The 'McAfee scan' viral footprint codes

       -=[ The 'McAfee scan' viral footprint codes ]=-

                                      -or-

                /*******************************************/
                /* A fool and his scanner, can part a user */
                /*       from his hard earned money.       */
                /*******************************************/

                                - written by -
                                 GodNet Raider
                                    - of -
                             The CyberUnderground


                         Thrown into 40Hex by DecimatoR
                            from Usenet alt.security

 -=[ "Information is the greatest weapon of power to the modern wizard." ]=-

]----------------------------------------------------------------------------[

Introduction:
-------------

    Recently I began to wonder about the usefulness of 'virus scanners'
and what if any difference do they have with a simple text/hex search
program (like nortons filefind/ts). An if there was no real DIFFERENCE,
how secure is the system that used them.

Problems with scanning:
-----------------------

    The first question I had to ask was, What does a 'virus scanner' actually
look for? Does it only look for one string of codes or several at different
places in the file?

    To answer this question I called a local BBS an dl'ed McAfee's
scan3.7v64 (to evaluate and after my tests, it was erased for its lack of
offering any real protection). Then I went to my archives to retrieve some
viruses I have experimented with in the past (of which where Jerusalem B and
Dark Avenger).

    I ran scan to verify that the virus files where viruses (3 of which did
not set off any alarm even tho there was a listing in the documentation for
them, so I removed them from the test). Then using a sector editor looked at
the source for the McAfee asso. scan3.7v64 (here after know just as scan64)
to find that the footprint information was encoded. Needless to say this did
not stop me (for the sake of those who are into the tech aspects of things,
the actual method used to get the codes are included at the end of the
article with the codes found), It took less than an hour to get the codes I
was looking for (without disassembling the code but by looking into the
memory allocated to the program).

    What I found out was scan was just a simple hex searcher (that kept
its data locked up till needed). It could also be fooled by any program
that contained the same hex string as a real virus (this was proved when
, using a sector editor, I added the scan64 footprint for the Jerusalem B
into the top of a text file (a place this code would never show up in a real
infection) then renamed it to *.com; scan64 reported it as infected).

    Once the codes where obtained, using debug directly on a virus file,
I was able to mutate the virus to no longer be detectable by scan64 without
destroying the integrity of it. For the virus was still able to infect files,
and scan64 could no longer track it. I was still able to track and control it
using norton's filefind, diskmon, diskedit, and (of course) DOS erase.

    So it seems my question was answered. Some 'virus scanners' just scan
for a single string of hex character. This is fine if viruses NEVER changed
or programs would NEVER use code similar to what a virus would (the smaller
the footprint string the bigger the chance of mistaken alarms). For if
a 'virus scanner' programer just keeps making a new release each time there
is a new virus (an I will not get into the morality of charging customers
the full price of an software upgrade rather than allowing them to buy/dl
new footprint data files as they become available) for the program will
eventually grow to unwealdable sizes. An it should be noted there are other
programs that may do the same job faster, more upward compatibility, and
you may already have them on hand.

a possible solution:
--------------------

    One thing that I think is a good idea is when a program allows users
to add new footprint data to it (like nortons' virus package). For now
users don't need to buy new releases for detection of viruses they may not
get/be able to detect. Instead for the cost of a call to a support bbs (part
of the original software agreement?) the user can get new data as it becomes
available or when they fine a new one on their system they can immediately
add the new footprint rather than wait for the next version to be released.

Method used to obtain footprints:
---------------------------------

    After finding the data I was looking for was encoded I thought, How can
I get the data I wanted for my tests?

    Disassembling was out, not for any MORAL reason but, for the time
involved. So I thought it must have to decode the data for it's own use
and to save time it would do it all before the scan rather than slow the
process down by doing a full decode. So I needed to look at the memory
image of the running program. Thanks to DOS 5.0 and dosshell I was able to
do this.

