Win32/Updatr Worm

 Information about the Win32/Updatr worm:

Win32/Goner is an email worm. This worm will infect Windows systems. It spreads using the email addresses present in MS-Outlook address book.

The worm arrives with the random subject containing a combination of the four phrases. The subject matter is composed from an assortment of four phrases that are randomly picked from the following sets:

Set1= "Have you ", "You Should ", "Just ", "Why Not you ", "How to ", "Re: ", "Fwd : "
Set2 = "Check ", "Check out", "Watch out ", "Open ", "Look at "
Set3 = "this ", "my ", "For this ", "The ", "Subject ", "Picture ", "Program "
Set4 = "Report", "Documment", "Quotation", "Transaction", "Bank Account", "WTC Tragedy", "Osama Vs Bush", "Account", "Private Pic"

For example : Just Check out The Document

and the content of the mail will be:

Hi: This is the file you ask for, Please save it to disk and open this file, it's very important

It carries one of the following infected attachment Setup.EXE, install.exe, Readme.exe, Files.exe, Picture.exe, Quotation.Doc.exe, Letter.Doc.exe, Picture.jpg.exe. Upon execution of the attachment, it copies itself into Windows directory as UPDATE.EXE.

The worm makes necessary changes to registry to load itself during next startup. It modifies registry at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

The worm drops a file called UPDATE.VBS under Windows startup directory. This file gets activated during system boot. It searches for .DOC, .EXE and .TXT files to create a copy of the existing files with .VBS extension added. For example : NOTEPAD.EXE is copied to NOTEPAD.EXE.VBS

This worm first appeared on 6th December 2001.

 Other names of Win32/Updatr worm:

This worm is also known as W32/Updatr, I-WORM.IMELDA, I-Worm.Updatr, W32/Updatr.vbs.