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Trojan:W32/Qhost

First posted on 19 August 2010.
Source: SecurityHome

Aliases :

There are no other names known for Trojan:W32/Qhost.

Explanation :

Also known as a trojan horse program, this is a deceptive program that performs additional actions without the user's knowledge or permission. It does not replicate.

Additional DetailsSome malicious software (malware) applications will modify the Windows HOSTS file in an attempt to block access to antivirus vendor web and update servers.

As a result, the websites of several antivirus vendors may become inaccessible and some antivirus programs may stop receiving updates.The Windows HOSTS file typically contains information only about the localhost.

Some malware variants add more entries to the HOSTS file attempting to block access to antivirus websites and update servers.

Example

A normal HOSTS file will appear as follows:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost

The typical file path is:

€ C:\%windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
A malware modified version of the HOSTS file will contain additional entries:

€ 127.0.0.1 avp.com € 127.0.0.1 ca.com € 127.0.0.1 customer.symantec.com € 127.0.0.1 dispatch.mcafee.com € 127.0.0.1 download.mcafee.com € 127.0.0.1 f-secure.com € 127.0.0.1 kaspersky.com € 127.0.0.1 liveupdate.symantec.com € 127.0.0.1 liveupdate.symantecliveupdate.com € 127.0.0.1 localhost € 127.0.0.1 mast.mcafee.com € 127.0.0.1 mcafee.com € 127.0.0.1 my-etrust.com € 127.0.0.1 nai.com € 127.0.0.1 networkassociates.com € 127.0.0.1 rads.mcafee.com € 127.0.0.1 secure.nai.com € 127.0.0.1 securityresponse.symantec.com € 127.0.0.1 sophos.com € 127.0.0.1 symantec.com € 127.0.0.1 trendmicro.com € 127.0.0.1 update.symantec.com € 127.0.0.1 updates.symantec.com € 127.0.0.1 us.mcafee.com € 127.0.0.1 viruslist.com € 127.0.0.1 viruslist.com € 127.0.0.1 www.avp.com € 127.0.0.1 www.ca.com € 127.0.0.1 www.f-secure.com € 127.0.0.1 www.kaspersky.com € 127.0.0.1 www.mcafee.com € 127.0.0.1 www.my-etrust.com € 127.0.0.1 www.nai.com € 127.0.0.1 www.networkassociates.com € 127.0.0.1 www.sophos.com € 127.0.0.1 www.symantec.com € 127.0.0.1 www.trendmicro.com € 127.0.0.1 www.viruslist.com
Websites or servers configured to an IP Address of 127.0.0.1 will loop back to the local machine, making them unreachable.

Detection

F-Secure detects malware modified Windows HOSTS files as Trojan:W32/Qhost or Trojan.Win32.Qhost. The detected HOSTS file is renamed to HOSTS.0.

Last update 19 August 2010

 

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