McAfee > Theat Center > Virus Detail Page

Overview

--- Updated December 25th, 2006:

Following BackDoor-CWA.dr and Generic Downloader.aa, Internet users should be cautious of the current spammed W32/Stration@MM discovered in the wild joining the other holiday-themed malware on Christmas day.

Characteristics

--- Updated December 25th, 2006:

Following BackDoor-CWA.dr and Generic Downloader.aa, Internet users should be cautious of the current spammed W32/Stration@MM discovered in the wild joining the other holiday-themed malware on Christmas day. It may have an e-mail body that resembles the below:

More details of the W32/Stration@MM virus at:

• http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_140419.htm

This is an automatically generated description for Trojan Downloaders.

Downloaders are designed to pull files from a remote website and execute the files that have been downloaded.

As it is trivial for the malware author to modify the Downloader to refer to a different website or web address, McAfee write detection routines for Downloaders which as a general rule do not include these strings in the detection routines.

This allows McAfee to write more generic detections for these threats and to proactively protect customers against future minor variants.

Therefore it is not possible to guarantee which website and/or port is being communicated with.

Also, as the website being communicated is normally controlled by the malware author, any files being downloaded can be remotely modified and the behaviour of these new binaries altered - possibly with every user infection.

Symptoms

Many of these Downloaders install other malware including viruses as well as other Trojans.

Additionally many of them are used to remotely install Adware packages onto the affected host machine for the purposes of gaining referral revenue from the Adware software vendor.

Please note: If Adware is installed via a Downloader it may install it "cleanly" with the relevant uninstaller included for the user to terminate this Adware, although frequently this is not the case.

Method of Infection

N/A. Downloaders are not viruses, and as such do not themselves contain any method to replicate. However they may themselves be downloaded by other viruses and/or Trojans to be installed on the user's system.

Many of these additionally are mass spammed by the author to entice people into double-clicking on them.

Alternatively they may be installed by visiting a malicious web page (either by clicking on a link, or by the website hosting a scripted exploit which installs the Downloader onto the user's system with no user interaction.

Removal

All Users:
Use current engine and DAT files for detection and removal.

Modifications made to the system Registry and/or INI files for the purposes of hooking system startup, will be successfully removed if cleaning with the recommended engine and DAT combination (or higher).

Additional Windows ME/XP removal considerations

Variants

Variants

N/A

All Information

Overview -

--- Updated December 25th, 2006:

Following BackDoor-CWA.dr and Generic Downloader.aa, Internet users should be cautious of the current spammed W32/Stration@MM discovered in the wild joining the other holiday-themed malware on Christmas day.

Characteristics

Characteristics -

--- Updated December 25th, 2006:

Following BackDoor-CWA.dr and Generic Downloader.aa, Internet users should be cautious of the current spammed W32/Stration@MM discovered in the wild joining the other holiday-themed malware on Christmas day. It may have an e-mail body that resembles the below:

More details of the W32/Stration@MM virus at:

• http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_140419.htm

This is an automatically generated description for Trojan Downloaders.

Downloaders are designed to pull files from a remote website and execute the files that have been downloaded.

As it is trivial for the malware author to modify the Downloader to refer to a different website or web address, McAfee write detection routines for Downloaders which as a general rule do not include these strings in the detection routines.

This allows McAfee to write more generic detections for these threats and to proactively protect customers against future minor variants.

Therefore it is not possible to guarantee which website and/or port is being communicated with.

Also, as the website being communicated is normally controlled by the malware author, any files being downloaded can be remotely modified and the behaviour of these new binaries altered - possibly with every user infection.

Symptoms

Symptoms -

Many of these Downloaders install other malware including viruses as well as other Trojans.

Additionally many of them are used to remotely install Adware packages onto the affected host machine for the purposes of gaining referral revenue from the Adware software vendor.

Please note: If Adware is installed via a Downloader it may install it "cleanly" with the relevant uninstaller included for the user to terminate this Adware, although frequently this is not the case.

Method of Infection

Method of Infection -

N/A. Downloaders are not viruses, and as such do not themselves contain any method to replicate. However they may themselves be downloaded by other viruses and/or Trojans to be installed on the user's system.

Many of these additionally are mass spammed by the author to entice people into double-clicking on them.

Alternatively they may be installed by visiting a malicious web page (either by clicking on a link, or by the website hosting a scripted exploit which installs the Downloader onto the user's system with no user interaction.

Removal -

Removal -

All Users:
Use current engine and DAT files for detection and removal.

Modifications made to the system Registry and/or INI files for the purposes of hooking system startup, will be successfully removed if cleaning with the recommended engine and DAT combination (or higher).

Additional Windows ME/XP removal considerations

Variants

Variants -

N/A