lisa said:
Anyone please help, my weak 486 running Windows 2000
proffessional, with AOL dial up internet connection has
been infilltrated by the sasser virus. Keeps shutting
down and re starting . Won't let me interupt windows set
up to do anything!! Am I wasting my time? I realize I am
using antiquated computer, but is it really toast now?
Window reading C:\WINNT\system32\exe error code 182
shutting down in and then shows a timer counting down.
Here is what you need to do to prevent this worm from shutting down your
machine. After you have fixed it up, you MUST install a firewall, and you
MUST install a virus scanner.
By the way, you must be a very, very patient person. I have never heard of
anyone having the patience to run Win2000 on an 80486!
1. To prevent LSASS.EXE from shutting down the machine during the cleaning
process:
a. Unplug the network cable from the machine
b. If you are running Windows XP you can enable the built-in Internet
Connection Firewall using the instructions found here: Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=283673 and then plug the machine back into
the network and go to step 2.
c. If you are running Windows 2000, you won't have a built-in firewall
and must use the following work-around to prevent LSASS.EXE from crashing.
This workaround involves creating a read-only file named 'dcpromo.log' in
the "%systemroot%\debug" directory. Creating this read-only file will
prevent the vulnerability used by this worm from crashing the LSASS.EXE
process.
i. NOTE: %systemroot% is the variable that contains the name
of the Windows installation directory. For example if Windows was installed
to the "c:\winnt" directory the following command will create a file called
dcpromo.log in the c:\winnt\debug directory. The following commands must be
typed in a command prompt (i.e. cmd.exe) exactly as they are written below.
1. To start a command shell, click Start and then click run and type
'cmd.exe' and press enter.
2.Type the following command:
echo dcpromo >%systemroot%\debug\dcpromo.log
For this workaround to work properly you MUST make the file read-only
by typing the following command:
3. attrib +R %systemroot%\debug\dcpromo.log
2. After enabling the Internet Connection Firewall or creating the read-only
dcpromo.log you can plug the network cable back in and you must download and
install the MS04-011 patch from the MS04-011 download link for the affected
machines operating system before cleaning the system. If the system is
cleaned before the patch is installed it is possible that the system could
get re-infected prior to installing the patch.
a. Here is the URL for the bulletin which contains the links to the download
location for each patch:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-011.mspx
b. If your machine is acting sluggish or your Internet connection is slow
you should use Task Manager to kill the following processes and then try
downloading the patch again (press the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys simultaneously
and select Task Manager):
i. Kill any process ending with '_up.exe' (i.e. 12345_up.exe)
ii. Kill any process starting with 'avserv' (i.e. avserve.exe, avserve2.exe)
iii. Kill any process starting with 'skynetave' (i.e. skynetave.exe) iv.
Kill hkey.exe v. Kill msiwin84.exe vi. Kill wmiprvsw.exe
1. Note there is a legitimate system process called 'wmiprvse.exe' that
does NOT need to be killed.
c. allow the system to reboot after the patch is installed.
3. Run the Sasser cleaner tool from the following URL:
a. For the on-line ActiveX control based version of the cleaner you can
run it directly from the following URL:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.asp
b. For the stand-alone download version of the cleaner you can download
it from the following URL:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=76C6DE7E-1B6B-4
FC3-90D4-9FA42D14CC17&displaylang=en
4. Determine if the machine has been infected with a variant of the Agobot
worm which can also get on the machine using the same method as the Sasser
worm.
a. To do this run a full antivirus scan of your machine after ensuring
your antivirus signatures are up to date.
b. If you do NOT have an antivirus product installed you can visit
HouseCall from TrendMicro to perform a free scan using the following
URL:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/