My New Toy... a HTC Magic

I finally decided to buy a Smartphone...: http://www.htc.com/www/product/magic/overview.html


Love at first sight!
Too many options and too much stuff to configure. This will certainly keep me busy for a while....

Searchengine Redirects? It could be a patched ws2_32.dll file...

I was helping someone yesterday (online support via forums) who was complaining about searchengine redirects. Redirections mainly went to mybig-portal.com, virus-detect-soft.com, edmonds.com, us.peeplo.com, directkitchenremodeling.com...

There are already many different infections responsible for searchengine redirections, I see several different ones every day.... so after a while, it's getting easier for me where to look/search.
The info is mainly gathered from logs (Registry loading points, Rootkit scans, etc).

However, this one was different. I just couldn't find the culprit. Same scenario as with the first Daonol/JsRedirect/Gumblar variant I discussed here last year (October 2008).
People who know me also know that I will search untill I find it, so I finally found the culprit - a patched ws2_32.dll file.
The ws2_32.dll is a legit Microsoft Windows file that contains the Windows Sockets API used by most Internet and network applications to handle network connections.
In this case, it was patched by malware. Its copies in the dllcache and ServicePackFiles\i386 folder were also affected. Reference thread here.
It wasn't detected by any scanner yet. Sophos Antivirus will now detect this one as Troj/WShack-B.

So if you encounter the same and just can't find the culprit of a searchengine Hijack after trying anything else - then it *may be a patched ws2_32.dll file. Don't delete that file if it's indeed patched/infected, but replace it with a clean copy.
If unsure/in doubt, post you issue in the forums.

In case you're wondering....

Yes, I'm still alive, just extremely busy lately.

It's now already a couple of months that MalwareBytes hired me as Malware researcher, so that's where most of my time goes nowadays.
I've decided I will only blog here once in a while - I hope at least once a month - but I cannot promise anything :-)

Also... Thank you for the nice mails I've received lately via this blog and sorry I didn't respond earlier. It looks like something went wrong with the "Contact Me" mailform, so a lot of delayed (2 months or so) mails arrived just today. Anyway, this should be fixed now.

In between message...

It's been a while that I've blogged and since I'm going through some major changes in my personal and professional life (maybe new job), I won't have the time and inspiration either to blog in the next couple of weeks.
In a meanwhile... Click the icon to play a little game, so you didn't come here for nothing. :-)

See you later!

Virut and other File infectors - Throwing in the Towel?

I actually wanted to blog about this last week, but didn't find the time yet...
In the last couple of weeks, I noticed a HUGE increase of Virut present on computers. As a matter of fact, 30% of the infected computers I analyzed were infected with Virut. This is bad, really bad... :-(

Virut is a Polymorphic File Infector that infects .EXE and .SCR files. It opens a Backdoor by connecting to a predefined IRC Server and waits for commands from the remote attacker - for example to download/run more malware on the compromised computer. Emails may be harvested as well.
This latest variant may also search for htm, html, asp and php files on the drives and modifies them by inserting an iframe that points to a malicious website. So you can already imagine what may happen if the owner is a webdesigner and uploads the infected webpages.
An excellent write up on this latest variant (and previous one) can also be found here (by Nicolas Brulez): http://securitylabs.websense.com/content/Blogs/3300.aspx

Disinfection of the infected webpages should be easy - it's just a matter of deleting the iframe script in it.
The disinfection of the infected exe and scr files is something else...
Since Virut infects legitimate files, the files may not be deleted, but disinfected instead. And that's where the problems start...
Virut was known to be a buggy Virus in the past and it appears that this hasn't changed yet. We've seen this with other File infectors as well: To Junk Or Not To Junk.

And because of that, Virut may misinfect a proportion of executable files > result > corrupted file.
The same applies for other File infectors such as Sality.

If I guide someone with Virut (or any other File Infector) present and their Antivirus cannot properly disinfect it, then I recommend a format and reinstall.
And even though an Antivirus is able to disinfect the files, in a lot of cases, many files will be corrupted anyway > result > many programs won't work > loads of errors > corrupted Windows + there's still no guarantee that the Virus is really gone.
So why bother to clean this if a format and reinstall is the fastest and especially the safest solution?

