Possible new virus or a hoax

I have limited information... What I do have was just shared with me by our corporate anti virus team, I think it came from McAfee AVERT.. This could be a real virus, or it could be a hoax. At this time I don't have the full story.

Here is what I know so far.. To be on the safe side if you are not already blocking .exe files in your email systems, and you have the ability to block attachments, I would add a block for 11september.exe .



We have recieved initial reports/rumors of a new Mass Mailing virus with the following characteristics. If we hear of truthfulness, we will let you know.

Subject: All people!!
Attachment: '11september.exe ' (note there is a trailing space)
Text

Dear ladies and gentlemen!
The given letter does not contain viruses, and is not Spam.
We ask you to be in earnest to this letter. As you know America and
England have begun bombardment of Iraq, cause of its threat for all the
world.
It isn't the truth. The real reason is in money laundering and also to
cover up traces
after acts of terrorism September, 11, 2001. Are real proofs of
connection between
Bush and Al-Qaeda necessary for you? Please! There is a friendly
dialogue between
Bin Laden and the secretary of a state security of USA in the given
photos.
In the following photo you'll see, how FBI discusses how to strike over
New York to lose
people as much as possible. And the document representing the super
confidential
agreement between CIA and Al-Qaeda is submitted to your attention. All
this
circus was specially played to powder brains!! You'll find out the
truth.
Naked truth, instead of TV showed.
For your convenience, and to make letter less, all documentary
materials
(photos and MS Word documents) are located in one EXE file. Open it,
and all materials will be
installed on your computer. You will receive the freshest and
classified
documents automatically from our site.
It isn't a virus! You can trust us absolutely. We hope, that it will
open your
eyes on many things occurring in this world.

Could be a hoax...Thanks for the warning though. I'll keep my eye out for it.

If that is real, the author is sick.

Thanks for the heads up, we'll keep an eye out aswell.

Click here for more information: http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99683.htm

Also found more information here: http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/chet.shtml

In observance of the anniversary I have to also say that is a sick way to spread a virus. On the other hand one has to wonder who would actually open it. Just my 2 cents worth. Thanks.

Looks real to me.

I'm sure it will hit a lot of companies - I was rather surprised to read a government report in the UK that has just been published.
The results of their survey were:

17% of companies admitted to not running AV software.
30% of companies admitted to not running a firewall, and
44% of companies admitted they had been seriously affected by a virus in the last year.

Rather boring, but there is as summary here:https:///www.security-survey.gov.uk/isbs2002_execsummary.pdf

W32.Chet@mm
Discovered on: September 10, 2002
Last Updated on: September 10, 2002 08:20:55 PM PDT







W32.Chet@mm is a mass-mailing worm that attempts to send itself to all email addresses in Windows Address Book. The email has the following characteristics,

From: [email protected]
Subject: All people!!
Attachment: 11september.exe

NOTE: The attachment name contains a space at the end of the name.




Type: Worm
Infection Length: 26,628 bytes
Systems Affected: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Me
Systems Not Affected: Macintosh, Unix, Linux


Virus Definitions (Intelligent Updater) *
September 11, 2002


Virus Definitions (LiveUpdate™) **
September 11, 2002



*
Intelligent Updater virus definitions are released daily, but require manual download and installation.
Click here to download manually.

**
LiveUpdate virus definitions are usually released every Wednesday.
Click here for instructions on using LiveUpdate.








Wild:

Number of infections: 0 - 49
Number of sites: 0 - 2
Geographical distribution: Low
Threat containment: Easy
Removal: Easy
Threat Metrics


Wild:
Low
Damage:
Low
Distribution:
Low




Damage

Payload:
Large scale e-mailing: attempts to email itself to all contacts in Windows Address Book
Releases confidential info: sends emails that contain a list of contacts in the Windows Address Book, IP address and name of the infected computer to hacker's emails addresses
Distribution

Subject of email: All people!!
Name of attachment: 11september.exe
Size of attachment: 26,628 bytes


When W32.Chet@mm runs, it does the following,

It copies itself as C:\%System%\synchost1.exe,

NOTE: %system% is a variable. The worm locates the \Windows\System folder (by default this is C:\Windows\System or C:\Winnt\System32) and copies itself to that location.

It adds the value

ICQ1 C:\%System%\synchost1.exe

to the registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

This will cause the worm to run when you restart Windows.

It creates a file named C:\boot.txt. This file is zero bytes in length.

