Theos-Talk Archives (March 1999 Message tl00043)

I found that I had the above virus in my attachment directory. If you find
it you need to take action before it causes a lot of trouble

    M K Ramadoss
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Just yesterday I was informed about the existance of this virus (worm).
Browsing Symantecs page, I found the following that might be usefull to get
rid of the happy99.exe virus.

By the way, it is supposed to be harmless.

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NORTON ANTIVIRUS RESEARCH CENTER

Happy99.Worm
VirusName:  Happy99.WormAliases:  Trojan.Happy99,
I-Worm.HappyLikelihood:CommonRegion Reported:US, EuropeKeys:Trojan Horse,
Worm

Description:
This is a worm program, NOT a virus. This program has reportedly been
received through email spamming and USENET newsgroup posting. The file is
usually named HAPPY99.EXE in the email or article attachment.

When being executed, the program also opens a window entitled "Happy New
Year 1999 !!" showing a firework display to disguise its other actions. The
program copies itself as SKA.EXE and extracts a DLL that it carries as
SKA.DLL into WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. It also modifies WSOCK32.DLL in
WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory and copies the original WSOCK32.DLL into
WSOCK32.SKA.

WSOCK32.DLL handles internet-connectivity in Windows 95 and 98. The
modification to WSOCK32.DLL allows the worm routine to be triggered when a
connect or send activity is detected. When such online activity occurs, the
modified code loads the worm's SKA.DLL. This SKA.DLL creates a new email or
a new article with UUENCODED HAPPY99.EXE inserted into the email or article.
It then sends this email or posts this article.

If WSOCK32.DLL is in use when the worm tries to modify it (i.e. a user is
online), the worm adds a registry entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce=SKA.EXE

The registry entry loads the worm the next time Windows start.

Removing the worm manually:

1.delete WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SKA.EXE 2.delete WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SKA.DLL 3.replace
WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WSOCK32.DLL with WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WSOCK32.SKA 4.delete the
downloaded file, usually named HAPPY99.EXE

Safe Computing:

This worm and other trojan-horse type programs demonstrate the need to
practice safe computing. One should not execute any executable-file
attachment (i.e. EXE, SHS, MS Word or MS Excel file) that comes from an
email or a newsgroup article from an unknown or a untrusted source.

Norton AntiVirus users can protect themselves from this worm by downloading
the virus definitions updates released on Jan 28, 1999 or later either
through LiveUpdate or from the following webpage:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/download.html

Write-up by: Raul K. Elnitiarta
January 28, 1999