    After spawning the scan task under the dos shell I used alt-tab to
swap back to the shell. Once back in the shell I used the shell commands to
copy the  tmpxxx.swp to foo.img and terminating scan64 and dosshell.

    Then using a sector editor I searched though the temp file created by
the dos shell. I found an area of data that contained the virus names and
non ascii text data separating them. Even though the strings of ascii data
(virus names) ended with a zero character (as variable strings have a
tendency to), the random data did not end with a common signal character (as
expected for code can be any character). There was also no character count
stored (the data length varied so it could not be assumed by the scan
program as well). So I continued to search though the data.

    I eventually found another area that had the same text strings (virus
names). This time the first character of the none ascii data gave the count
of the data size to the following text string. I knew I had found it so I
extracted this data to another file (starting at 0 offset in the new file).
Then wrote down the some codes and checked them against viruses I had.

    The codes I had did not seem match. This did not stop me. I took one
virus (that my understanding said scan was only looking for 6 consecutive
bytes to match) and started zapping bytes (in a file scan said was infected)
to find what it was looking for. The processes involved zapping one sector
at a time till scan said it was not infected, then half of that sector, then
half of a half, and so on. It came down to 6 CONSECUTIVE bytes as I expected.
But they where DIFFERENT from the ones I had.

    So I went to the windows calculator (it allows byte arithmetic in hex,
ie.. 0xff + 0x04 = 0x03 (rollover, carry is ignored), it would be outside
the scope of this ARTICLE to explain why I thought byte arithmetic was
important). Some quick subtraction found a 0x93 (decimal 147) DIFFERENCE
between the actual codes and the ones from the allocated memory uses by
scan.

    So taking another virus that scan said was infected I did the minor
hex math on the codes in the allocated memory used by scan and found the
codes. Then i zapped only the codes and ran scan on the updated virus file.
It said there was no infection. I knew I now had the right codes (after a few
more checks).

    So I created a simple C program (see below) to convert the extract file I
 created and converted the codes to a readable form (output from program
listed at end of ARTICLE). Then tested other viruses against the list. An
found the same results.

Binary to hex program:
----------------------
/*
    fp2txt.c
        Convert footprint binary information to text.
            by GodNet Raider

    Notes:
        Please forgive the unrefined/unannotated nature of this code it was
        designed as a one shot.
*/

#include
#include

#define TRUE 1
#define MAGICNUM 0x93

void
    main (void);

void main (void)
{
    unsigned char
        sVirusFP [128],
        *ptVirusInfo,
        szVirusName [128];
    register unsigned int
        nTmpCnt;
    FILE
        *Stream;

    Stream = fopen ("fp2.img", "rb");
    while (!feof (Stream))
        {
         ptVirusInfo = sVirusFP;
         if (!(*sVirusFP = getc (Stream)))
             exit (0);
         nTmpCnt = (unsigned int) *sVirusFP;
         while (nTmpCnt--)
             *(++ptVirusInfo) = ((unsigned char) getc (Stream)) - MAGICNUM;
         ptVirusInfo = szVirusName;
         while ((*(ptVirusInfo++) = getc (Stream)));
         printf ("\n%s:\n    ", szVirusName);
         ptVirusInfo = sVirusFP;
         nTmpCnt = (unsigned int) *sVirusFP;
         while (nTmpCnt--)
             {
             printf ("0x%02x ", (unsigned int) *(++ptVirusInfo));
             if (nTmpCnt && !((*sVirusFP - nTmpCnt) % 8))
                printf ("\n    ");
            }
         printf ("\n");
         getc (Stream);
        }
    exit (0);
}


Footprints discovered:
----------------------

    The following is a list of the footprint codes found in McAfee asso.
Scan3.7v64.

