Deloder worm targets weak passwords

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0310deloader.html

By Paul Roberts
IDG News Service
03/10/03

A new worm on the Internet targets computers running the Microsoft
Windows operating system, using easy-to-guess passwords for the
Administrator account, according to alerts posted by a number of
antivirus companies.

The new worm, W32/Deloder-A (Deloder), appeared on Sunday and is
considered a low risk for infection, according to an alert posted by
F-Secure of Helsinki, Finland.

Deloader is believed to have originated in China, F-Secure said.

The worm attempts to connect to other computers on a network through
TCP port 445, randomly generating IP addresses to locate vulnerable
machines.

Port 445 is used to access shared files on Windows machines with the
Server Message Block protocol.

When a vulnerable Windows machine is located, the worm attempts to log
on to the machine's Administrator account by trying 50 likely
passwords such as "admin," "password," "12345," and "administrator,"  
F-Secure said.

If the worm succeeds in breaking the Administrator account password,
it places copies of a backdoor, (trojan) program known as "inst.exe"  
in several locations on the infected machine.

The worm also modifies the machine's registry to run another copy of
itself, "DVLDR32.EXE," according to advisories from F-Secure, Sophos
and Symantec.

Machines running Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME and XP are vulnerable to
attack by Deloder, Symantec said.

No infections from Deloder have been reported and most firewalls block
access to port 443. Still, many home computers without firewalls may
be vulnerable to the new worm.

As of Monday morning, most antivirus companies posted updated virus
definitions to detect the new Deloder worm, as well as utilities to
remove the worm from infected machines.



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