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.

Characteristics

This threat is detected as W97M/Generic and it contains one module - Lucy. The virus does not contain a malicious payload. Tools/Macro and Tools/Visual Basic Editor will display the following message:

On the 8th day of any month, the virus will display the office assistant with the following message:

Symptoms

The above messages displayed.

Method of Infection

Opening an infected document will directly infect the local Word environment and any document opened thereafter.

Removal

Use current engine and DAT files for detection and removal.

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.

AVERT Recommended Updates:

* Office 2000 updates

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

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.

Characteristics

Characteristics -

This threat is detected as W97M/Generic and it contains one module - Lucy. The virus does not contain a malicious payload. Tools/Macro and Tools/Visual Basic Editor will display the following message:

On the 8th day of any month, the virus will display the office assistant with the following message:

Symptoms

Symptoms -

The above messages displayed.

Method of Infection

Method of Infection -

Opening an infected document will directly infect the local Word environment and any document opened thereafter.

Removal -

Removal -

Use current engine and DAT files for detection and removal.

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.

AVERT Recommended Updates:

* Office 2000 updates

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

Variants

Variants -

N/A