Trojan Deletes Your Porn, Music & Warez

E. Vigilant writes "The new Trojan/Erazor-A has an interesting twist. In addition to deleting or disabling various security products and competing malware, it deletes any porn, warez and music in your P2P directories. While some opine that this trojan might have good intentions, remarkably few things infect the text files this trojan also deletes. No one yet knows who wrote this or why."

Altruism? I have my doubts...

From TFA:

The assumption is that because the Trojan is only deleting certain file types in specific download directories used by P2P programs -- one of the main sources of inadvertent malware infection -- it is attempting to protect those it manages to infect.

Well, that's a remarkably stupid assumption.

What's more likely?

1. The Trojan was designed to protect users from malware by deleting contents of P2P directories,
     - or -
   
2. The Trojan was designed to strike a blow against P2P file sharers deleting contents of P2P directories.
   

Let's analyze who benefits from each scenario:

1. No one benefits, since the 'benefits' of having files that might be infected with malware deleted is more than offset by the security problems introduced by the deactivation of antivirus software, as well as the inadvertent deletion of many innocent files. Also, the Trojan writer, (in this scenario, a "Robin Hood" type character), receives no benefit other than a warm fuzzy feeling.
   
   
2. RIAA, MPAA, and various software companies all realize tangible financial benefits as illegal file sharing is dealt a serious blow. Also, the Trojan writer, (in this scenario, a mercenary for hire) takes home a nice fat paycheck for a job well done.
   

I pick avarice over sloppily executed altruism any day. I find it intriguing that this alternate explanation apparently didn't even occur to PC World.

Re:Altruism? I have my doubts...

What about the third scenario ?

3) Virus writers stage this to make it look like the RIAA, MPAA, ect, are "pulling a Sony" in an attempt to pull a classic "Throw a rock at the bee hive the ranger is standing next to so BooBoo can grab the pic-a-nic basket".

Add option #4

Call me cynical, but add:

4) Write a trojan to wipe out what people apparently consider to be important so that they are more aware of virus scanners.

Hmmm... would the various anti-virus companies do something like this to advertise the need for their products on people who lose gigs and gigs of files to a trojan? Nahhh....

Re:Add option #4

Even simpler:

4) Write a trojan to wipe out what people apparently consider to be important just because the trojan writer is a prick.

Add option #5

Not even that:

5) Trojan not only sentient, but self-sustainable and conventionally biased. Will take over the world.

Proof of Intelligent Design? You be the judge.

Re:Add option #5

... and I, for one, welcome our new Trojan overlords!

sorry ;)

6) profit!!

Re:Add option #4

Huh? That doesn't make any sense, even in the way you're trying to use it.

If I copy your file, you have a copy, I have a copy. Nobody has lost anything. Therefore, it can't possibly be called stealing by most people's definitions.

If I copy your file and then delete the original, then I have it and you don't, that I think we can all agree, is stealing. Likewise, if it's on physical media which only one of us can possess at a time, and I take the physical media, then it's also stealing.

If I delete something without taking a copy, then it's not stealing, it's just vandalism or destruction of your stuff.

You are mis-stating the argument you're trying to make fun of (the "it's not physical so therefore not stealing") and so your parody falls flat. The fact that data isn't physical isn't the important part, it's the fact that nobody loses their copy in a typical "pirate" transaction. That's what differentiates it from "theft" in the minds of many people.

Personally, I think that unauthorized copying is not theft, but might meet the qualifications for wrongful conversion of property, if you take a wide enough definition of 'property.' (So as not to limit it to real property and chattels, but include the value of data as well.) See this page [lectlaw.com]. Normally it applies only to physical goods. At any rate, there are existing sections of law which are more appropriately applied to the reduction-in-value that occurs when data is unlawfully copied than theft and larceny.

Add option #5

5) Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell want to wipe out pr0n from the internet, so they assemble a team of computer experts and tell them, "Pr0n is the 5ux0rs! We need 1337 h@x0r5 to pwn their warez, w00t, w00t!"

