Full Disclosure mailing list archives
RE: Swen Really Sucks
From: "Nick FitzGerald" <nick () virus-l demon co uk>
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 14:59:41 +1200
"Schmehl, Paul L" <pauls () utdallas edu> replied to me:
Swen has code to locate the "Default Mail Account" under the Internet Account Manager registry key then to extract the "SMTP Email Address" value appropriately. This is then stored in a variable in the virus that is later used for the argument to the "MAIL FROM:" SMTP command while sending Email. (It is possible that some other part of the Swen code I have not closely analysed surreptitiously changes the contents of this variable in some circumstances, but there is no obvious code that also alters the contents of the buffer used to hold the string pulled from the registry location just described...) This is all based on disassembly and is corroborated by reports from other researchers who have watched it under debuggers, emulation, etc.If it's as poorly written as most malware is, it most likely screws this up as well. ...
8-) You should be careful -- I get hate mail for saying stuff like that...
... All I can tell you is that I get tens of bounces on my personal home email account daily, and I can assure you that I am not infected. I'll take a look tonight (because I'm sure there will be at least 50 or 60 virus mails and bounces in my deleted items folder) and see what's in the headers.
Ahhhhh -- I didn't understand what you were saying before. I am getting such bogus "bounces" too (about one for every ten "natural" samples I receive), but recall that many stupid Email gateway scanners will send "bounces" to addresses in the From: and/or Sender: headers (and even to addresses in Reply-To:, X-Originally-From: and other weird custom headers -- clearly these products are written by chimpanzees that cannot read RFCs...).
You can disassemble and run simulations til you're blue in the face, but things don't work perfectly in the real world, as I *know* you know.
Indeed I can, but when I do -- like Joe -- I tend to take quite some professional pride in the work (unlike the folk who wrote the SMTP processors that are busy sending you those "bounces"). -- Nick FitzGerald Computer Virus Consulting Ltd. Ph/FAX: +64 3 3529854 _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- RE: Swen Really Sucks Schmehl, Paul L (Sep 25)
- Re: Swen Really Sucks Joe Stewart (Sep 25)
- RE: Swen Really Sucks Nick FitzGerald (Sep 25)
- Re: Swen Really Sucks Craig Pratt (Sep 26)
- Re: Swen Really Sucks Kye Lewis (Sep 26)
- Re: Swen Really Sucks Mary Landesman (Sep 26)
- Re: Swen Really Sucks Kye Lewis (Sep 26)
- Re: Swen Really Sucks Craig Pratt (Sep 26)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Swen Really Sucks Schmehl, Paul L (Sep 25)
- RE: Swen Really Sucks Nick FitzGerald (Sep 25)