    1008 Virus [1008]:
        0x81 0xed 0x38 0x00 0xe8 0xc3

    Stoned-II Virus [S-2]:
        0x9c 0x2e 0xff 0x1e 0x09 0x00

    VHP-2 Virus [VHP2]:
        0x1c 0x8c 0x44 0x02 0xb8 0x24 0x35 0xcd
        0x21 0x89

    VHP Virus [VHP]:
        0x07 0x89 0x7e 0x8a 0x8d 0x7e 0x90 0x89
        0x7e 0x88

    Taiwan3 Virus [T3]:
        0x17 0x0f 0x32 0x0a 0x32 0x0a 0x90 0x0b
        0xfb 0x08

    Armagedon Virus [Arma]:
        0xb8 0x00 0x43 0xcd 0x21 0x2e 0x89 0x0e
        0x48 0x01

    1381 Virus [1381]:
        0x1e 0x06 0x8c 0xc8 0x8e 0xd8 0xb8 0x40
        0x00 0x8e

    Tiny Virus [Tiny]:
        0xb4 0x40 0x8d 0x94 0xab 0x01 0xb9 0x02
        0x00 0xcd

    Subliminal Virus [Sub]:
        0x8b 0x3e 0x25 0x01 0x8b 0xd7 0x2e 0x8e
        0x06 0x27

    Sorry Virus [Sorry]:
        0xeb 0x96 0x83 0x2e 0x12 0x00 0x40 0x83
        0x2e 0x03

    1024 Virus [1024]:
        0xc8 0x75 0xed 0x8b 0xd1 0xb8 0x00 0x42
        0xcd 0x21 0x72

    RedX Virus [RedX]:
        0x52 0x8b 0x9c 0x17 0x04 0xb9 0x19 0x03
        0x8d 0x94

    VP Virus [VP]:
        0x21 0x89 0x1e 0x22 0x03 0x8c 0x06 0x24
        0x03 0xb4

    Print Screen-2 [P-2]:
        0x74 0x01 0xbf 0x03 0x00 0xb9 0x20 0x00
        0xf3 0xa4

    Joshi Virus [Joshi]:
        0xf3 0xa4 0x8c 0xc0 0x05 0x20 0x00 0x8e
        0xc0 0xbb

    Microbes Virus [Micro]:
        0x8e 0xd0 0xbc 0x00 0xf0 0xfb 0xa1 0x13
        0x04 0x2d 0x04

    Print Screen Virus [Prtscr]:
        0xcd 0x05 0xfe 0xc8 0xa2 0x60 0x01 0xc3
        0x6f 0x6e 0x2d

    Form Virus [Form]:
        0xe8 0xb2 0x00 0x5a 0x5e 0x1f 0x33 0xc0
        0x50 0xb8 0x00 0x7c

    June 13th Virus [J13]:
        0x12 0x00 0xb9 0xb1 0x04 0x2e 0x30 0x04
        0x46 0xe2

    JoJo Virus [JoJo]:
        0x4d 0x2b 0xd0 0x4a 0x45 0x03 0xe8 0x45
        0x8e 0xc5

    Victor Virus [Victor]:
        0x74 0x26 0x80 0xfc 0x5b 0x74 0x21 0x80
        0xfc 0x39

    5120 Virus [5120]:
        0x10 0xa2 0xf6 0x0f 0xe8 0xd0 0xfe 0x80
        0x3e 0x4a 0x10 0x02 0x7d 0x22 0xc6 0x46

    W-13 Virus [W13]:
        0xf3 0xa4 0x8b 0xfa 0xb4 0x30 0xcd 0x21
        0x3c 0x00

    Slow Virus [Slow]:
        0x81 0xc6 0x1b 0x00 0xb9 0x90 0x06 0x2e
        0x80 0x34

    Liberty Virus [Liberty]:
        0xe8 0xfd 0xfe 0x72 0x2a 0x3b 0xc1 0x7c
        0x27 0xe8

    Fish Virus [Fish]:
        0x0e 0x01 0xcf 0xe8 0x00 0x00 0x5b 0x81
        0xeb 0xa9

    Shake Virus [Shake]:
        0x31 0xd2 0x8b 0xca 0xcd 0x21 0x3d 0x00
        0xf0 0x73

