Virus Encyclopedia

Welcome to the Virus Encyclopedia of Panda Security.

Autorun.INF
Threat LevelDamageDistribution

Effects 

The main objective of Autorun.INF is to spread and affect other computers.

Means of transmission 

Propagation via mapped drives:

Autorun.INF checks if the infected computer is connected to a network.

If so, it makes an inventory of all mapped drives and creates a copy of itself in each of them.

 

Propagation through shared network resources:

Autorun.INF checks if the infected computer is connected to a network. If so, it tries to spread to the shared network drives.

To do this, it tries to gain access to these shared drives, using typical or easily guessed passwords.

 

Distribution of infected files:

Autorun.INF does not spread automatically using its own means, but infects files of the following types:

They reach computers when previously infected files are distributed, entering computers through any of the usual channels: floppy disks, email messages with attachments, Internet download, files transferred via FTP, IRC channels, P2P file sharing networks, etc.

 

Further Details  

Autorun.INF has the following additional characteristics:

• It is 128 bytes in size.