VBE.Monopoly Virus (8/10/99)

VBE.Monopoly Virus (8/10/99)

This question was answered on August 10, 1999. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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A copy cat of the Melissa worm/virus called "VBE.Monopoly" has been detected

This worm/virus is spread as an attachment to an e-mail message (Remember, you must open the attached file in order to contract the virus You can not get the virus by simply reading the message!)

The email has the following subject and message:

Subject:

Bill Gates joke

Message:

Bill Gates is guilty of monopoly Here is the proof :-)

If you get this e-mail message DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHED FILE!

Similar to VBS.Freelink, the worm is written in Visual Basic Script When launched, the worm drops a picture named 'MONOPOLY.JPG' in the temporary folder It also creates 'MONOPOLY.WSH' and 'MONOPOLY.VBE' files

The 'MONOPOLY.WSH' executes the 'MONOPOLY.VBE' The latter sends out an email to everyone in the user's MS Outlook Address Book

After executing the MONOPOLY.VBE file, the worm displays a message:

"Bill Gates is guilty of monopoly Here is the proof."

and displays the picture file MONOPOLY.JPG If you get the above message you most likely have been infected by this virus

Those that have the highest risk of being affected by this worm are those that have Windows 98 or Office 2000 and Internet Explorer 5.0 If you do not have one of the first two and IE 5 installed the payload will most likey be unable to execute Users of the ICQ program may also be affected Whether the full effect of the program can be executed on your machine or not you can still be a carrier and pass it on to other that can be affected.

Mcafee VirusScan users can update their programs at:

http://download.mcafee.com/updates/updates.asp

Norton AntiVirus users may protect themselves from this worm by downloading the current virus definitions either through LiveUpdate or from the following webpage:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/download.html

About the author

Posted by Ken Colburn of Data Doctors on August 10, 1999

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