    Murphy Virus [Murphy]:
        0x81 0x7c 0xfe 0x2e 0x43 0x75 0xed 0xb8
        0x02 0x3d

    V800 Virus [V800]:
        0x51 0xad 0x33 0xd0 0xe2 0xfb 0x59 0x31
        0x15 0x47

    Kennedy Virus [Kennedy]:
        0x8c 0x55 0x02 0xb8 0x01 0x43 0x33 0xc9
        0xcd 0x21

    Yankee Two Virus [Doodle2]:
        0x73 0x03 0x5a 0x5e 0xc3 0x8b 0xf2 0xf6
        0x44 0x15

    1971 Virus [1971]:
        0x33 0xd2 0xb8 0x00 0x42 0xcd 0x21 0x72
        0x26 0x81 0x7c

    June 16th Virus [June16]:
        0x4d 0xa9 0xa5 0x2e 0x70 0x66 0x2e 0x57
        0x09 0x0f

    AIDS II Virus [A2]:
        0xa4 0x00 0x55 0x89 0xe5 0x81 0xec 0x02
        0x02 0xbf 0xca 0x05 0x0e 0x57 0xbf 0x3e
        0x01

    1210 Virus [1210]:
        0xc4 0x74 0xf0 0x2e 0x80 0x3e 0x2f 0x04
        0x01 0x75

    1720 Virus [1720]:
        0xd8 0x2e 0xa1 0x2c 0x00 0xa3 0xfc 0x03
        0x2e 0xa0

    Saturday 14th Virus [Sat14]:
        0x0e 0x1f 0xb8 0x24 0x35 0xcd 0x21 0x8c
        0x06 0x6f

    XA1 (1539) Christmas Virus [XA1]:
        0xfa 0x8b 0xec 0x58 0x32 0xc0 0x89 0x46
        0x02 0x81

    1392 (Amoeba) Virus [1392]:
        0x16 0xa3 0x21 0x01 0x8b 0x44 0x14 0xa3
        0x23 0x01

    Vcomm Virus [Vcomm]:
        0x77 0x02 0xb9 0x20 0x00 0xb4 0x4e 0xcd
        0x21

    ItaVir Virus [Ita]:
        0xb8 0x58 0x45 0x89 0x40 0x02 0xb0 0x00
        0x88 0x40 0x04

    Korea Virus [Korea]:
        0x8e 0xd0 0xbc 0xf0 0xff 0xfb 0xbb 0x13
        0x04

    Solano Virus [Solano]:
        0x12 0x75 0x0e 0x2e 0x8b 0x0e 0x03 0x01

    V2000 Virus [2000]:
        0x51 0xe8 0x39 0xfd 0x8e 0xc3 0x26 0x8b

    12 Tricks Trojan [Tricks]:
        0x64 0x02 0x31 0x94 0x42 0x01 0xd1 0xc2
        0x4e 0x79 0xf7

    12 Tricks Trojan [Tricks-B]:
        0xe4 0x61 0x8a 0xe0 0x0c 0x80 0xe6 0x61

    1559 Virus [1559]:
        0x03 0x26 0x89 0x1e 0x92 0x00 0xfb 0xc3
        0x50 0x53 0x51 0x52 0x06

    512 Virus [512]:
        0x01 0x8c 0x45 0x70 0x1f 0x89 0x57 0x14
        0x8c 0xca 0x8e 0xda

    EDV Virus [EDV]:
        0x75 0x1c 0x80 0xfe 0x01 0x75 0x17 0x5b
        0x07 0x1f 0x58 0x83

    Icelandic-3 Virus [Ice-3]:
        0x24 0x2e 0x8f 0x06 0x3b 0x03 0x90 0x2e
        0x8f 0x06

    Perfume Virus [Fume]:
        0x04 0x06 0xbf 0xba 0x00 0x57 0xcb 0x0e
        0x1f 0x8e 0x06

