Trojan.Emcodec.E is a

trojan horse The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...

that is mis-represented as an

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

and

video codec A video codec is software or hardware that compresses and decompresses digital video. In the context of video compression, ''codec'' is a portmanteau of ''encoder'' and ''decoder'', while a device that only compresses is typically called an '' ...

for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

-based PCs. It exists in various variants with names such as Media Codec, Ecodec, Imediacodec, IntCodec, Pcodec, SVideocodec, Video iCodec, QualityCodec, Vcodec, Zip Codec, zCodec, ZCODEC and began to be widely used in spring 2005. When visiting certain web sites, in particular

pornographic Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of Human sexual activity, sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

sites, and attempting to view a video file on the site, the user will be directed to download this software, purportedly in order to allow viewing of the video. Furthermore, a number of websites have been set up to mis-represent this

malware Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, depri ...

as a legitimate codec, inviting the users to download the software, allegedly to allow for the playback of certain audio/video which claims to use the so-called codec. Once executed, the trojan copies a program into the Program Files folder, changes some

registry keys The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores low-level settings for the Microsoft Windows operating system and for applications that opt to use the registry. The kernel, device drivers, services, Security Accounts Manager, and u ...

and displays a fake

EULA An end-user license agreement or EULA () is a legal contract between a software supplier and a customer or end-user, generally made available to the customer via a retailer acting as an intermediary. A EULA specifies in detail the rights and restr ...

for the supposed codec. zCodec reportedly changes the machine's

DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...

settings, monitors the user's browsing and acts as

adware Adware, often called advertising-supported software by its developers, is software that generates revenue for its developer by automatically generating online advertisements in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the ...

. Some versions of the trojan install malware called Zlob, which in turn may lead to the installation of malicious and fake "security programs" such as

SpywareQuake SpywareQuake is a fake anti- malware program for Microsoft Windows. It is commonly installed by Trojan Horse The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win th ...

, SpyFalcon,

WinFixer WinFixer was a family of scareware rogue security programs developed by Winsoftware which claimed to repair computer system problems on Microsoft Windows computers if a user purchased the full version of the software. The software was mainly in ...

or other malware; some variants also install a

backdoor A back door is a door in the rear of a building. Back door may also refer to: Arts and media * Back Door (jazz trio), a British group * Porta dos Fundos (literally “Back Door” in Portuguese) Brazilian comedy YouTube channel. * Works so title ...

into the infected computer.

References

{{Reflist

External links

;Removal tools
SmitfraudFixSmitRem
Trojan horses Adware Spyware