RE: New Trojan?

["Steven Hess" <shess () tampabay rr com>]

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If it is a CoolWebSearch variant - they might not be able to get to
the merijn website. It can block access. You can download a scanner
and removal tool - CWS Shredder - at
http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/ It is a download mirror for the
merijn website. 

Steven Hess


- -----Original Message-----
From: Brian Lund [mailto:brianlund () gmail com] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 2:48 PM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: Re: New Trojan?


On further reflection, this sounds a lot like Cool Web Search, a
really annoying piece of spyware with many variants that is very fond
of redirecting you to search pages and the like.  If it is a new
variant, it's unique in the fact that it effects Firefox as well, my
guess is it's a Windows instead of IE thing, but you never know.

If it would help at all, check out the folloing page about CWS,
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html...and good
luck, it's a bugger to get rid of.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 15:14:38 -0400, Jeff
<jeff@not_a_real_address.com> wrote:
> PLEASE READ ... I feel violated and need much help, if not for the
> PC,  for my nerves.
>
> The PC is a WinXP box, fully patched, routinely checked with Spybot
>  1.3 and AdAware 6. I run SpywareBlaster as well. I also use 
> Thunderbird 0.6 and Firefox 0.8. All other family members run 
> Thunderbird on this box. IE6 has not bee removed but is fully
> patched.  
>
> Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition 9.0, AV file 6/25/2004 r19 is 
> running. (I purposely purchased the licenses at work for our home 
> users also so that they WOULD stay up to date -- a practice I
> learned  from Sprint a long, long time ago.)
>
> I use a Netgear FVS318 to interface to my Verizon DSL account.
>
> The events as they happened.
>
> 1. My son read his email via the web. It included e-cards.
>     He read them. Doesn't remember where they took him, nor
>     does he remember if he used IE6 or Firefox.
>
> 2. Long screaming session about things TO do and things NOT
>     to do while on the internet. 278th time. Disabled his account.
>
> 3. Mis-typing a URL will now take me automatically to
>     www.netidentity.com with the mistaken URL clearly
>     identified inside. Identical results on IE6 and Firefox.
>     Java and Javascript are disabled on Firefox. I leave IE6
>     alone because I use it when I absolutely must go to some
>     bogus activex site, oh, and windowsupdate. But I don't use
>     it otherwise. I always use Firefox.
>
>     URLs that caused this include: mapblast, mapquest, abc, def
>     ... through xyz.
>
>     Please note: I had typed "mapblast" but had hit Enter rather
>     than Ctrl-Enter, by mistake. The URLs entered are literally
>     those listed, just the word.
>
>     They are then transformed to http://mapblast/
>
> 4. SAV CE, Spybot, AdAware, SypwareBlaster were all checked for
>     updates and the entire system was scanned. Nothing found.
>
> ** My immediate thought was that Network Solutions was up to thier
> ** old tricks with it's Site Finder business. A quick check of
> ** another PC in the house eliminated that.
>
> 5. I checked my syslogs and NULL routed the IP address being used
>     to access www.netidentity.com. The same page comes up sans the
>     graphics and the flash. The web page is still there though,
> just 
>     looking sad. Another check of the syslogs brings up 64.15.175.5
>     as generating the pages, an open proxy.
>
> 6. Also ran HiJackThis and went through ALL of the items on it.
>     Nada. Couldn't find the IP addresses or domain names in the
>     registry. I also ran them in reverse notation. Nada.
>
> 7. Checked my network settings to make certain that some new DNS
>     server wasn't stuck in. Nope, still set to use the Netgear box.
>     Put 4 different DNS servers in -- still get that stupid site.
>
> 8. That was all at lunchtime. Haven't had a chance to run netstat
>     or Ethereal to gain any additional clues.
>
> ZOIKS!!!
>
> The PC is off. But NOT knowing what is going on is driving me
> insane.  
>
> So while I <ahem> work this afternoon, I thought I would see if any
> of  this sounds, smells or <insert fav sense here) like anything
> that  anyone has seen before!
>
> Jeff
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
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> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------  




- -- 
Brian Lund
PGP Key ID: A18C0BA8 (1024/2048 | DSA/ELG)
PGP Fingerprint: F358 F84F 0219 5F2D 66BC C416 7BA8 7925 A18C 0BA8

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- -----
Ethical Hacking at the InfoSec Institute. Mention this ad and get
$545 off 
any course! All of our class sizes are guaranteed to be 10 students
or less 
to facilitate one-on-one interaction with one of our expert
instructors. 
Attend a course taught by an expert instructor with years of
in-the-field 
pen testing experience in our state of the art hacking lab. Master
the skills 
of an Ethical Hacker to better assess the security of your
organization. 
Visit us at: 
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Ethical Hacking at the InfoSec Institute. Mention this ad and get $545 off 
any course! All of our class sizes are guaranteed to be 10 students or less 
to facilitate one-on-one interaction with one of our expert instructors. 
Attend a course taught by an expert instructor with years of in-the-field 
pen testing experience in our state of the art hacking lab. Master the skills 
of an Ethical Hacker to better assess the security of your organization. 
Visit us at: 
http://www.infosecinstitute.com/courses/ethical_hacking_training.html
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