Sophos

W32/Rbot-ABT

Aliases
  • W32/Sdbot.worm.gen.ag
Category
Type
What to do
Prevalence low high

Summary

 
How it spreads
  • Network shares
Affected operating systems Windows
Characteristics
  • Installs itself in the registry
Protection available since 5 May 2005 07:34:11 (GMT)
Last updated 24 October 2005 22:13:32 (GMT)
Detected by All Sophos products
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  • Test your existing anti-virus protection
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Action

Please follow the instructions for removing worms.

Change any data that may have become compromised.

You will also need to edit the following registry entries, if they are present. Please read the warning about editing the registry.

At the taskbar, click Start|Run. Type 'Regedit' and press Return. The registry editor opens.

Before you edit the registry, you should make a backup. On the 'Registry' menu, click 'Export Registry File'. In the 'Export range' panel, click 'All', then save your registry as Backup.

Locate the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE entries:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices

and remove any reference to any file you deleted.

Each user has a registry area named HKEY_USERS\[code number indicating user]\. For each user locate the entry:

HKU\[code number]\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Run\

and remove any reference to any file you deleted.

Close the registry editor.

Check the following items

  • To renable DCOM you can edit the registry, but it's better to use Dcomcnfg.exe. See Microsoft article 825750 for details.
  • The HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\restrictanonymous = "1" setting does not allow enumeration of SAM accounts and names. The default is "0". It can be changed in Local Security Policy. See Microsoft article 246261 for details.
  • Check your administrator passwords and review network security.

More Information

W32/Rbot-ABT is a Windows network worm which attempts to spread via network shares. The worm contains backdoor functions that allows unauthorised remote access to the infected computer via IRC channels while running in the background.

The worm spreads to network shares with weak passwords and also by using the LSASS security exploit (MS04-011) and the RPC-DCOM security exploit (MS03-039).

When run W32/Rbot-ABT copies itself to the Windows System folder as a file named SYS32CONF.EXE and creates the following registry entries to run itself on user logon:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Firewall Sp2 system
sys32Conf.exe

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
Firewall Sp2 system
sys32Conf.exe

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Firewall Sp2 system
sys32Conf.exe

W32/Rbot-ABT also changes the following registry entries from the default Windows values:

from:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Ole
EnableDCOM
Y

to:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Ole
EnableDCOM
N

from:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
restrictanonymous
dword:00000000

to:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
restrictanonymous
dword:00000001

Once installed, W32/Rbot-ABT will attempt to perform the following actions when instructed to do so by a remote attacker:

steal CD game keys
setup a FTP server
create a SOCKS4 server
terminate threads and processes
perform port scanning on IP addresses
steal computer system hardware information
capture keystrokes
copy itself to IPC$ network shared folders
download files from the internet and run them
participate in denial of service (DoS) attacks

The following patches for the operating system vulnerabilities exploited by W32/Rbot-ABT can be obtained from the Microsoft website:

MS04-011
MS03-039

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