And that's why I am blogging about this in the first place, especially since Virut is a very common infection nowadays. It's a pity to see that so many people are struggling with it and whatever they try, nothing helps. Then they ask for support via the forums and in a lot of cases, the one who is helping/guiding won't give up either and posts a new set of instructions to deal with this one.
Unfortunately another failure as result, so again, new instructions are posted... and this may go on and on...sometimes for weeks....
Is this responsible?
I'm not saying it fails everytime, but from what I have seen so far and especially if you're helping someone else with this infection... don't guarantee them a "clean" and errorfree computer afterwards .

In anyway, that's how I see it. Imho, dealing with such infections is a waste of time and that's why I prefer the fastest and safest solution - which is a format and reinstall.
Many people may see this as "giving up", but I see this different.
After all, I think it would be irresponsible to let the malware "stew" (download/spread/run more malware) for another couple of days/weeks if you already know it's a lost case.

Happy Dance - Blog 1 year old!

I started with this blog exactly 1 year ago. I actually didn't expect anything from this since I'm not a writer and don't have enough inspiration either to update my blog every (other) day.
The main goal of this blog was to post some tutorials and thoughts for the "average" user I was helping on forums and newsgroups - so I could link to my blogposts instead of reposting it again and again.
I was already happy with only a few blogposts and actually didn't really plan to update it anyway - only once in a while.
Maybe I could have updated my blog more often with latest Security News etc, but decided not to do so.
However, after a month or two, I saw that some people started to follow this blog and linked to it as well. That was a pleasant surprise.
And that's why I'm still updating this blog with thoughts (mainly rants), tutorials and other (stupid) stuff.

Anyway, thanks for the comments and feedback I have received so far - I've learned a lot from this and I'm still learning every day!

Thank you readers!

IX Web Hosting - Reliable?

Someone contacted me recently about the wdmaud.sys / sysaudio.sys - Win32:Daonol infection. This because his site was injected with the iFrame Javascript "Yahoo! Counter starts here". People who visit the compromised site will get infected with Win32:Daonol.
Even though he removed all injected code, it came back all the time. Also, he couldn't understand how his site(s) got compromised in the first place.
Until he told me what his webhosting service was..... IX Web Hosting.

A quick google search explained a lot....

There's even a blog called "IX Web Hosting Warning" to warn people for this webhosting company.
Quote from their About page:

"IX Web Hosting the incompetant cheap web hosting company was hacked in May of this year, and hackers managed to “seed” the servers, which are now injecting 1000’s of innocent paying customers websites, on a weekly basis. It has gotten so bad, and happened so frequently that even the backups are infected.

This has been going on now for almost 8 months!!… Yes that is correct, 8 months, and IX web hosting has still not fixed this massive security issue.
The worst part of this ordeal, is the fact that IX web hosting knows, and has openly admitted to certain people ( myself being one) that they have a massive issue, they still blame the innocent customers that it is their fault."

In anyway, that may also explain why so many people got infected with Win32:Daonol lately:
http://ixwebhostwarning.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/ix-web-hosting-and-the-yahoo-counter-script-injection/
http://ixwebhostwarning.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/is-your-site-infected-by-the-yahoo-counter-or-htaccess/

"Thousands of IX web Hosting customers are infected with this code, and they do not even know it! The web Page looks normal, but this can be very dangerous, your website will eventually drop from ALL the mayor search engines, and your domain will be flagged as “Dangerous Malware” by all the search engines."

Lesson learned: Avoid IX Web Hosting - Avoid sites being hosted with IX Web Hosting, because you may get infected.

Miekiemoes rules ?? Yeah right...

This is about the Searchengine Hijack I blogged about a couple of months ago. Files responsible for this hijack are sysaudio.sys or wdmaud.sys, present in the system32 folder - detected by most scanners as Win32:Daonol.
Someone notified me yesterday about a version of Win32:Daonol which is a bit different than other versions.
The malware author(s) decided to add "Miekiemoes rules" under file description in one of its versions.
Again, another proof why not to believe what malware tells you :P

This is what you get when you hover your mouse over the malicious wdmaud.sys:



I only have above screenshot. The person who uploaded this screenshot for me already deleted the wdmaud.sys, so no sample available. In anyway, thanks for the screenshot.

