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

• Animus-7360

• Cookie-7360

Characteristics

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

Upon infection, the Animus virus becomes memory resident and hooks interrupts 22 and 24. Also at this time, the virus infects two .COM files other than COMMAND.COM which are in the current directory.

Additional Comments:
The Animus, Animus-7360, or Cookie-7360 virus was submitted in April, 1992. Its origin or point of isolation is unknown. Animus is a memory resident infector of .COM and .EXE programs. Advanced infections may result in COMMAND.COM being infected. The first time a program infected with the Animus virus is executed, the Animus virus will install itself memory resident as a low system memory TSR, hooking interrupts 22 and 24. Available free memory may decrease by as much as 70K. Also at this time, the virus will infect two .COM programs other than COMMAND.COM which are located in the current directory. Once the Animus virus is memory resident, it will infect two .COM programs each time an infected program is executed. Infected programs will have a file length increase of 7,360 bytes with the virus being located at the beginning of the file. The program's date and time in the DOS disk directory listing will be 9-13-91 10:30a. The following text strings can be found in all Animus infected programs: "COMMAND.COM" "Animus.id" "com`xff`x03Exe" "Animus.exe" Animus is a malicious virus. As the system infection of Animus progresses, the virus will switch various file names so that what the directory indicates is the file name no longer matches the contents of the file. This process occurs with both executable programs and data files. As a result, the user may not execute the program that they are attempting to run, and unpredicatable results occur. Animus does not avoid switching another file with COMMAND.COM, so unexpected warm reboots or shelling of the command interpretor may occur. The switching of file names results in programs with the .EXE extension possibly being infected, and all files on infected systems must be tested to determine if they contain the virus. Once the infected programs are disinfected, the actual contents of the files must be determined and renamed to their proper names. Known variant(s) of Animus are:

Symptoms

The following text strings are found in all Animus infected files:

COMMAND.COM
Animus.id
com`xff`x03Exe
Animus.exe

Animus is a malicious virus. As the system infection of Animus progresses, the virus switches various file names so that what the directory indicates is the file name no longer matches the contents of the file. This process occurs with both executable files and data files. As a result, the user may not execute the file that they are attempting to run, and unpredictable results occur. Animus does not avoid switching another file with COMMAND.COM, so unexpected warm reboots or shelling of the command interpreter may occur. The switching of file names results in files with the .EXE extension possibly being infected, and all files on infected systems must be tested to determine if they contain the virus. Once the infected files are disinfected, the actual contents of the files must be determined and renamed to their proper names.

Available free memory may decrease by as much as 70K. Infected files have a file length increase of 7,360 bytes. The virus is located at the beginning of the file. The file's date and time in the DOS disk directory listing is 9-13-91 10:30a.

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

• Animus-7392
• Animus 2

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

• Animus-7360

• Cookie-7360

Characteristics

Characteristics -

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

Upon infection, the Animus virus becomes memory resident and hooks interrupts 22 and 24. Also at this time, the virus infects two .COM files other than COMMAND.COM which are in the current directory.

Additional Comments:
The Animus, Animus-7360, or Cookie-7360 virus was submitted in April, 1992. Its origin or point of isolation is unknown. Animus is a memory resident infector of .COM and .EXE programs. Advanced infections may result in COMMAND.COM being infected. The first time a program infected with the Animus virus is executed, the Animus virus will install itself memory resident as a low system memory TSR, hooking interrupts 22 and 24. Available free memory may decrease by as much as 70K. Also at this time, the virus will infect two .COM programs other than COMMAND.COM which are located in the current directory. Once the Animus virus is memory resident, it will infect two .COM programs each time an infected program is executed. Infected programs will have a file length increase of 7,360 bytes with the virus being located at the beginning of the file. The program's date and time in the DOS disk directory listing will be 9-13-91 10:30a. The following text strings can be found in all Animus infected programs: "COMMAND.COM" "Animus.id" "com`xff`x03Exe" "Animus.exe" Animus is a malicious virus. As the system infection of Animus progresses, the virus will switch various file names so that what the directory indicates is the file name no longer matches the contents of the file. This process occurs with both executable programs and data files. As a result, the user may not execute the program that they are attempting to run, and unpredicatable results occur. Animus does not avoid switching another file with COMMAND.COM, so unexpected warm reboots or shelling of the command interpretor may occur. The switching of file names results in programs with the .EXE extension possibly being infected, and all files on infected systems must be tested to determine if they contain the virus. Once the infected programs are disinfected, the actual contents of the files must be determined and renamed to their proper names. Known variant(s) of Animus are:

Symptoms

Symptoms -

The following text strings are found in all Animus infected files:

COMMAND.COM
Animus.id
com`xff`x03Exe
Animus.exe

Animus is a malicious virus. As the system infection of Animus progresses, the virus switches various file names so that what the directory indicates is the file name no longer matches the contents of the file. This process occurs with both executable files and data files. As a result, the user may not execute the file that they are attempting to run, and unpredictable results occur. Animus does not avoid switching another file with COMMAND.COM, so unexpected warm reboots or shelling of the command interpreter may occur. The switching of file names results in files with the .EXE extension possibly being infected, and all files on infected systems must be tested to determine if they contain the virus. Once the infected files are disinfected, the actual contents of the files must be determined and renamed to their proper names.

Available free memory may decrease by as much as 70K. Infected files have a file length increase of 7,360 bytes. The virus is located at the beginning of the file. The file's date and time in the DOS disk directory listing is 9-13-91 10:30a.

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 -

• Animus-7392
• Animus 2