Or, maybe not...

Re:Add option #5 ... unless ...

Unless it also displays a dialog box stating that, "The Lord has decided that thou hast broken the following commandments: Thou Shalt Not Steal and Thou Shalt Not Have Naughty Thoughts. Your files have been deleted according to the rights granted to us by God as his Holy Warriors, and your screen saver is now made of publicity stills from The Passion of the Christ. Go with God."

Then, maybe so... :)

No way, that would ever happen

There is no way Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell would ever risk their own secret porn stash. The parent is clearly a troll.

Re:Add option #5

You spelled "teh" and "there" wrong. Or did you mean "they're"?

You are right (*sniff*). I'm afraid I'm only 1336 (*sniff*)...

Virtual machines

This also emphasizes why all P2P users should quarantine their P2P software inside a virtual machine. VMWare's recently renamed VMWare Server" [vmware.com] product is free and is a perfect way to isolate your P2P software from the rest of your machine. I actually employ this method myself. Much of the documentation I download is infected and this method prevents that infection from getting back to the host server. Plus it's quite easy to rollback changes to a time before the infection and start over.

Re:Altruism? I have my doubts...

I see an option 3 here.

3) A strike against the MPAA, RIAA and any other "law abiding" corporation (who manages to be capable of CREATING those very laws) by targeting the computers that seed the incomplete, misnamed and intentionally infected files and the files on computers that have downloaded from them by users stupid enough to download things under 1kb.

Any smart P2P user changes the default directories to customize their own bitspace so it's easier for the person using the software to find what they've downloaded, not to mention archive on another device or media those files they truly wish to retain.

Do note that I did say *smart*.

Avarice

Avarice isn't too bad a theory, but I have trouble believing that the RIAA/MPAA could be so dumb. Sony is still in hot water over a badly designed piece of supposedly legitimate software. This is the kind of thing that could land people in JAIL. Suppose the virus gets onto a government computer and erases some legitimate files? What about a military computer? The US military has demonstratibly poor computer security. This could cause them huge problems if it got loose.

My theory is that this was made by someone who WANTS people to think that the RIAA made it, so that even more people will turn against them and take some heat off of P2P.

Re:Avarice

I have trouble believing that the RIAA/MPAA could be so dumb.

I don't. I've seen how dumb large organizations can be.

Re:Altruism? I have my doubts...

The first thing I thought was that it was well intentioned - in the long run.

The general public have demonstrated time and time again that they really don't care about security. They'll put up with their computer slowing down and crashing, they'll put up with random popup ads, they'll put up with their computer being used to spam people...

...but take away their porn and music? The virus seems to be designed to piss the computer user off as much as possible without actually causing any real damage or impairing the computer's operation. It seems to me that the virus writer did it to get people to take notice of viruses in future.

Removing virus vectors doesn't solve the problem in the long run. Ultimately, only education will do that. This is a form of education, a lesson that will actually sink in.

Re:Altruism? I have my doubts...

Then a day or so later, they're like, "WTF? You deleted weatherbug" and I find they've
reinstalled it. People just don't care, and I don't expect to ever understand why

People assume that anything that happens on their computer is visible in the GUI. Therefore if weatherbug doesn't pop up a requester saying "I'm spying on you now, please type something interesting", naive people will assume it's not doing that.

I suspect this misapprehension will change only through hard experience.

I can only conclude that people at PC World ain't

I can only conclude that people at PC World ain't got a clue about PC's. Since when can .avi .mp3 etc etc contain virusses or malware?

If it only deleted .exe .bat .com etc etc then I could understand the logic BUT deleting media files does not protect anyone.

They almost touch on the simplest explenation. Vigilante. Believe it or not but there are some individuals who feel they have a need to stop others from downloading via p2p.

