Fakerean_7 Malicious Fake Antivirus software

The SonicWALL UTM research team has seen an increase in Fake AV Malware. Such Malware attempts to scare users into buying Fake Antivirus software that performs fake scans and returns bogus results. Fakerean_7 (Trojan) is yet another piece of Malware that performs such malicious activity.

The Trojan performs the following DNS queries:

• {random 9-14 char domain}.com
• microsoft.com

The Trojan uses a typical Windows installer icon and claims to have originated from Valve Corporation:

Upon infection the Trojan removes itself from the location it is run from. It then shows a fake virus scan informing the user that the system is infected with Malware:

Once the fake scan is complete it informs the user that the system is infected with Malware and the user should register (buy) the software:

Clicking the "register" button leads to the following page:

The Trojan will periodically show variations of the following pop-ups:

The Trojan creates the following files on the filesystem:

• C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication Datac5t4g1kso4fl53
• C:Documents and Settings{USER}Local SettingsApplication Datac5t4g1kso4fl53
• C:Documents and Settings{USER}Local SettingsApplication Datahxk.exe
• C:Documents and Settings{USER}Local SettingsTempc5t4g1kso4fl53
• C:Documents and Settings{USER}Templatesc5t4g1kso4fl53

The Trojan creates the following keys in the Windows registry:

Registry Spawning keys:

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.exeDefaultIcon @ "%1"
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.exeshellopencommand @ ""C:Documents and Settings{USER}Local SettingsApplication Datahxk.exe" -a "%1" %*"
• HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClasses.exeshellopencommand @ ""C:Documents and Settings{USER}Local SettingsApplication Datahxk.exe" -a "%1" %*"
• HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClassesexefileshellopencommand @ ""C:Documents and Settings{USER}Local SettingsApplication Datahxk.exe" -a "%1" %*"
• HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClassesexefileshellopencommand IsolatedCommand ""%1" %*"
• HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClassesexefileshellrunascommand @ ""%1" %*"
• HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClassesexefileshellrunascommand IsolatedCommand ""%1" %*"
• HKEY_USERSS-1-5-21-1993962763-1202660629-1957994488-1003_Classesexefileshellopencommand @ ""C:Documents and Settings{USER}Local SettingsApplication Datahxk.exe" -a "%1" %*"

Disabling firewall:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParametersFirewallPolicyDomainProfile EnableFirewall dword:00000000
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParametersFirewallPolicyDomainProfile DoNotAllowExceptions dword:00000000
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParametersFirewallPolicyDomainProfile DisableNotifications dword:00000001

The Trojan deletes the following keys from the Windows registry:

To disable Windows Automatic Updates:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetEnumRootLEGACY_WUAUSERV000 ClassGUID "{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}"
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetEnumRootLEGACY_WUAUSERV000 DeviceDesc "Automatic Updates"
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetEnumRootLEGACY_WUAUSERV000Control ActiveService "wuauserv"
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServiceswuauserv ImagePath hex "%systemroot%system32svchost.exe -k netsvcs"
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServiceswuauserv DisplayName "Automatic Updates"

SonicWALL Gateway AntiVirus provides protection against this threat with the following signature:

• GAV: Fakerean_7 (Trojan)