McAfee > Theat Center > Virus Detail Page

Overview

This is a trojan detection. Unlike viruses, trojans do not self-replicate. They are spread manually, often under the premise that they are beneficial or wanted. The most common installation methods involve system or security exploitation, and unsuspecting users manually executing unknown programs. Distribution channels include email, malicious or hacked web pages, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), peer-to-peer networks, etc.

Characteristics

This trojan downloads information from the Internet to construct and send SPAM emails from an infected system. 

Installation

Upon execution of the dropper component (Spam-Skull.dr), the trojan is dropped with the filename msctl32.dll into the %Windir%\System32 folder and injected into the running process WINLOGON.EXE , which ensures the trojan is loaded at system startup.

(Where %Windir% is the Windows directory, for example C:\WINDOWS)

The following Registry key is created to hook system startup:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\msctl32.dll

This key contains the following value:

Name: DllName
Data: C:\WINDOWS\System32\msctl32.dll

SPAM

As previously mentioned this trojan is capable of emailing SPAM from an infected host to a combination of constructed email addresses using the data below.

The trojan downloads text files from one of several sites listed below, each of which contains information for constructing SPAM emails, such as lists of domain names, first names, last names and subject lines.

active.emptyskull.net
price.emptyskull.org

Possible domain names:

Possible names:

Possible subject lines:

Typical email body content:

Symptoms

• Unexpected SMTP (TCP port 25) traffic from your system.
• Unexpected network communication with the aforementioned URLs.
• Existence of the files/Registry keys detailed above.

Method of Infection

Trojans do not self-replicate. They are spread manually, often under the premise that the executable is something beneficial. Distribution channels include IRC, peer-to-peer networks, newsgroup postings, email, etc.

Removal

AVERT recommends to always use latest DATs and engine. This threat will be cleaned if you have this combination.

Additional Windows ME/XP removal considerations

Variants

Variants

N/A

All Information

Overview -

This is a trojan detection. Unlike viruses, trojans do not self-replicate. They are spread manually, often under the premise that they are beneficial or wanted. The most common installation methods involve system or security exploitation, and unsuspecting users manually executing unknown programs. Distribution channels include email, malicious or hacked web pages, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), peer-to-peer networks, etc.

Characteristics

Characteristics -

This trojan downloads information from the Internet to construct and send SPAM emails from an infected system. 

Installation

Upon execution of the dropper component (Spam-Skull.dr), the trojan is dropped with the filename msctl32.dll into the %Windir%\System32 folder and injected into the running process WINLOGON.EXE , which ensures the trojan is loaded at system startup.

(Where %Windir% is the Windows directory, for example C:\WINDOWS)

The following Registry key is created to hook system startup:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\msctl32.dll

This key contains the following value:

Name: DllName
Data: C:\WINDOWS\System32\msctl32.dll

SPAM

As previously mentioned this trojan is capable of emailing SPAM from an infected host to a combination of constructed email addresses using the data below.

The trojan downloads text files from one of several sites listed below, each of which contains information for constructing SPAM emails, such as lists of domain names, first names, last names and subject lines.

active.emptyskull.net
price.emptyskull.org

Possible domain names:

Possible names:

Possible subject lines:

Typical email body content:

Symptoms

Symptoms -

• Unexpected SMTP (TCP port 25) traffic from your system.
• Unexpected network communication with the aforementioned URLs.
• Existence of the files/Registry keys detailed above.

Method of Infection

Method of Infection -

Trojans do not self-replicate. They are spread manually, often under the premise that the executable is something beneficial. Distribution channels include IRC, peer-to-peer networks, newsgroup postings, email, etc.

Removal -

Removal -

AVERT recommends to always use latest DATs and engine. This threat will be cleaned if you have this combination.

Additional Windows ME/XP removal considerations

Variants

Variants -

N/A