    Joker Virus [Joke]:
        0x56 0x07 0x45 0x07 0x21 0x07 0x1d 0x49
        0x27 0x6d 0x20 0x73 0x6f 0x20 0x6d 0x75
        0x63

    Virus-101 [101]:
        0xb3 0x01 0xb4 0x36 0x70 0xb7 0x01 0xb4
        0x36 0x70 0x8b 0x37 0xb4 0x36 0x70 0xb3
        0x03 0xb4 0x36 0x70 0x03 0xf3 0xb4

    Halloechen Virus [Hal]:
        0x8c 0xd0 0x8b 0xd4 0xbc 0x02 0x00 0x36
        0x8b 0x0e

    Taiwan Virus [Taiwan]:
        0x8a 0x0e 0x95 0x00 0x81 0xe1 0xfe 0x00
        0xba 0x9e

    Oropax Virus [Oro]:
        0x3e 0x01 0x1d 0xf2 0x77 0xd1 0xba 0x00

    Chaos Virus [Chaos]:
        0xa1 0x49 0x43 0x68 0x41 0x4f 0x53 0x50
        0x52 0x51 0xe8

    4096 Virus [4096]:
        0xf6 0x2e 0x8f 0x06 0x41 0x12 0x2e 0x8f
        0x06 0x43

    Virus-90 [90]:
        0x81 0xb8 0xfe 0xff 0x8e 0xd8 0x2d 0xcc

    AIDS Information Trojan [Aids]:
        0x31 0x30 0x30 0x2c 0x36 0x32 0x2c 0x33
        0x32 0x00

    Devil's Dance Virus [Dance]:
        0x5e 0x1e 0x06 0x8c 0xc0 0x48 0x8e 0xc0
        0x26

    Amstrad Virus [Amst]:
        0x72 0x02 0xeb 0x36 0x76 0xba 0x80 0x00
        0xb4 0x1a 0xcd 0x21 0x80 0x3e

    Datacrime II-b Virus [Crime-2B]:
        0x2e 0x8a 0x07 0x32 0xc2 0xd0 0xca 0x2e

    Holland Girl Virus [Holland]:
        0x36 0x03 0x01 0x33 0xc9 0x33 0xc0 0xac

    Do Nothing Virus [Nothing]:
        0x72 0x04 0x50 0xeb 0x07 0x90 0xb4 0x4c

    Lisbon Virus [Lisb]:
        0x8b 0x44 0x79 0x3d 0x0a 0x00 0x72 0xde

    Sunday Virus [Sunday]:
        0x75 0x10 0x07 0x2e 0x8e 0x16 0x45 0x00
        0x2e 0x8b

    Typo COM virus [Typo]:
        0x99 0xfe 0x26 0xa1 0x5a 0x00 0x2e 0x89

    DBASE Virus [Dbase]:
        0x80 0xfc 0x6c 0x74 0xea 0x80 0xfc 0x5b
        0x74 0xe5

    Ghost Virus :
        0x90 0xea 0x59 0xec 0x00 0xf0 0x90 0x90

    Jerusalem Virus Strain B [Jeru]:
        0x47 0x00 0x33 0xc0 0x8e 0xc0 0x26 0xa1
        0xfc 0x03

    Alabama Virus [Alabama]:
        0x8f 0x06 0x18 0x05 0x26 0x8f 0x06 0x1a

    1701/1704 Virus - Version B [170X]:
        0x31 0x34 0x31 0x24 0x46 0x4c

    Datacrime Virus [Crime]:
        0x36 0x01 0x01 0x83 0xee 0x03 0x8b 0xc6
        0x3d 0x00

    Stoned Virus [Stoned]:
        0x00 0x53 0x51 0x52 0x06 0x56 0x57 0xbe

    Vacsina virus [Vacs]:
        0xb8 0x01 0x43 0x8e 0x5e 0x0e 0x8b 0x56
        0x06 0x2e