They would be intrested in deleting any media files you downloaded via p2p. They would not be protecting you but making your (in their eyes illegal) activity worthless. So that explains why they delete harmless files.

It also explains why they try to disable security programs, yet another punishment. That way you are far more at risk from using P2P by being infected. The logic being that pirates do not deserve to be safe.

Vigilante seeking to punish p2p users. Not the RIAA and not some guardian angel. The RIAA would have to have some extremly bad lawyers to have allowed this and a guardian angel would only destroy files wich put you at risk and not disable security software.

Vigilantes have done stuff like this before. It falls in the same field as those "jezus loves you" posts in porn usenet groups. Or so I been told. Not that I would know anything about that offcourse.

Re:I can only conclude that people at PC World ain

Since when can .avi .mp3 etc etc contain virusses or malware?

Since the people making the media players haven't figured out how to properly code. It is definetly possible to get infected or compromized via a media file. Look at the whole Microsoft image rendering problem a few months ago. One look at a specially crafted image on a website and you're compromized.

Slashspin

First off, this article is pure bullshit spin. They mention several points about a virus and the whole time they attempt to spin it the reader as a "good intentions" virus--even comparing it to Charles Bronson. The Slashdot title reads "Trojan Deletes Your Porn, Music & Warez" but it doesnt, if you RTFA:

The Windows Trojan/Erazer-A Trojan looks at default folders for downloading MP3, AVI, MPEG, WMV, Gif, Zip graphic and video files, and wipes anything it finds with these extensions in the target locations.

Gosh, I have plenty of MP3, AVI, MPEG, WMV, Gif, Zip graphic and video files ... that aren't porn, illegal music & warez.

What they fail to mention is that people who use P2P networks often want those files that they've collected. So this virus is destroying something they want.

I mean, who installs eMule or Bit Torrent and then wishes that one day someone would come and save them from the files they've downloaded? The very idea is ludicrous.

I use Bit Torrent. If a virus were to come and delete everything I've gotten from it (trailors, WoW patches, an odd assortment of legal videos and mp3s, etc), I don't know about you, but I would be right pissed. This isn't protection and it doesn't seem to discriminate from virile files and good files so it's pure and utter destruction.

The only thing "beneficial" is seen from the eyes of the RIAA or MPAA.

"I don't think this was written with good intentions because it attempts to turn off security," said Cluley. There would be nothing more dangerous than for people to become accustomed to the idea of "beneficial malware" because that might create a false sense of security.

You "don't think" this was written with good intentions? A virus comes onto your machine, disables security & starts to delete files in directories with a certain naming convention. What more to do you need to say, "holy hell, I've got a freaking virus!"?

Re:Slashspin

Gosh, I have plenty of MP3, AVI, MPEG, WMV, Gif, Zip graphic and video files ... that aren't porn, illegal music & warez.

Excuse me Sir, we've had some complaints from the other clientele, could you hand in your /. ID on your way out.

Re:the first 'christian' virus?

Why the Christians, necessarily? A more likely culprit would be PETA, trying the protect all those cute fluffy kittens from the hand of a wrathful God [img69.exs.cx].

Finally!

*Applauds*

Finally a threat that will make the average joe start to take computer security seriously! I look forward to a safe internet for everyone (I mean as soon as a few botnet node owner's loose their porn, peole will actually clean up their boxes!)

On a more serious note, quoting the pcworld article:

The Windows Trojan/Erazer-A Trojan looks at default folders for downloading MP3, AVI, MPEG, WMV, Gif, Zip graphic and video files, and wipes anything it finds with these extensions in the target locations.

The assumption is that because the Trojan is only deleting certain file types in specific download directories used by P2P programs -- one of the main sources of inadvertent malware infection -- it is attempting to protect those it manages to infect. [emph mine]

WTF? How could anyone think that it's to attempt to protect users when it doesn't delete executables from p2p folders? (for an interesting overview of real "white hat worms" see this vnunet article [vnunet.com] and the slashdot discussion on the blaster removal worm) [slashdot.org]

This worm is clearly to scare people away from p2p - not protect them from other p2p malware.

