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WORM_TOPHOS.SMA

February 17, 2014
 Modified by: Sabrina Lei Sioting
 ALIASES:

Worm:Win32/Tophos.C (Microsoft); BackDoor-CEP.svr (McAfee); Trojan.Win32.Generic.pak!cobra (Sunbelt); Trojan horse Delf.AGXI (AVG)

 PLATFORM:

Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003

 OVERALL RISK RATING:
 DAMAGE POTENTIAL:
 DISTRIBUTION POTENTIAL:
 REPORTED INFECTION:
 INFORMATION EXPOSURE:

  • Threat Type: Worm

  • Destructiveness: No

  • Encrypted: No

  • In the wild: Yes

  OVERVIEW

Infection Channel:

Propagates via removable drives


This worm arrives by connecting affected removable drives to a system. It arrives on a system as a file dropped by other malware or as a file downloaded unknowingly by users when visiting malicious sites.

  TECHNICAL DETAILS

File Size:

1,182,217 bytes

File Type:

EXE

Memory Resident:

Yes

Initial Samples Received Date:

25 Oct 2013

Payload:

Connects to URLs/IPs, Drops files

Arrival Details

This worm arrives by connecting affected removable drives to a system.

It arrives on a system as a file dropped by other malware or as a file downloaded unknowingly by users when visiting malicious sites.

Installation

This worm drops the following copies of itself into the affected system:

  • %System Root%\Photo\Photo.exe

(Note: %System Root% is the root folder, which is usually C:\. It is also where the operating system is located.)

It creates the following folders:

  • %System Root%\Photo

(Note: %System Root% is the root folder, which is usually C:\. It is also where the operating system is located.)

Autostart Technique

This worm adds the following registry entries to enable its automatic execution at every system startup:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Photo = "%System Root%\Photo\Photo.exe"

Propagation

This worm drops the following copy(ies) of itself in all removable drives:

  • Photo.exe

Download Routine

This worm connects to the following website(s) to download and execute a malicious file:

  • http://www.{BLOCKED}ess.ru/get.php

  SOLUTION

Minimum Scan Engine:

9.300

FIRST VSAPI PATTERN FILE:

10.343.00

FIRST VSAPI PATTERN DATE:

15 Oct 2013

Step 1

Before doing any scans, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 users must disable System Restore to allow full scanning of their computers.

Step 2

Restart in Safe Mode

[ Learn More ]

Step 3

Delete this registry value

[ Learn More ]

Important: Editing the Windows Registry incorrectly can lead to irreversible system malfunction. Please do this step only if you know how or you can ask assistance from your system administrator. Else, check this Microsoft article first before modifying your computer's registry.

  • In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
    • Photo = "%System Root%\Photo\Photo.exe"

Step 4

Search and delete this folder

[ Learn More ]
Please make sure you check the Search Hidden Files and Folders checkbox in the More advanced options option to include all hidden folders in the search result.
  • %System Root%\Photo

Step 5

Restart in normal mode and scan your computer with your Trend Micro product for files detected as WORM_TOPHOS.SMA. If the detected files have already been cleaned, deleted, or quarantined by your Trend Micro product, no further step is required. You may opt to simply delete the quarantined files. Please check this Knowledge Base page for more information.


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