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

• Assilem.c

• Melissa.x

• W97M/Assilem.c

• W97M/Melissa.x

Characteristics

This virus was renamed from W97M/Melissa.x to W97M/Assilem.c. This virus propagates by infecting Word documents in Microsoft Word 97 and 2000 and Word's normal.dot file. This virus consists of a module called "money99". 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 is a stealth virus; it will attempt to intercept the macro viewing commands to attempt to hide its presence.

This virus creates the following registry key value:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Run\Mcafee VShield="c:\windows\system\vshield.exe"

This registry entry has no effect on the system as the file, "c:\windows\system\vshield.exe", is not created by this virus.

Symptoms

Macro warning if opening infected document, increase in size to global template. Registry key modification as mentioned above.

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

• Assilem.c

• Melissa.x

• W97M/Assilem.c

• W97M/Melissa.x

Characteristics

Characteristics -

This virus was renamed from W97M/Melissa.x to W97M/Assilem.c. This virus propagates by infecting Word documents in Microsoft Word 97 and 2000 and Word's normal.dot file. This virus consists of a module called "money99". 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 is a stealth virus; it will attempt to intercept the macro viewing commands to attempt to hide its presence.

This virus creates the following registry key value:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Run\Mcafee VShield="c:\windows\system\vshield.exe"

This registry entry has no effect on the system as the file, "c:\windows\system\vshield.exe", is not created by this virus.

Symptoms

Symptoms -

Macro warning if opening infected document, increase in size to global template. Registry key modification as mentioned above.

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