W32/Netsky-J

Category	Viruses and Spyware
Type	Worm
What to do	If you've received an alert for a virus or spyware, then follow the instructions for removing the threat.
Prevalence	low high

Summary

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Affected operating systems	Windows
Protection available since	8 March 2004 20:38:51 (GMT)
Detected by	All Sophos products

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Endpoint Security and Control 9.0
Small business solutions 4.0

Action

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Please follow the instructions for removing worms.

Please follow the instructions for removing W32/Netsky-J.

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W32/Netsky-J is a mass mailing worm that uses its own SMTP engine to email itself to addresses harvested from files on local drives.

W32/Netsky-J harvests email addresses from files on all local drives which have one of the following extensions:

DHTM, CGI, SHTM, MSG, OFT, SHT, DBX, TBB, ADB, DOC, WAB, ASP, UIN, RTF, VBS, HTML, HTM, PL, PHP, TXT, EML

The worm avoids email addresses containing the following strings:

skynet
messagelabs
abuse
fbi
orton
f-pro
aspersky
cafee
orman
itdefender
f-secur
spam
ymantec
antivi
icrosoft

Emails have the following characteristics:

Subject lines:

Re: Your website
Re: Your product
Re: Your letter
Re: Your archive
Re: Your text
Re: Your bill
Re: Your details
Re: My details
Re: Word file
Re: Excel file
Re: Details
Re: Approved
Re: Your software
Re: Your music
Re: Here
Re: Re: Re: Your document
Re: Hello
Re: Hi
Re: Re: Message
Re: Your picture
Re: Here is the document
Re: Your document
Re: Thanks!
Re: Re: Thanks!
Re: Re: Document
Re: Document

Message texts:

Your file is attached.
Please read the attached file.
Please have a look at the attached file.
See the attached file for details.
Here is the file.
Your document is attached.

Attached filename:

your_website.pif
your_product.pif
your_letter.pif
your_archive.pif
your_text.pif
your_bill.pif
your_details.pif
document_word.pif
document_excel.pif
my_details.pif
all_document.pif
application.pif
mp3music.pif
yours.pif
document_4351.pif
your_file.pif
message_details.pif
your_picture.pif
document_full.pif
message_part2.pif
document.pif
your_document.pif

On 2 March 2004 at 6:00 AM W32/Netsky-J plays random sounds for three hours. W32/Netsky-J is a mass mailing worm that uses its own SMTP engine to email itself to addresses harvested from files on local drives.

In order to run automatically when the user logs on to the computer the worm copies itself to the file winlogon.exe in the Windows folder and creates the following registry entry:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ICQ Net
=<Windows folder>\winlogon.exe -stealth

The worm attempts to disable various anti-virus and security related applications as well as other worm processes by deleting registry entries used by them.

In particular it attempts to delete the following values:

Taskmon, Explorer, KasperskyAv, system., msgsvr32, DELETE ME, service, Sentry, Windows Services Host

below the registry key:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

The worm deletes the following values:

Explorer, KasperkyAv, d3dupdate.exe, au.exe, OLE, Windows Services Host

below the registry key:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

W32/Netsky-J also deletes the following registry entries:

HKCR\CLSID\{E6FB5E20-DE35-11CF-9C87-00AA005127ED}\InProcServer32
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WksPatch
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\PINF

Some of the above entries are created by the different variants of the W32/Bagle and W32/MyDoom families of worms.