It searches the registry to find the location of the Windows Address Book file. It attempts to email itself to all contacts in the Windows Address Book. However, it fails to send itself through email due to the bug in its code. The email may have the following characteristics,

From: [email protected]
Subject: All people!!
Attachment: 11september.exe
Message:
Dear ladies and gentlemen!
The given letter does not contain viruses, and is not Spam.
We ask you to be in earnest to this letter. As you know America and
England have begun bombardment of Iraq, cause of its threat for all the world.
It isn't the truth. The real reason is in money laundering and also to cover up traces
after acts of terrorism September, 11, 2001. Are real proofs of connection between
Bush and Al-Qaeda necessary for you? Please! There is a friendly dialogue between
Bin Laden and the secretary of a state security of USA in the given photos.
In the following photo you'll see, how FBI discusses how to strike over New York to lose
people as much as possible. And the document representing the super confidential
agreement between CIA and Al-Qaeda is submitted to your attention. All this
circus was specially played to powder brains!! You'll find out the truth.
Naked truth, instead of TV showed.
For your convenience, and to make letter less, all documentary materials
(photos and MS Word documents) are located in one EXE file. Open it, and all materials will be
installed on your computer. You will receive the freshest and classified
documents automatically from our site.
It isn't a virus! You can trust us absolutely. We hope, that it will open your
eyes on many things occurring in this world.

The worm also attempts to send emails to some email addresses predefined in the worm code. The email has the following characteristics,
From: Fu****
To: Ripper
Subject:
Otchet from usersfirst
or,
Otchet

The body of the email contains a list of contacts in the Windows Address Book, IP address and name of the infected computer.






Symantec Security Response encourages all users and administrators to adhere to the following basic security "best practices":

Turn off and remove unneeded services. By default, many operating systems install auxiliary services that are not critical, such as an FTP server, telnet, and a Web server. These services are avenues of attack. If they are removed, blended threats have less avenues of attack and you have fewer services to maintain through patch updates.
If a blended threat exploits one or more network services, disable, or block access to, those services until a patch is applied.
Always keep your patch levels up-to-date, especially on computers that host public services and are accessible through the firewall, such as HTTP, FTP, mail, and DNS services.
Enforce a password policy. Complex passwords make it difficult to crack password files on compromised computers. This helps to prevent or limit damage when a computer is compromised.
Configure your email server to block or remove email that contains file attachments that are commonly used to spread viruses, such as .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files.
Isolate infected computers quickly to prevent further compromising your organization. Perform a forensic analysis and restore the computers using trusted media.
Train employees not to open attachments unless they are expecting them. Also, do not execute software that is downloaded from the Internet unless it has been scanned for viruses. Simply visiting a compromised Web site can cause infection if certain browser vulnerabilities are not patched.


NOTE: These instructions are for all current and recent Symantec antivirus products, including the Symantec AntiVirus and Norton AntiVirus product lines.


1. Update the virus definitions.
2. Run a full system scan, and delete all files that are detected as W32.Chet@mm.
3. Delete the value

ICQ1 C:\%System%\synchost1.exe

from the registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

For details on how to do this, read the following instructions.

To update the virus definitions:

All virus definitions receive full quality assurance testing by Symantec Security Response before being posted to our servers. There are two ways to obtain the most recent virus definitions:
Run LiveUpdate, which is the easiest way to obtain virus definitions. These virus definitions are posted to the LiveUpdate servers one time each week (usually Wednesdays) unless there is a major virus outbreak. To determine whether definitions for this threat are available by LiveUpdate, look at the Virus Definitions (LiveUpdate) line at the top of this write-up.
Download the definitions using the Intelligent Updater. Intelligent Updater virus definitions are posted on U.S. business days (Monday through Friday). They must be downloaded from the Symantec Security Response Web site and installed manually. To determine whether definitions for this threat are available by the Intelligent Updater, look at the Virus Definitions (Intelligent Updater) line at the top of this write-up.

Intelligent Updater virus definitions are available here. For detailed instructions on how to download and install the Intelligent Updater virus definitions from the Symantec Security Response Web site, click here.

To scan for and delete the infected files:

1. Start your Symantec antivirus program, and make sure that it is configured to scan all files.
Norton AntiVirus consumer products: Read the document How to configure Norton AntiVirus to scan all files.
Symantec enterprise antivirus products: Read the document How to verify a Symantec Corporate antivirus product is set to scan All Files.
2. Run a full system scan.
3. If any files are detected as infected with W32.Chet@mm, click Delete.

To remove the value from the registry:

CAUTION: Symantec strongly recommends that you back up the registry before you make any changes to it. Incorrect changes to the registry can result in permanent data loss or corrupted files. Modify only the keys that are specified. Read the document How to make a backup of the Windows registry for instructions.

1. Click Start, and click Run. The Run dialog box appears.
2. Type regedit and then click OK. The Registry Editor opens.
3. Navigate to the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

4. In the right pane, delete the value

ICQ1 C:\%System%\synchost1.exe

5. Exit the Registry Editor.

We got the official word on it last night at around 9pm. It's kind of weird that NAI had the text of the message yesterday afternoon. But they did not confirm it being a virus until last night... I also have some information that shows it was being distributed primarily from a 145.*.*.* ip range.. We are being a bit extra careful today(my employer is a utilitly company) so we blocked out that entire range of IPs from our mail gateways.. We will probably open it back up in a day or two..