Spammer.Sality.A

Posted: July 29, 2011

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.

Threat Level:	8/10
Infected PCs:	16

First Seen:	March 15, 2011
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Spammer.Sality.A is a Trojan from the widely-spread Sality virus family. SpywareRemove.com malware research team hasn't found any clearly-seen symptoms that are linked to Spammer.Sality.A infections, but a lack of visible activity doesn't indicate that Spammer.Sality.A is inactive. In fact, as soon as Spammer.Sality.A gets into your Spammer.Sality.A busies itself by scavenging through your email address books for more likely targets and uses your computer's resources to send spam. Since most variants of Sality use built-in SMTP engines to send spam invisibly, you will not see this spam in your mailbox. SpywareRemove.com malware researchers are also familiar with the Sality family's usage of advanced techniques to conceal malicious files, and you shouldn't try to remove Spammer.Sality.A without the help of a good anti-malware program.

How Spammer.Sality.A Keeps on Surviving to Send More Spam

Although Spammer.Sality.A, like most Sality Trojans, lacks many sharply-defined distribution methods, Spammer.Sality.A's entire primary function revolves around distributing malware like itself with the use of email. After sneaking into your PC through one secretive method or another, Spammer.Sality.A will quietly gather email addresses from your Outlook Express address book as well as from Internet Explorer's cached data.

Once Spammer.Sality.A has these addresses Spammer.Sality.A will merrily deluge them with repeated email messages that contain malicious software-related attachments or links. Some variants of Spammer.Sality.A may spread themselves or another Sality variant (such as Virus.Win32.Sality.bh or Virus.Win32.Sality.ag). Other Spammer.Sality.A infections may be configured to propagate other types of malicious programs, such as rogue security programs like Clean Security and Avast Enhanced Protection Mode.

These activities, despite the significant harm they cause by assisting in the proliferation of malicious software, will not give themselves away by showing up in your online mailbox. All known variants of Sality variants that engage in this behavior utilize built-in SMTP engines to send their spam, which results in the email messages being effectively invisible. The one sign you may see of a Spammer.Sality.A infection occasionally is a bounced message that's returned to its apparent sender.

Spammer.Sality.A: Worse Than a Mere Spammer

Even if one ignores Spammer.Sality.A's defining trait, SpywareRemove.com malware experts have uncovered other aspects of Spammer.Sality.A infections that are just as troubling as spam. Spammer.Sality.A alters your Windows Firewall configuration to allow itself to have free access to the Internet, and can receive configuration instructions from external sources.

This firewall-bypass allows Spammer.Sality.A to adapt and make a broad range of other attacks. Spammer.Sality.A may install malicious rogue security programs like Norton AntiVirus Enhanced Protection Mode, enable the operation of spyware like Trojan.Camec.A or allow criminals to install Remote Administration Tools.

Due to the amorphous nature of a Spammer.Sality.A infection, you shouldn't try to identify or delete Spammer.Sality.A without help from a PC security expert or a sophisticated anti-malware application. Spammer.Sality.A can also be detected by several other names, including W32/Spammy.SL!tr.bdr, Trojan.Spambot.9926, Mal/TinyDL-T, Backdoor.Win32.Spammy.sl and Win32.TRATRAPS.

Aliases

Trj/Genetic.gen [Panda]SpamTool.JSO [AVG]W32/Spamtool.AGENT.NET!tr [Fortinet]Trojan.Mssmsgs.4048 [DrWeb]HEUR:Trojan.Win32.Generic [Kaspersky]Win32.Trojan [eSafe]Artemis!E2F117BB1CF8 [McAfee]BackDoor.Generic15.BPEE [AVG]W32/MailBot.C [Fortinet]TR/Rogue.kdv.623417 [AntiVir]Trojan.Mssmsgs.3820 [DrWeb]TrojWare.Win32.SpamTool.Agent.AV [Comodo]Mal/MailBot-C [Sophos]Backdoor.Win32.Spammy.beh [Kaspersky]Win32:Malware-gen [Avast]
More aliases (133)

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

%TEMP%\w926f4.exe

File name: w926f4.exe
Size: 31.23 KB (31232 bytes)
MD5: 6139a75cfd98ce4db494b6b10daae1d3
Detection count: 76
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %TEMP%
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 15, 2011

%TEMP%\wintuuskj.exe

File name: wintuuskj.exe
Size: 30.2 KB (30208 bytes)
MD5: df6186f19acc844fc22da2a35908a256
Detection count: 33
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %TEMP%
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: May 3, 2011

%WINDIR%\explorer.exe:userini.exe

File name: explorer.exe:userini.exe
Size: 30.72 KB (30720 bytes)
MD5: b2ef1ca7588acff59b833223b7ba9c23
Detection count: 7
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %WINDIR%
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 17, 2011

%WINDIR%\system32\6to4ex.dll

File name: 6to4ex.dll
Size: 73.74 KB (73748 bytes)
MD5: 93b905d6ea57450956723eed32ed323e
Detection count: 5
File type: Dynamic link library
Mime Type: unknown/dll
Path: %WINDIR%\system32
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 17, 2011

%TEMP%\winloanl.exe

File name: winloanl.exe
Size: 31.74 KB (31744 bytes)
MD5: 78883563954f5b6b1d8858dae7894dc7
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %TEMP%
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: May 16, 2011