Virus becomes part of the computer OS
February 2003
BitDefender today released a free removal tool against the virus LovGate
BitDefender, an award-winning provider of security software and services, today released a free removal tool against the virus LovGate (its last version is Win32.LovGate.C@mm), which has widely spread in the wild in the last four days. The novelty brought by this virus is that it integrates in the Windows OS, becoming a part of the operating system process.
The virus author had access to an undocumented function of one of the Microsoft Windows operating system, so he was able to break into the "lsass" process and identified itself with this system process. "The virus is the more treacherous as it cannot be blocked until the process "lsass" is stopped, or the process' stopping could mean also damaging the operating system", stated Mihai Chiriac, Virus Researcher at BitDefender.
The worm comes by e-mail, without exploiting the famous I-Frame vulnerability, but bringing to table a series of well-defined, social engineering structures. "It's all about sex, cracked software or human curiosity" says Mihai Chiriac. "Today's software philosophy very much requires people's trust and confidence. When patching, "pack-installing" and testing becomes a rule, no one should wonder why clicking on such attachments is so frequent", Mihai added.
The virus also infects the local shares and tries to intrude itself into the remote ones, by breaking the passwords.
The BitDefender tool automatically removes the worm and restores the system to its initial state. To benefit from a permanent protection against this worm and against other threats, please use the Professional Edition of BitDefender.
The removal tool against this threat is available at
http://www.bitdefender.com/html/free_tools.php, together with other free antivirus solutions.
For technical details about this threat and about its removal, please visit the BitDefender Virus Center at http://www.bitdefender.com/html/virus_info.php.
The users of the BitDefender Professional solutions are protected against this threat and they don't have to download and to use any removal tools.
BitDefender Professional starts at $ 44.95, including an entire year of free services and updates, and a free 30-day trial version may be downloaded from HERE .
The product will be demonstrated at CeBIT 2003, in Hannover, Germany, in Hall 6, booth F8.
BitDefender is known for having stopped - by releasing cutting-edge, free antivirus solutions - the infections generated by Sircam, Nimda, Klez and other threats with a superior probability of spreading.
Please, see http://www.bitdefender.com/html/bd_professional.php for more information on BitDefender� Professional.