WORM_TATERF.EBR

 Analysis by: Kathleen Notario

 PLATFORM:

Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003

 OVERALL RISK RATING:
 DAMAGE POTENTIAL:
 DISTRIBUTION POTENTIAL:
 REPORTED INFECTION:

  • Threat Type: Worm

  • Destructiveness: No

  • Encrypted: No

  • In the wild: Yes

  OVERVIEW

This worm arrives via removable drives. 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.

It deletes the initially executed copy of itself.

  TECHNICAL DETAILS

File Size:

107,664 bytes

File Type:

EXE

Memory Resident:

Yes

Initial Samples Received Date:

22 Apr 2009

Arrival Details

This worm arrives via removable drives.

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 component file(s):

  • %System%\pytdfse{number}.dll

(Note: %System% is the Windows system folder, which is usually C:\Windows\System on Windows 98 and ME, C:\WINNT\System32 on Windows NT and 2000, or C:\Windows\System32 on Windows XP and Server 2003.)

It drops the following copies of itself into the affected system:

  • %System%\ierdfgh.exe

(Note: %System% is the Windows system folder, which is usually C:\Windows\System on Windows 98 and ME, C:\WINNT\System32 on Windows NT and 2000, or C:\Windows\System32 on Windows 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
kxswsoft = "%System%\ierdfgh.exe"

Other System Modifications

This worm modifies the following registry entries:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
Advanced
Hidden = "2"

(Note: The default value data of the said registry entry is 1.)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
Advanced
ShowSuperHidden = "0"

(Note: The default value data of the said registry entry is 1.)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
Advanced\Folder\Hidden\
SHOWALL
CheckedValue = "0"

(Note: The default value data of the said registry entry is 1.)

Propagation

This worm drops the following copy of itself in all physical and removable drives:

  • kqa.bat

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]
open=kqa.bat
;{garbage characters}
shell\open\Command=kqa.bat

Other Details

This worm deletes the initially executed copy of itself