McAfee > Theat Center > PUP Detail Page

Characteristics

McAfee(R) AVERT recognizes that this program may have legitimate uses in contexts where an authorized administrator has knowingly installed this application. If you agreed to a license agreement for this, or another bundled application, you may have legal obligations with regard to removing this software, or using the host application without this software. Please contact the software vendor for further information.

See http://vil.nai.com/vil/DATReadme.asp for a list of Program detections added to the DATs.

See http://vil.nai.com/vil/pups/configuration.htm for information about how to enable, disable, and exclude detection of legitimately installed programs.

Summary

This is not a virus or a Trojan.
It is an adware application and generates extra pop-up ads while using Internet Explorer. This kind of application generally comes bundled with another program, which usually discloses the fact that it is ad-supported

Privacy

No license agreement is displayed during installation, although one could be displayed by another installer if bundled with another application. No EULA or privacy policy related to the software could be found.

System Changes

File Name : Msg5.EXe
MD5Hash : bda16efa73d0d8ae8df8c7a40238b972

File Name : Sqloader.EXE
MD5Hash : 0ddb85998f1f33d7dac39da481d1a740

On executing the above files, a lot of files are downloaded. A toolbar is installed as shown below. While browsing internet some connections are also made with "sqwire.com". Default page of Internet Explorer changes to "sqwire.com" as shown in the picture:

While browsing the Internet, some popup may be observed:

Following directories are added:

• %Program Files%\Sqwire
• %Program Files%\Common files\SQ

Following files are added:

• ad.exe
• cc.exe
• tsl_rc0_wrap.exe
• uc.exe
• uwa.exe
• s.dll
• t.dll
• tsl_rc0.dll
• u.dll
• wa.dll

Apart from the above files, some Internet Shortcuts are dropped as below (these may vary):

• Shopping.url
• Toys.url
• Shoes.url
• Retail Products.url
• Flowers.url
• Gifts.url

Following registry entries are added:

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2662BDD7-05D6-408F-B241-FF98FACE6054}
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\XTUpdate.XT
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\XTUpdate.XT.1
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SQ
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
  CurrentVersion\Run "SQUpdatesChecker"
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
  CurrentVersion\Run "SQConfigChecker"

Network Impact

Additional overhead in bandwidth due to download of content.

Removal

Aliases

Aliases

• Adware.Sqwire : Symantec
• Trj/Downloader.FM : Panda Antivirus
• Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Sqwire.c : Kaspersky Lab
• Trojan.Downloader.FM : Softwin
• Win32/StartPage.SQWire!Trojan : CA eTrust