WORM_PALEVO.LB

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 creates folders in all physical and removable drives. It drops an AUTORUN.INF file to automatically execute the copies it drops when a user accesses the drives of an affected system.

It executes commands from a remote malicious user, effectively compromising the affected system. It connects to a website to send and receive information.

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%\aegvvp.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 adds the following mutexes to ensure that only one of its copies runs at any one time:

• 1jl8+10

Autostart Technique

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

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Taskman = "%User Profile%\aegvvp.exe"

Propagation

This worm creates the following folders in all physical and removable drives:

• mesage

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

• {Drive}:\mesage\goingoff.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]
USEAUTOPLAY=1
shellexcute=mesage/goingoff.exe
Shellasia
shell\Explore\command=mesage/goingoff.exe
shell\Open\command=mesage/goingoff.exe
icon=mesage/goingoff.exe
open=mesage/goingoff.exe
action=0pen folder to view files using Windows Explorer

Backdoor Routine

This worm executes the following commands from a remote malicious user:

• Open a browser and connect to advertisement sites
• Download and execute file(s) from remote site(s)
• Drop a copy of the malware to specific drive(s)
• Drop a copy of the malware to USB drive(s)

It connects to the following websites to send and receive information:

• {BLOCKED}ade.{BLOCKED}ousenumber.com
• {BLOCKED}ik.{BLOCKED}al-protection.net.ru
• {BLOCKED}ld.{BLOCKED}studio.ru
• {BLOCKED}ana.{BLOCKED}colands.su
• {BLOCKED}tal.{BLOCKED}howerbord.com

NOTES:
It opens an instance of svchost.exe where it injects itself to stay memory resident.