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General discussion

Win32.Deadhat.A

by Marianna Schmudlach Feb 9, 2004 12:17AM PST

Alias: W32.HLLW.Deadhat (Symantec),
W32/Deadhat.womr.a (McAfee),
Win32.Vesser.A,
Win32/Deadhat.A.Worm,
Worm.Win32.Vesser (Kaspersky)
Category: Win32
Type: Worm
Published Date: 2/8/2004
Last Modified: 2/9/2004

CHARACTERISTICS
Win32.Deadhat is a worm spreading through peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks and through a backdoor installed by the Win32.Mydoom worms.

Method of Installation
When executed, the worm creates the mutex: " Y&T " in order to make sure there is only one instance of the worm running at any given time.

The worm copies itself to the System directory as sms.exe and runs this file. The dropped file modifies the registry in order to execute at the next system re-boot:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\KernelFaultChkHKL = "%System%\sms.exe

More: http://www3.ca.com/virusinfo/virus.aspx?ID=38224