MEMZ
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| An example of a computer system affected by MEMZ displaying one of the malware's key payloads, a 'screen tunnelling' effect. | |
| Type | Trojan horse |
| Authors | Leurak |
The MEMZ trojan is a malware in the form of a trojan horse made for Microsoft Windows.[1][2][3][4][5]
MEMZ was originally created by Leurak for YouTuber danooct1's Viewer-Made Malware series. It was later featured by Joel Johannson, alias Vargskelethor, a member of the live-streaming group Vinesauce on his series Windows Destruction, who demonstrated the trojan in action against a Windows 10 virtual machine[6] after being provided with a copy by danooct1.
The virus gained notoriety for its unique and complex payloads, which automatically activate after each other, some with delay. Examples of payloads include randomly moving the mouse cursor slightly, opening up satirical Google searches under Google.co.ck such as "how to remove a virus" and "how to get money" on the user's web browser, and opening various random Microsoft Windows programs (such as the calculator or command prompt). True to the program's name, many parts of the virus are based on Internet memes; for example, the virus overwrites the boot sector with an animation of Nyan Cat.[1][2][3][4][5] Leurak also created a safer version of MEMZ called MEMZ-Clean. The clean version allows the non-destructive payloads to be safely tested and gives you full control about which payloads are active.[7]
A variant of MEMZ, dubbed "VineMEMZ", was coded by Leurak as a gift to Johannson after the livestream featuring the original MEMZ gained significant traction. This version of MEMZ is similar to the original, but features many references to Vinesauce, especially Johannson's other game streams, such as the bootleg game 7 Grand Dad and the adware program BonziBuddy. This variant has also been released to the public.[8]
Removal
Removal of the virus is quite simple. While the virus is running, open command prompt as an administrator and type taskkill /f /im MEMZ.exe /t.
To get rid of the Nyan Cat animation on boot-up, a user must use Command Prompt to fix the boot sector. Fixing the boot sector requires two commands: bootrec /fixboot and bootrec /fixmbr. (Doesn't work in recent versions of Windows 10 for unknown reasons)
Then the user should run Startup Repair to finalize the cleaning of the boot sector. [9]
References
- ^ a b White, Daniel (July 8, 2016). "Viewer-Made Malware 8 - MEMZ (Win32) (flashing lights warning)". Hackme.comYouTube. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
- ^ a b Dean, Madeleine (August 26, 2016). "MEMZ virus: what is it and how it affects Windows PC?". Windows Report. Archived from the original on 2018-07-05. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
- ^ a b Oberhaus, Daniel (July 9, 2016). "Watch This Malware Turn a Computer into a Digital Hellscape". Motherboard. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
- ^ a b Maiberg, Emaneul (July 30, 2016). "Preserving the Ancient Art of Getting Pwned". Motherboard. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
- ^ a b Kushman. "Hãy xem cách Malware biến máy tính của bạn thành một địa ngục số kinh hoàng như thế nào". GenK (in Vietnamese). Retrieved December 21, 2018.
- ^ Leurak (2016-07-24), [Vinesauce] Joel tries out the MEMZ Trojan (with chat), retrieved 2019-06-26
- ^ "MEMZ 4.0 - The clean version (including download)". KC Protrade Services Inc. 2017-06-01. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
- ^ danooct1. "VineMEMZ (Win32)". YouTube. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
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External links
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