What's the bet that one of [riaa.com] the companies [mpaa.org] that make oodles of money [apple.com] from content [bpi.co.uk] are behind this?

Re:Finally!

"Finally a threat that will make the average joe start to take computer security seriously!" Until a computer virus or trojan can come into your house, shave your eyebrows off while you're asleep, drink all your beer, and leave you with no toilet paper, the average joe will never take computer security seriously.

Re:Finally!

We can change that. All we need to do is modify this virus to delete *.doc, *.xls, and everything in the My Documents folder. Also, it should hijack IE, set his/her clock to January 1, 1900 (Y2K, anyone?), replace his/her desktop wallpaper with Goatse, and delete every link off his/her desktop and start menu.

That should hit Average Joe User hard enough to make them feel like they got raped by a train.

Re:Finally!

No. Your "Average Joe User", confronted with that scenario, will simply throw away his old, broken computer, go out and buy a new one, and then start filling that up with crap. And when that is thoroughly full of crap too, and slowing down and going to the wrong web site and crashing and files are going missing ..... rinse and repeat. Because going wrong is just something that computers do.

Mind you, smart skip-divers probably will benefit from this.

Re:Thank god!

"Thank god! I use linux!"

I thought Linux supported porn by now.

Re:Thank god!

"You are free to look at porn if you want to. Most dont, but you can."

Most Linux users don't look at porn? Didn't that all change when KDE came along and you didn't need both hands available?

Geeks unite!

All I know is that this is a very important problem we have to fix!! Destroying our financial records and stealing our identity is one thing. But touch a geek's pr0n collection ------- this means WAR!

Seems obvious to me.

Of course it would delete your porn! Trojan [trojancondoms.com] wants you to go out and have real sex.

Re:Seems obvious to me.

Trojan wants you to go out and have real sex.

They're not the only ones...

It... deletes PR0N??!!

I feel a great disturbance in the Force... As if a millions Slashdot posters all cried out in anguish...

0h n03z my pr0n h4s b33n st0l3d!!!11!

The new Trojan/Erazor-A has an interesting twist. In addition to deleting or disabling various security products and competing malware, it deletes any porn, warez and music.

This thing could delete the Internet

As for the Who and the Why. I blame the RI/MP Ass's. of America.

Apple needs to jump on this quickly!

... and make a new commercial!

[old guy is coughing, wheezing, ...]

[young guy] On a mac, you don't have to worry about losing your pr0n and warez!

[young asian chic to young guys right seductively takes leg and wraps it around young guys waist]

[cut to pic of imac]

Re:Apple needs to jump on this quickly!

"[young asian chic to young guys right seductively takes leg and wraps it around young guys waist]"

[young asian chic opens mouth to talk, unsupported audio codec message appears, young guy just shrubs]

The next headline on slashdot....

Storage Space Mysteriously Triples on File Servers around the World.

Nice to see a destructive payload for once

Without the pain of personal loss, lusers will not be so inclined to tighten up their system. So what if I'm part of a botnet? I'm not using the machine overnight anyway...

Happy LARTing,
FatPhil

THIS IS WAR!

First they came for my credit card data, since I did not have Visa, I said nothing.
Then they came phishing for my bank account info, since I did not have a bank account, I said nothing.
Then they came for my porn...

Aiming poorly?

The Windows Trojan/Erazer-A Trojan looks at default folders for downloading MP3, AVI, MPEG, WMV, Gif, Zip graphic and video files, and wipes anything it finds with these extensions in the target locations.
(...)
"The Erazer Trojan is a vigilante worthy of a Charles Bronson movie, taking the law into its own hands. However, it's perfectly possible for the Trojan to aim poorly and wipe out innocent files too," commented Graham Cluley of Sophos.

Aiming poorly? Yeah, if carpet bombing a country to hit a dart board is what you mean by aiming poorly...

