Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A

Posted: December 4, 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:	14,659
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	2,171

First Seen:	December 4, 2012
Last Seen:	September 12, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A, a variant of the well-known Dorkbot family of worms, includes the standard backdoor-based attacks of its kindred, which can be used to compromise your computer's privacy and security to the point of allowing criminals near-total control over your PC. Also like its kin, Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A has been found to use many different methods of distributing itself. Some of the major methods that SpywareRemove.com malware experts have outlined include spam on social networking sites, drive-by-download browser exploits, instant message spambots and Autorun exploits on removable drives. Because Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A aims to compromise your PC for the purpose of granting criminals to command and earn from it, you should remove any Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A infection immediately with anti-malware programs that can be certain of detecting all copies of Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A (which, like most worms, will create backups of itself).

The Anything But Dorky Capabilities of Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A

Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A doesn't show any obvious symptoms of its attacks, but like a standard backdoor Trojan, Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A is capable of enacting significant system changes that bring your PC's security down to rock-bottom levels. Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A's primary file uses a semi-random name, and SpywareRemove.com malware researchers note that Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A also uses basic Registry exploits to enable itself to launch automatically along with Windows. In lieu of displaying its own memory processes, Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A will inject its code into normal Windows processes, with the amount of processes affected partially dependent on whether or not the Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A-compromised Windows account has admin privileges.

Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A then makes contact with an IRC server to receive additional commands. Some of the attacks that SpywareRemove.com malware experts have noted in a Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A infection include:

Collecting and transmitting basic system information (such as your OS version) that could be used to enable other attacks.
Stealing sensitive information such as browser-stored passwords or passwords from FTP clients.
Blocking functions (such as file deletion) when they're used to identify and remove any of Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A's components.
Block your browser's ability to access security-oriented sites.
Altering the files of system utilities like the Registry Editor, Task Manager or Command Prompt.

Of course, Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A also can install other malware that may include additional attacks besides the ones noted in this list.

The Struggle to Keep the Dorkbot Parasite out of Your PC

Given the earlier list of its functions, it should be obvious that Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A is bad news, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers note that it can be difficult to avoid a Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A infection in the first place. Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A has been found to use many different methods of distribution. Some, such as the Autorun exploit that lets Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A spread from a removable drive-based device to another PC, are old and have been combated with appropriate security patches. Others, such as Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A's ability to use drive-by-download exploits on compromised sites to install itself automatically, still are very modern and difficult to detect.

Web browser security is one of the most important general safety measures for avoiding Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A's many infection vectors. SpywareRemove.com malware experts recommend disabling exploitable browser features (in particular, Java), avoiding suspicious links that may have ties to spambots and keeping all software on your PC completely updated.

Because Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A isn't designed to display symptoms, the only evidence of a Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A attack may be the alerts from your anti-malware software. Likewise, anti-malware software should be used whenever you need to remove Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.A from your PC.

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:

%AppData%\"ozkqke.exe"

File name: %AppData%\"ozkqke.exe"
Mime Type: unknown/exe"
Group: Malware file

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

HKEY..\..\{Value}HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "[RANDOMLY CREATED SIX LETTER STRING]" = "%appdata%\[RANDOMLY CREATED SIX LETTER STRING].exe"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "ozkqke" = "%appdata%\ozkqke.exe"

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

iconbecoming.com

Worm:Win32/Dorkbot.AK