Grum

Posted: July 20, 2012

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	12,282
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	8,300

First Seen:	July 23, 2012
Last Seen:	September 27, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Grum, also known as TROJ_BUZUS.BKM, Infostealer.Banker.C, Spammer:Win32/Tedroo.A, Trojan.Win32.Buzus.cqit and Win32/Injector.AJF, is a spambot Trojan that was used to distribute mass-mailed e-mail messages. Until recently, Grum was capable of exploiting an infected PC's resources to distribute itself, other PC threats and links to various sites, but action by law enforcement agencies and ISPs have deactivated Grum's servers as of July 18th. Although Grum doesn't have the ability to switch servers and, as such, is neutered by this server shutdown, you should still consider removing a disabled Grum infection to make sure that your machine continues to run efficiently. Prior to its effective hamstringing, Grum displayed no overt symptoms of its attacks other than, of course, warnings from appropriate anti-malware programs.

Grum: the Spammer That Shall Spam No More

In its original and fully-functional form, Grum was a spambot that exploited the resources of infected PC's to create a fully-functioning botnet for the purposes of sending spam e-mail to random addresses. Grum's distribution and potency were so significant that, while Grum was functioning, Grum accounted for almost twenty percent of the world's total e-mail-based spam count. In some cases, Grum infections can cause poor system performance due to the resource usage they take up to send their mass-mailed e-mails, although, for many Grum victims, there are no symptoms whatsoever.

What separates Grum from still-operational spambots is the fact that authorities in the Netherlands, Ukraine, Russia and Panama have all taken action to seize Grum's Command & Control servers. Since Grum isn't designed to adapt to different C&C servers once its primary ones are unavailable, this action has made Grum infections essentially harmless (as well as preventing a huge part of the world's e-mail spam).

Cleaning Up After Grum's Mess

Even though Grum is no longer capable of recruiting your PC into the ranks of the world's third-greatest botnet, Grum's attempts to contact external servers can still take up your PC's resources, and Grum's changes to your Registry and other OS components can cause undesirable side effects. To delete all aspects of a Grum infection safely, SpywareRemove.com malware experts suggest that you use anti-malware programs to diagnose and disinfect your PC; particularly since Grum may be installed along with additional PC threats.

Spam e-mails like the messages that are sent by Grum infections remain extremely prolific infection vectors for other types of PC threats, including Troj/JSAgent-CK, Troj/Agent-WXL, Troj/Agent-WMO, Win32/Cbeplay.P, BredoZp Trojans and Mal/Zbot-FV. If you believe that an e-mail may be sent by a Grum Trojan, you should scan any file attachments with appropriate anti-malware utilities prior to download and avoid interaction with suspicious links contained in the message's body.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

doxyspats.com