AOL Password Stealing Trojan 200


· Overview ·
· Origins ·
· Operation ·
· Detection and Removal ·
· Research ·



Overview

Category:

AOL Pest: Any password stealer, exploit, DoS attack, or ICQ hack aimed at users of AOL. ICQ is an instant messenger service from mirabilis.com, now AOL. ICQ is a favorite service among hackers, and ICQ features are built into many trojans (such as stealing user's passwords, UINs, or notifying the hacker). Users of ICQ are warned ""By using the ICQ service and software... you may be subject to various risks, including... Spoofing, eavesdropping, sniffing, spamming, breaking passwords, harassment, fraud, forgery, 'imposturing', electronic trespassing, tampering, hacking, nuking, system contamination including without limitation use of viruses, worms and Trojan horses causing unauthorized, damaging or harmful access and/or retrieval of information and data on your computer and other forms of activity that may even be considered unlawful.""

Trojan: Any program with a hidden intent. Trojans are one of the leading causes of breaking into machines. If you pull down a program from a chat room, new group, or even from unsolicited e-mail, then the program is likely trojaned with some subversive purpose. The word Trojan can be used as a verb: To trojan a program is to add subversive functionality to an existing program. For example, a trojaned login program might be programmed to accept a certain password for any user's account that the hacker can use to log back into the system at any time. Rootkits often contain a suite of such trojaned programs.

Similar Pests:

AOL Pest · Trojan

Origins

Date of Origin:

January, 2001

Operation

Detection and Removal

Automatic Removal:

PestPatrol detects this.

PestPatrol removes this.



Research

More Info:

  • AllTheWeb, AltaVista, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, Google, HotBot, Lycos, LookSmart, MSN, Yahoo!
  • Research By:

  • PestPatrol's Pest Research Center
  • Last Revised:

    October 29, 2004