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Virus Encyclopedia

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Bride

 
Threat LevelModerate threatDamageHighDistributionNot widespread

Effects 

The main purpose of Bride is to spread via e-mail and remove every icon from the desktop temporarily.

Infection strategy 

Bride creates the following files:

  • REGEDIT.EXE, in the Windows system directory. This file is run every time Windows is started up.
  • EXPLORER.EXE, in the Windows desktop. This is a copy of the worm. This file has the same icon as Internet Explorer. In this way, the file tries to go unnoticed by users.
  • HELP.EML, in the Windows desktop. This is a copy of the message that the worm sends out.
  • BRIDE.EXE, in the Windows system directory. This file is a variation of the virus detected by Panda as W32/FunLove.4099.Dr

Bride creates the following entry in the Windows Registry:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Run Regedit c:\ windows\ system\ regedit.exe
    Through this entry, the worm ensures it is run on every Windows start-up.

Bride looks for the following entry in order to obtain information about the affected computer's operating system:  

  • HKEY_Local_Machine\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion

Means of transmission 

Bride spreads mainly by e-mail sending itself out to every address it finds in the affected computer's HTM files as well as the Outlook Express trays.

It arrives in a message with variable characteristics. The subject field appears empty, whereas the rest of features are the following:

  • To: <address>
  • From: <name><address>
    Where:
    <name>  is the name of the affected user.
    <address> is the e-mail address of the message recipient.
    Example:
    If a user named John (John@mail.com) is affected by this worm and an e-mail is sent from his computer to a user called Peter (Peter@mail.com), the message header would be the following:
    To: Peter@mail.com
    From: John[Peter@mail.com]
  • Message:
    Hello,
    Product Name:<OS>
    Product Id: <ID>
    Product Key: <Key>
    Process List:
    Thank you

    Where
    <OS> is the name of the operating system installed on the affected computer.
    <ID>  is the product identifier
    <Key> is the product key
  • Attachment:  
    README.EXE

The worm activates when the attached file is run, and even when the message is viewed through Outlook's Preview pane (Bride takes advantage of the Exploit/iFrame vulnerability).

Further Details  

Bride has a size of 114,687 bytes and is programmed in Visual Basic 6.