Sophos

W32/Lovgate-V

Aliases
  • I-Worm.LovGate.w
  • W32.Lovgate.Gen@mm
  • WORM_LOVGATE.V
Category
Type
What to do
Prevalence low high

Summary

 
Affected operating systems Windows
Protection available since 6 April 2004 02:01:12 (GMT)
Last updated 21 January 2009 14:30:14 (GMT)
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Action

More Information

W32/Lovgate-V is a variant of the W32/Lovgate family of worms that spread via
email, network shares and filesharing networks.

W32/Lovgate-V copies itself to the Windows System folder as the files
WINHELP.EXE, IEXPLORE.EXE, KERNEL66.DLL and RAVMOND.EXE and to the Windows
folder as SYSTRA.EXE.

The worm also drops the files MSJDBC11.DLL, MSSIGN30.DLL and ODBC16.DLL which
provide unauthorized remote access to the computer over a network.

The worm drops ZIP files containing a copy of the worm onto accessible drives.
The ZIP file may also carry a RAR extension. The name of the packed file is
chosen from the following list:

WORK
setup
important
bak
letter
pass

The name of the contained unpacked file is either PassWord, email or book,
with a fileextension of EXE, SCR, PIF or COM.

In order to run automatically when Windows starts up W32/Lovgate-V creates the
following registry entries:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\
Hardware Profile = <SYSTEM>\hxdef.exe
Microsoft NetMeeting Associates, Inc. = NetMeeting.exe
Protected Storage = RUNDLL32.EXE MSSIGN30.DLL ondll_reg
VFW Encoder/Decoder Settings = RUNDLL32.EXE MSSIGN30.DLL ondll_reg
WinHelp = <SYSTEM>\WinHelp.exe
Program In Windows = <SYSTEM>\IEXPLORE.EXE

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices\
SystemTra = <WINDOWS>\SysTra.EXE

HKU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\
run = RAVMOND.exe

In addition W32/Lovgate-V copies itself to the file COMMAND.EXE in the root
folder and creates the file autorun.inf there, containing an entry to run the
dropped file upon system startup.

W32/Lovgate-V spreads by email. Email addresses are harvested from WAB, TXT,
HTM, SHT, PHP, ASP, DBX, TBB, ADB and PL files found on the system. This worm
will spoof the sender's email address.

Emails have the following characteristics:

Subject line:

test
hi
hello
Mail Delivery System
Mail Transaction Failed
Server Report
Status
Error

Message text:

It's the long-awaited film version of the Broadway hit. The message sent as a
binary attachment.

The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary
attachment.

Mail failed. For further assistance, please contact!

Attached file:

document
readme
doc
text
file
data
test
message
body

followed by ZIP, EXE, PIF or SCR.

W32/Lovgate-V also enables sharing of the Windows Media folder and copies
itself there using various filenames.

The worm also attempts to reply to emails found in the user's inbox using the
following filenames as attachments:

the hardcore game-.pif
Sex in Office.rm.scr
Deutsch BloodPatch!.exe
s3msong.MP3.pif
Me_nude.AVI.pif
How to Crack all gamez.exe
Macromedia Flash.scr
SETUP.EXE
Shakira.zip.exe
dreamweaver MX (crack).exe
StarWars2 - CloneAttack.rm.scr
Industry Giant II.exe
DSL Modem Uncapper.rar.exe
joke.pif
Britney spears nude.exe.txt.exe
I am For u.doc.exe

The worm attempts to spread by copying itself to mounted shares using one of
the following filenames:

mmc.exe
xcopy.exe
winhlp32.exe
i386.exe
client.exe
findpass.exe
autoexec.bat
MSDN.ZIP.pif
Cain.pif
WindowsUpdate.pif
Support Tools.exe
Windows Media Player.zip.exe
Microsoft Office.exe
Documents and Settings.txt.exe
Internet Explorer.bat
WinRAR.exe

W32/Lovgate-V also attempts to spread via weakly protected remote shares by
connecting using a password from an internal dictionary and copying itself
as the file NETMANAGER.EXE to the system folder on the admin$ share.

After successfully copying the file W32/Lovgate-V attempts to start it as the
service "Windows Managment Network Service Extensions" on the remote computer.

W32/Lovgate-V starts a logging thread that listens on port 6000, sends a
notification email to an external address and logs received data to the file
C:\Netlog.txt.

W32/Lovgate-V attempts to terminate processes containing the following strings:

rising
SkyNet
Symantec
McAfee
Gate
Rfw.exe
RavMon.exe
kill
Nav
Duba
KAV
KV

W32/Lovgate-V also overwrites EXE files on the system with copies of itself.
The original files are saved with a ZMX extension.

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