Re:Aiming poorly?

Aiming poorly? Yeah, if carpet bombing a country to hit a dart board is what you mean by aiming poorly...

Careful with such analogies. There'll be a bunch of loyal American patriots along in a minute to tell you how wrong you are, and that it's not aiming poorly, it's an enlightened foreign policy.

Re:Aiming poorly?

If you're not with us, you're against us, and that didn't sound "with us" enough for me. The air force will be preparing your neighborhood for a Haliburton contract in five minutes.

Ain't the first trojan to act like this

The only "real" news is that it deletes the content of P2P folders (ok, not really "new" either but at least far from usual).

That a trojan kills other trojans is hardly news. About a year ago two groups actually led a battle where one group tried to stab the other group's trojans (and vice versa) with their updates. Some trojans also use the names other trojans use to ensure those trojans can't install after they're already in. Makes detecting them correctly (i.e. as a different beast, not a new version) not really easier.

Almost every trojan today has some anti-anti-trojan functions. Killing Kaspersky, McAfee and Norton AV is more or less a standard feature of most current Trojans, so I wouldn't really call that news either.

The only outstanding feature that's hardly common is the deletion of incoming P2P objects. Which makes one wonder who ... well, cui bono?

Translation please..

remarkably few things infect the text files this trojan also deletes.

Ehmm... What?

Dear lord

I felt a great disturbance from the Net, as if millions of gigs of porn suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly deleted.

RIAA STRIKES BACK !!!

Next : RIAA fleet to plunder coastal towns whose citizens are known to indulgue in p2p.

Planned : RIAA prison camps full of former p2p people to be used as slave labor in music industry.

You wont be hiding ... You wont be escaping ... Its coming ... Its RIAA ...

Coming to a theatre near you this summer ... The RIAA Strikes Back !!!

Official site : www.riaastrikesbackwithfear.com

Not cool

There is an unwritten law that you do not touch a man's pr0n. Period. He could have slept with your wife and added pictures of her to his collection, and still, you do not touch his pr0n.

These people have gone too far. If I get infected by this I'm going straight to the FBI, this is too serious to joke about.

PC World couldn't read the Sophos article!

The article on the Sophos website actually puts things as they are.
The PC World rehash just (deliberately?) misinterprets it.

Let's have a wee comparison:

Sophos: - "The Erazer Trojan targets internet users it believes are involved in piracy, but fails to discriminate between the true criminals and those who may have MP3 music files or home movies that they have created themselves. Malware is not the way to fight internet piracy."

PC World: - "A "vigilante" Trojan, that attempts to protect infected PCs from the effects of malware caught while using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, has been discovered."

Now how they came up with that from the Sophos article is beyond my understanding.

New Service

Greetings, all.

I just wanted to offer my new backup service for all who of you who fear this trojan. Just contact me so we can arrange transfers. Please do not be wary of my generosity, for helping is its own reward.

paraphrasing...

Never attest to malice what can be adequately attributed to stupidity.

In this case I think it's stupidity to create a virus that deletes the files it would be most likely to be able to propogate itself through.

Maybe some little hacker kiddie got caught wanking it by his mom and she deleted all his pr0n so he's on a "if I can't have it nobody can" rampage.

Where can I find a Linux version?

Once again, this is Windows only.

Damn! Obviously, Linux isn't ready for the home user.

Does anybody know what this is supposed to mean?

While some opine that this trojan might have good intentions, remarkably few things infect the text files this trojan also deletes.

I've attempted to read that sentence about a dozen times, and I have no clue what the writer's trying to say.

Re:Uhoh

Don't worry if this thing deletes them. I've got them backed up for you.

Re:So?

If they're not smart enough to use some A/V correctly, why do you assume they'll manage to figure out what a "fileserver" is, let alone how to setup and use one?
How about we write a malware proof OS. That's orders of magnitudes easier that the above.