A parallel Olympics for malware started today
Friday August 8, 2008 at 6:42 am CST
Posted by Gaith Taha and Oliver Devane

(Photos are taken from the slideshow attached to the Trojan)
With all the press coverage the Beijing’s Olympics is currently receiving, it doesn’t surprise us that malware authors are using it as a way of spreading their parasites. Today around the time of the opening ceremony we received a sample in the Aylesbury research lab, which proclaimed to be a set of images which showed the amazing architectural feats of the venues.
While viewing the slideshow your machine would be infected by a classic BackDoor-CKB. The original dropper [executable] which tried to imitate a PowerPoint presentation icon, copies 81.dll and wuauct.exe and launches a PowerPoint slideshow to disguise its background activity. The server which the backdoor communicates with appears to be located in the city of Henan (in the region of Shanxi, China).

We want to reiterate to all our readers to be vigilant and cautious while checking emails that attempt to attract attention to high-profile events. If you do receive any suspicious emails, please find details on how to submit a sample here. We wish all your countries the best of luck in the competition


August 11th, 2008 at 4:59 am
[…] will not earn any medals from these malicious acts. A parallel Olympics for malware started todayhttp://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/08/08/a-parellel-olympics-for-malware-started-… QUOTE: With all the press coverage the Beijing’s Olympics is currently receiving, it doesn’t […]
August 11th, 2008 at 5:00 am
[…] will not earn any medals from these malicious acts. A parallel Olympics for malware started todayhttp://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/08/08/a-parellel-olympics-for-malware-started-… QUOTE: With all the press coverage the Beijing’s Olympics is currently receiving, it […]
August 11th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Just got a call from my brother about his computer crashing because of this exact thing described here. He is an astrophysicist & a computer guru & is VERY cautious about clicking on emails, but had been tracking the Olympics & this one just caught him totally off guard. He said it is the WORST crash he has ever experienced. After he called me I started researching to see if I could find anything about CNN or the Olympics in connection with email viruses and that is how I found this information. Thanks - but wish we had been sent emails about it warning us.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:52 am
[…] A parallel Olympics for malware started todayhttp://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/08/08/a-parellel-olympics-for-malware-started-… […]