\
List
%User Profile%\M-1-25-8784-4125-7572\winsvc.exe = "%User Profile%\M-1-25-8784-4125-7572\winsvc.exe:*:Enabled:Microsoft® Windows Update"

Propagation

This worm drops the following copy(ies) of itself in all removable drives:

• windrvs32.exe

It drops an AUTORUN.INF file to automatically execute the copies it drops when a user accesses the drives of an affected system.

The said .INF file contains the following strings:

[autorun]
icon=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll,4
action=Open folder to view files
shellexecute=windrvs32.exe
UseAutoPlay=1

NOTES:

It searches for folders in all removable drives then drops copies of itself as {folder name}.exe inside the created folder {random folder name}.exe

It also drops the following shortcut links in all removable drives connected to an affected system as {folder name}.