Troj/Agent-XXC

Posted: October 19, 2012

Threat Metric

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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:	19,271
Threat Level:	9/10
Infected PCs:	679

First Seen:	October 19, 2012
Last Seen:	March 3, 2025
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Troj/Agent-XXC is a Trojan that fakes being a Windows component while achieving its attacks, which can include creating backdoor vulnerabilities, stealing personal information or installing other malware. Like many other PC threats of late, Troj/Agent-XXC is distributed with reliance on social engineering techniques that encourage victims to infect their own computers without being aware of the attack. Troj/Agent-XXC's e-mail spam messages portray Troj/Agent-XXC as a file sent by Youtube as part of an official warning. However, since Youtube never will send file attachments in this fashion, SpywareRemove.com malware experts recommend deleting e-mails matching this description. If you think you may have installed Troj/Agent-XXC, anti-malware scanners can be used to delete Troj/Agent-XXC as safely as possible.

An E-mail from Troj/Agent-XXC: When Copyright Has the Right to Mess with Your PC

Troj/Agent-XXC is distributed by a slightly different take on a very standard scam that's popular among malware authors: threatening potential victims with legal action due to the incredibly common crime of viewing, downloading or distributing copyrighted media. Troj/Agent-XXC's scam starts with an e-mail message that's formatted to look like a common warning from Youtube regarding copyrighted content violations for uploaded videos. Unlike a real Youtube warning, this e-mail also includes a file attachment, Troj/Agent-XXC, and a prompt to open it.

SpywareRemove.com malware researchers recommend being highly suspicious of any 'official' e-mail that includes strange file attachments, since this is a very popular method of distributing many types of malware, including Troj/Agent-XXC. Legitimate e-mails from Youtube and similar companies never will request that you open a file attachment or follow an embedded link.

Opening the attached ZIP file, rather than giving you any kind of Youtube video information, just infects your PC with Troj/Agent-XXC.

The True Contents of Troj/Agent-XXC's Little Youtube Alert

Troj/Agent-XXC's installation uses a tactic that's common to both sophisticated Trojans and rootkits alike: hiding its file components as fake system components. Although Troj/Agent-XXC uses the name svchost.exe, SpywareRemove.com malware experts have found it easy to identify Troj/Agent-XXC as distinct from the real Svchost by looking at its location: a subfolder of Documents and Settings, as opposed to within your Windows directory.

Additional attacks by Troj/Agent-XXC are likely to include malicious changes to your security settings, attempts to contact servers that could grant criminals control over your computer and installations of additional PC threats without your permission. However, SpywareRemove.com malware research team hasn't found any symptoms that are linked to Troj/Agent-XXC attacks and discourage any attempt to delete Troj/Agent-XXC manually if alternatives are available.

Troj/Agent-XXC is a newly-detected threat as of late September 2012 and should be detected (as well as, of course, deleted) by updated anti-malware products. Anti-malware programs that aren't updated may be unable to identify Troj/Agent-XXC or delete all of Troj/Agent-XXC's components, which include Registry changes.

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:

Content_ID755658_Matches.zip

File name: Content_ID755658_Matches.zip
Mime Type: unknown/zip
Group: Malware file

Additional Information

The following messages's were detected:

#	Message
1	Your video may have content that is owned or licensed by Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society.No action is required on your part; however, if you are interested in learning how this affects your video, please open attached file with Content ID Matches section of your account for more information. Sincerely, - The YouTube Team