    Den Zuk Virus :
        0x8e 0xc0 0xbe 0xc6 0x7c 0xbf 0x00 0x7e

    Ping Pong Virus (old string):
        0x59 0x5b 0x58 0x07 0x1f 0xea

    Pakistani Brain Virus [Brain]:
        0x8e 0xd8 0x8e 0xd0 0xbc 0x00 0xf0 0xfb
        0xa0 0x06

    Yale/Alameda Virus [Alameda]:
        0xb4 0x00 0xcd 0x13 0x72 0x0d 0xb8 0x01

    Lehigh Virus [Lehigh]:
        0x5e 0x83 0xee 0x03 0x8b 0xde 0x81 0xeb
        0x91 0x01

    Pakistani Brain/Ashar Virus [Brain]:
        0x20 0x8c 0xc8 0x8e 0xd8 0x8e 0xd0

    Fu Manchu Virus - Version A [Fu]:
        0x26 0xc7 0x06 0xfc 0x03 0xf3 0xa4 0x26
        0xc6 0x06

    Ping Pong Virus - Version B [Ping]:
        0xa1 0xf5 0x81 0xa3 0xf5 0x7d 0x8b 0x36
        0xf9 0x81

    1536 (Zero Bug) Virus [Zero]:
        0xeb 0x2b 0x90 0x5a 0x45 0xcd 0x60 0x2e

    Vienna (DOS 62) Virus - Version B [Vienna]:
        0x8b 0xfe 0x36 0x6f 0xc7 0x1f 0x36 0x6f
        0x8b 0xde 0x36 0x6f 0xc6 0x1f

    Ghost Version of DOS-62 [Ghost-C]:
        0x8e 0xd8 0xa1 0x13 0x04 0x2d 0x02 0x00
        0x90 0xa3 0x13

    Friday 13th Virus [Fri13]:
        0xb4 0x4f 0xcd 0x21 0x73 0xf7 0x58

    405 virus [405]:
        0x19 0xcd 0x21 0x26 0xa2 0x49 0x02 0xb4
        0x47 0x04 0x01 0x50

    3066/2930 Traceback Virus [3066]:
        0x14 0x8b 0x4d 0x16 0x8b 0xc1 0x8a 0xcd

    Pentagon Virus :
        0xeb 0x34 0x90 0x48 0x41 0x4c 0x20 0x20

    Israeli Boot Virus:
        0xcd 0x13 0xb8 0x02 0x02 0xb9 0x06 0x27
        0xba 0x00 0x01

    Typo Boot Virus:
        0x24 0x13 0x55 0xaa

    Datacrime-2 Virus [Crime-2]:
        0x8a 0x94 0x03 0x01 0x8d 0xbc 0x29 0x01
        0x8d 0x8c 0xea 0x06

    Ohio Virus:
        0xeb 0x29 0x90 0x49 0x34 0x12 0x00 0x01
        0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00

    3551 (Syslock) Virus [Syslock]:
        0x33 0x06 0x14 0x00 0x31 0x04 0x46 0x46
        0xe2 0xf2

    Dark Avenger virus [Dav]:
        0xa1 0x4f 0x07 0x89 0x07 0x2e 0xa1 0x51

    MIX1/Icelandic Virus [Ice]:
        0x43 0x81 0x3f 0x45 0x58 0x75 0xf1 0xb8
        0x00 0x43

    Disk Killer Virus [Killer]:
        0xc3 0x10 0xe2 0xf2 0xc6 0x06 0xf3 0x01
        0xff 0x90 0xeb 0x55

    AIDS Virus [Taunt]:
        0x42 0xe8 0xef 0xe3 0xbf 0xca 0x03 0x1e

    Yankee Doodle Virus [Doodle]:
        0x35 0xcd 0x21 0x8b 0xf3 0x8c 0xc7

    Suriv A Virus [SurivA]:
        0x90 0x73 0x55 0x52 0x49 0x56 0x00

    Suriv B Virus [SurivB]:
        0x00 0x73 0x55 0x52 0x49 0x56 0x00

]============================================================================[