McAfee > Theat Center > Virus Detail Page

Overview

This is a virus detection. Viruses are programs that self-replicate recursively, meaning that infected systems spread the virus to other systems, which then propagate the virus further. While many viruses contain a destructive payload, it's quite common for viruses to do nothing more than spread from one system to another.

Aliases

• W97M/Hope

Characteristics

This is a virus for Word 97 documents. It is able to replicate under the SR-1 release of Word 97. It will turn off the macro warning feature of Word 97. This virus infects the existing module in documents called 'ThisDocument'. This short macro virus will infect Word's normal.dot file by doing a local variable replacement.

This virus is named W97M/Hope.a due to comments in the macro code, entered by the virus author:

'withered rope you hang what's empty can't remain to put it simply
'in time cry the hollow words to sing with false disguise smothered
'hope fly from sorrow for a new divine tomorrow i just don't want
'to know anymore life shifts up and down everybody knows it's wrong
'why don't you care? now do it seem fair? it's not in the rhyme or
'reason so it goes with every season crawl to top fall through
'bottom first hand love is really rotten slice of life find what's
'plenty inch towards a sanctuary light with me inside the womb i
'know everyone everybody knows it's me it's my voice, my voice
'cries out obscenity sightless eye regard my past sometimes it
'should i just don't want to know anymore.
'From Smothered Hope

Symptoms

Macro warning if opening infected document, increase in size to global template, confirmation of changes to NORMAL.DOT.

Method of Infection

Opening infected documents will infect global template normal.dot.

Removal

All Users :
Script,Batch,Macro and non memory-resident:
Use current engine and DAT files for detection and removal.

PE,Trojan,Internet Worm and memory resident :
Use specified engine and DAT files for detection. To remove, boot to MS-DOS mode or use a boot diskette and use the command line scanner:

Additional Windows ME/XP removal considerations

Users should not trust file icons, particularly when receiving files from others via P2P clients, IRC, email or other mediums where users can share files.

AVERT Recommended Updates :

* Office2000 Updates

* Malformed Word Document Could Enable Macro to Run Automatically (Information/Patch )

* scriptlet.typelib/Eyedog vulnerability patch

* Outlook as an email attachment security update

* Exchange 5.5 post SP3 Information Store Patch 5.5.2652.42 - this patch corrects detection issues with GroupShield

For a list of attachments blocked by the Outlook patch and a general FAQ, visit this link .
Additionally, Network Administrators can configure this update using an available tool - visit this link for more information .

It is very common for macro viruses to disable options within Office applications for example in Word, the macro protection warning commonly is disabled. After cleaning macro viruses, ensure that your previously set options are again enabled.

Variants

Variants

N/A

All Information

Overview -

This is a virus detection. Viruses are programs that self-replicate recursively, meaning that infected systems spread the virus to other systems, which then propagate the virus further. While many viruses contain a destructive payload, it's quite common for viruses to do nothing more than spread from one system to another.

Aliases

• W97M/Hope

Characteristics

Characteristics -

This is a virus for Word 97 documents. It is able to replicate under the SR-1 release of Word 97. It will turn off the macro warning feature of Word 97. This virus infects the existing module in documents called 'ThisDocument'. This short macro virus will infect Word's normal.dot file by doing a local variable replacement.

This virus is named W97M/Hope.a due to comments in the macro code, entered by the virus author:

'withered rope you hang what's empty can't remain to put it simply
'in time cry the hollow words to sing with false disguise smothered
'hope fly from sorrow for a new divine tomorrow i just don't want
'to know anymore life shifts up and down everybody knows it's wrong
'why don't you care? now do it seem fair? it's not in the rhyme or
'reason so it goes with every season crawl to top fall through
'bottom first hand love is really rotten slice of life find what's
'plenty inch towards a sanctuary light with me inside the womb i
'know everyone everybody knows it's me it's my voice, my voice
'cries out obscenity sightless eye regard my past sometimes it
'should i just don't want to know anymore.
'From Smothered Hope

Symptoms

Symptoms -

Macro warning if opening infected document, increase in size to global template, confirmation of changes to NORMAL.DOT.

Method of Infection

Method of Infection -

Opening infected documents will infect global template normal.dot.

Removal -

Removal -

All Users :
Script,Batch,Macro and non memory-resident:
Use current engine and DAT files for detection and removal.

PE,Trojan,Internet Worm and memory resident :
Use specified engine and DAT files for detection. To remove, boot to MS-DOS mode or use a boot diskette and use the command line scanner:

Additional Windows ME/XP removal considerations

Users should not trust file icons, particularly when receiving files from others via P2P clients, IRC, email or other mediums where users can share files.

AVERT Recommended Updates :

* Office2000 Updates

* Malformed Word Document Could Enable Macro to Run Automatically (Information/Patch )

* scriptlet.typelib/Eyedog vulnerability patch

* Outlook as an email attachment security update

* Exchange 5.5 post SP3 Information Store Patch 5.5.2652.42 - this patch corrects detection issues with GroupShield

For a list of attachments blocked by the Outlook patch and a general FAQ, visit this link .
Additionally, Network Administrators can configure this update using an available tool - visit this link for more information .

It is very common for macro viruses to disable options within Office applications for example in Word, the macro protection warning commonly is disabled. After cleaning macro viruses, ensure that your previously set options are again enabled.

Variants

Variants -

N/A