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

• DarkLord-B

• ManOWar

• Terror

Characteristics

Dark Lord is a memory resident, file infecting virus. It infects .COM and .EXE files, including COMMAND.COM.

Upon infection, the virus becomes memory resident at the top of system memory but below the 640K DOS boundary. Interrupts 21 and 24 are hooked by Dark Lord.

Once Dark Lord is memory resident, it infects .COM and .EXE files as they are opened or executed.

It is not known what Dark Lord does besides replicate.

Additional Comments:
The Dark Lord virus was received in May, 1991. It is from Bulgaria. Dark Lord is a memory resident infector of .COM and .EXE programs, including COMMAND.COM. The first time a program infected with Dark Lord is executed, the virus will install itself memory resident at the top of system memory but below the 640K DOS boundary. Total system and available free memory, as measured by the DOS CHKDSK program, will decrease by 1,616 bytes. Interrupts 21 and 24 will be hooked by Dark Lord. Once Dark Lord is memory resident, it will infect .COM and .EXE programs when they are opened or executed. Infected programs will increase in size by 923 to 936 bytes with the virus being located at the end of the file. COMMAND.COM is an exception, though, as it will not have a file length increase, the virus will overwrite the stack space on the end of COMMAND.COM. Programs infected with Dark Lord will contain the following text strings: "COMMAND.COM" "Dark Lord, I summon thee! MANOWAR" The second string will occur near the end of infected files. Dark Lord does not replicate on 386-class systems. On those systems, execution of an infected program will result in a system hang. It is unknown if Dark Lord does anything besides replicate. Known variant(s) of Dark Lord are:

Symptoms

Files infected with Dark Lord contain the following text strings:

"COMMAND.COM"
"Dark Lord, I summon thee! MANOWAR"

The second string occurs near the end of infected files.

Total system and available free memory decreases by 1,616 bytes. Infected files increase in size by 923 to 936 bytes. The virus is located at the end of the file. COMMAND.COM is an exception though, as it does not have a file length increase, the virus overwrites the stack space on the end of COMMAND.COM.

Dark Lord does not replicate on 386-class systems. On those systems, execution of an infected file results in a system hang.

Method of Infection

The only way to infect a computer with a file infecting virus is to execute an infected file on the computer. The infected file may come from a multitude of sources including: floppy diskettes, downloads through an online service, network, etc. Once the infected file is executed, the virus may activate.

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

• DarkLord-B

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

• DarkLord-B

• ManOWar

• Terror

Characteristics

Characteristics -

Dark Lord is a memory resident, file infecting virus. It infects .COM and .EXE files, including COMMAND.COM.

Upon infection, the virus becomes memory resident at the top of system memory but below the 640K DOS boundary. Interrupts 21 and 24 are hooked by Dark Lord.

Once Dark Lord is memory resident, it infects .COM and .EXE files as they are opened or executed.

It is not known what Dark Lord does besides replicate.

Additional Comments:
The Dark Lord virus was received in May, 1991. It is from Bulgaria. Dark Lord is a memory resident infector of .COM and .EXE programs, including COMMAND.COM. The first time a program infected with Dark Lord is executed, the virus will install itself memory resident at the top of system memory but below the 640K DOS boundary. Total system and available free memory, as measured by the DOS CHKDSK program, will decrease by 1,616 bytes. Interrupts 21 and 24 will be hooked by Dark Lord. Once Dark Lord is memory resident, it will infect .COM and .EXE programs when they are opened or executed. Infected programs will increase in size by 923 to 936 bytes with the virus being located at the end of the file. COMMAND.COM is an exception, though, as it will not have a file length increase, the virus will overwrite the stack space on the end of COMMAND.COM. Programs infected with Dark Lord will contain the following text strings: "COMMAND.COM" "Dark Lord, I summon thee! MANOWAR" The second string will occur near the end of infected files. Dark Lord does not replicate on 386-class systems. On those systems, execution of an infected program will result in a system hang. It is unknown if Dark Lord does anything besides replicate. Known variant(s) of Dark Lord are:

Symptoms

Symptoms -

Files infected with Dark Lord contain the following text strings:

"COMMAND.COM"
"Dark Lord, I summon thee! MANOWAR"

The second string occurs near the end of infected files.

Total system and available free memory decreases by 1,616 bytes. Infected files increase in size by 923 to 936 bytes. The virus is located at the end of the file. COMMAND.COM is an exception though, as it does not have a file length increase, the virus overwrites the stack space on the end of COMMAND.COM.

Dark Lord does not replicate on 386-class systems. On those systems, execution of an infected file results in a system hang.

Method of Infection

Method of Infection -

The only way to infect a computer with a file infecting virus is to execute an infected file on the computer. The infected file may come from a multitude of sources including: floppy diskettes, downloads through an online service, network, etc. Once the infected file is executed, the virus may activate.

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 -

• DarkLord-B