Sample is welcome (only above version).
Edit - Sample received - Thank you blogreaders :)

Settings won't save in Firefox

This is another common problem I see in forums lately. This especially since more and more malware targets firefox as well.
An example we see in forums lately is "Yoog Search". This is a searchengine Hijacker - comes with a variant of AdRotator/IconAds Adware.
The Firefox startpage + searchengine / Searchsettings get hijacked and even though the malware (responsible for changing startpage+searchengine) is gone/deleted already, if people want to change it back to default again, or change it back to their own startpage / searchengine, firefox won't save the settings.
So after a next Firefox session, the Hijacked startpage / searchengine etc is back again.

The cause is a user.js file present inside the Firefox profile folder. So, in this case the %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\"identity" folder.
The user.js file does not exist by default and was in this case added/modified by malware.
This file is used to set or reset preferences to a default value. For example whenever the browser is loaded, the values present in the user.js file will supersede the stored values in the prefs.js file.
The prefs.js file contains the values you can access/modify via about:config or via the preferences in Tools > Options Menu in Firefox.
See here for more info about the user.js file.

I've also seen the same where malware changed the Proxysettings and created a user.js file to store the Proxysettings there. Result > once the malware was removed, the user would get the error: "The Proxy Server is Refusing Connections" since the user.js file is still in use.
Some versions of the Ask Toolbar also create a user.js file in the Firefox userprofile, so after uninstalling the Ask Toolbar, the homepage + searches are still set to Ask.com because the user.js file is still present.

That's why, if you're ever having problems with Firefox that won't save settings like startpage, searchengine, proxysettings etc.., then look if a user.js file is present in the Firefox profile folder and delete or modify it.
The presence of user.js in the Firefox profile folder doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad file. Many people create their own user.js to supersede the stored values in the prefs.js file. So if you didn't create the user.js file yourself, you may delete it (since it's not present by default anyway).
If you're not sure, just rename it to user.js.bak, or open the file with notepad to see what values are present there.

Cold Turkey for X-mas.

I haven't been online much lately, this for several reasons. One of the reasons is.. I quit smoking!
I was trying to avoid situations where cigs were needed the most. I have to admit that actually every situation where I was allowed to smoke was a reason to smoke.
But the worst situation was when I was using computers - more than 10 hours a day, one cig after another. You can imagine I was smoking a lot!

I've already tried to quit last year - but that failed. I was going nuts after two days and a cig was my only relief. Sad, isn't it?
After my failure last year, I decided to smoke less. I didn't allow myself to smoke in the house anymore. So everytime I wanted a cig, I had to go outside, or smoke in the garage.
This actually helped a lot, I didn't break my own rule and smoked only the half of what I used to smoke. Even when I was using the computer, instead of having 6 (or sometimes more) cigs in one hour, I only had to go outside 2 or 3 times an hour. (I know, I know, it's still a lot).

After a couple of months (last week), I was wondering what I was actually doing. This was just silly and I had to stop that.

My own rule to go outside for a smoke worked like I charm and I never broke that rule. So why can't I make my own rule to quit smoking?

So, last week, I smoked my last cig and that was it.

I'm not using any nicotine replacement therapy aids like gum, patches or inhalers. No medications either like Zyban to reduce the craving, no hypnosis, acupuncture.... whatever. Just quit smoking Cold Turkey.
The only thing I used was a book (no, I didn't smoke it) by Allen Carr - "Easy Way To Stop Smoking". As a matter of fact, it is easy if you believe it!

It's already more than a week I quit smoking and I have to say - it's going pretty well. I've tried to avoid computers as much as possible in the first couple of days. Now I'm "facing" computers again and I don't really feel the "hunger" for a cig. The only thing is - I still feel the need to stand up 2 or 3 times in an hour to go outside. :-)
I'm like Pavlov's Dog - but then I remember the famous quote by Yoda: "You must unlearn what you have learned".

Anyway, I'm glad I quit smoking and I'm sure I won't fail this time.

Happy Holidays!!