Trojan.Qhosts

Trojan.Qhosts is a Trojan Horse that will modify the TCP/IP settings to point to a different DNS server.

Trojan.Qhosts cannot spread by itself. The user must open an HTML page that contains malicious code, which allows the Trojan to open a viral HTML file on the target computer so that the script can create and run the malicious executable.

Symantec Security Response has received reports that visiting a specific page on www.fortunecity.com caused a popup to be displayed, which redirected the visitor to a different Web page. Being redirected to the Web page appears to have caused the Trojan Horse to be downloaded to a visitor's system, and then executed. Reports also state that the threat exploited the Internet Explorer Object Data Remote Execution vulnerability on several victims' computers to execute itself. Microsoft has released a cumulative patch for this vulnerability.

Protection

• Initial Rapid Release version October 2, 2003
• Latest Rapid Release version October 2, 2008 revision 025
• Initial Daily Certified version October 2, 2003 revision 002
• Latest Daily Certified version October 2, 2008 revision 024
• Initial Weekly Certified release date October 2, 2003

Click here for a more detailed description of Rapid Release and Daily Certified virus definitions.

Threat Assessment

Wild

• Wild Level: Low
• Number of Infections: More than 1000
• Number of Sites: More than 10
• Geographical Distribution: High
• Threat Containment: Easy
• Removal: Easy

Damage

• Damage Level: Medium

Distribution

• Distribution Level: Low