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Happy99.exe info/help



For anyone who might have inadvertently d/led this thing, here's further
info/help from:  http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/happy99.worm.html
guess it's a "worm", not a virus, but seemed most important to warn folks.
Out of the many 'warnings' i've been sent in past, this is the *only* one to
actually show up..

© 1998 Symantec Corporation
All rights reserved.   Happy99.Worm 
VirusName: Happy99.Worm 
Aliases: Trojan.Happy99, I-Worm.Happy 
Likelihood: Common 
Region Reported: US, Europe 
Keys: 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.EX
E

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

Removing the worm manually:

delete WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SKA.EXE 
delete WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SKA.DLL 
replace WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WSOCK32.DLL with WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WSOCK32.SKA 
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