Mimail.C worm was first found on 31st of October, 2003. The worm spreads in emails as a ZIP archive that contains the worm's executable with PHOTOS.JPG.EXE name. The worm tries to perform a DoS (Denial of Service) attack on certain sites and to steal information from infected computer users.
Based on the settings of your F-Secure security product, it will either move the file to the quarantine where it cannot spread or cause harm, or remove it.
A False Positive is when a file is incorrectly detected as harmful, usually because its code or behavior resembles known harmful programs. A False Positive will usually be fixed in a subsequent database update without any action needed on your part. If you wish, you may also:
Check for the latest database updates
First check if your F-Secure security program is using the latest updates, then try scanning the file again.
Submit a sample
After checking, if you still believe the file is incorrectly detected, you can submit a sample of it for re-analysis.
Note: If the file was moved to quarantine, you need to collect the file from quarantine before you can submit it.
Exclude a file from further scanning
If you are certain that the file is safe and want to continue using it, you can exclude it from further scanning by the F-Secure security product.
Note: You need administrative rights to change the settings.
Shortly after Mimail.C was found, also D, E, F, G and H variants have been found. They have minor differences and attack other web sites. F-Secure Anti-Virus detects them too.
Descriptions of these Mimail variants can be found here:
Mimail.D: https://www.europe.f-secure.com/v-descs/mimail_d.shtml
Mimail.E: https://www.europe.f-secure.com/v-descs/mimail_e.shtml
Mimail.F: https://www.europe.f-secure.com/v-descs/mimail_f.shtml
Mimail.G: https://www.europe.f-secure.com/v-descs/mimail_g.shtml
Mimail.H: https://www.europe.f-secure.com/v-descs/mimail_h.shtml
The worm's file is a PE executable 12832 bytes long packed with UPX file compressor. The unpacked file's size is 28192 bytes.
When the worm's file is run, it registers itself as a service process and becomes invisible in Task List on Windows 9x systems. The the worm copies itself as NETWATCH.EXE file to Windows directory and creates a startup key for this file in System Registry:
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] "NetWatch32" = "%windir%\netwatch.exe"
where %windir% is Windows directory name.
Then the worm deletes the following files from Windows folder if they are present:
zip.tmp exe.tmp eml.tmp
After that the worm copies its file to Windows directory as EXE.TMP and creates a ZIP archive with the name ZIP.TMP. This ZIP archive contains the worm's copy with PHOTOS.JPG.EXE name.
The worm activates its payload and spreading theads if it can resolve the 'www.google.com' address.
The worm spreads in emails as a ZIP archive that contains the worm's executable with the PHOTOS.JPG.EXE name. The worm fakes the sender's email address by composing it from 'james@' and the domain name of a recipient. An infected message looks like that:
From:
james@recipient_domain_name
Subject:
Re[2]: our private photos [some random characters]
Body:
Hello Dear!, Finally i've found possibility to right u, my lovely girl :) All our photos which i've made at the beach (even when u're without ur bh:)) photos are great! This evening i'll come and we'll make the best SEX :) Right now enjoy the photos. Kiss, James. [some random characters]
Attachment:
photos.zip
The worm does not use any exploits to make its file start automatically on a recipient's system. The worm will infect a recipient's computer only when he/she unpacks the executable file from the archive and runs it.
To collect victim's email addresses the worm scans all files on a hard drive except those with the following extensions:
bmp jpg gif exe dll avi mpg mp3 vxd ocx psd tif zip rar pdf cab wav com
The addresses are saved into the EML.TMP file located in Windows directory.
The worm tries to contact the recipient's SMTP server directly. For this purpose it tries to resolve the current user's DNS server and search for SMTP server info for recipient's domain.
The worm tries to perform a DoS (Denial of Service) attack on the following sites:
darkprofits.com darkprofits.net www.darkprofits.com www.darkprofits.net
If the worm is widespread these sites may go down due to huge traffic amount generated by the worm.
Additionally the worm checks foreground windows and if it locates a window belonging to the certain application, the worm collects certain information from it and saves it to C:\TMPE.TMP file. Then this file is sent to email addresses that are stored in an encrypted form in the worm's body.
Mimail.C was distributed in an Inor variant. Inor is a VBS script that simply drops and runs a binary in c:\mware.exe (Mimail.C). The distributed VBS arrives in email messages with:
Subject:
This is the Postfix program at host prodigy.com I'm sorry to have to inform you that the message returned below could not be delivered to one or more destinations. The message itself and all the other important information are included into the attachment.
Attachment:
undelivered.hta