Some of my friends have used EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File to test their PCs’ antivirus. Anti-malware programs scan and detect the test file as a virus named EICAR… which sometimes cause my friends to suspect it as a real virus. This blog post will present the reverse engineering of eicar.com test file to see whether it contains any characteristics of malicious software.
First, I download the EICAR Anti-Virus Test File from the following link: http://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com and open it with IDA.
Here’s the disassembly of the file after IDA finish its initial auto-analysis:
seg000:0100 public start seg000:0100 start proc near seg000:0100 58 pop ax seg000:0101 35 4F 21 xor ax, 214Fh seg000:0104 50 push ax seg000:0105 25 40 41 and ax, 4140h seg000:0108 50 push ax seg000:0109 5B pop bx seg000:010A 34 5C xor al, 5Ch seg000:010C 50 push ax seg000:010D 5A pop dx seg000:010E 58 pop ax seg000:010F 35 34 28 xor ax, 2834h seg000:0112 50 push ax seg000:0113 5E pop si seg000:0114 29 37 sub [bx], si seg000:0116 43 inc bx seg000:0117 43 inc bx seg000:0118 29 37 sub [bx], si seg000:011A 7D 24 jge short loc_10140 seg000:011C 45 inc bp seg000:011D 49 dec cx seg000:011E 43 inc bx seg000:011F 41 inc cx seg000:0120 52 push dx seg000:0121 2D 53 54 sub ax, 5453h seg000:0124 41 inc cx seg000:0125 4E dec si seg000:0126 44 inc sp seg000:0127 41 inc cx seg000:0128 52 push dx seg000:0129 44 inc sp seg000:012A 2D 41 4E sub ax, 4E41h seg000:012D 54 push sp seg000:012E 49 dec cx seg000:012F 56 push si seg000:0130 49 dec cx seg000:0131 52 push dx seg000:0132 55 push bp seg000:0133 53 push bx seg000:0134 2D 54 45 sub ax, 4554h seg000:0137 53 push bx seg000:0138 54 push sp seg000:0139 2D 46 49 sub ax, 4946h seg000:013C 4C dec sp seg000:013D 45 inc bp seg000:013E 21 24 and [si], sp seg000:0140 seg000:0140 loc_10140: ; CODE XREF: start+1Aj seg000:0140 48 dec ax seg000:0141 2B 48 2A sub cx, [bx+si+2Ah] seg000:0141 start endp ; sp-analysis failed
The COM file is loaded and starts at cs:0x100, here is a pop ax instruction which pops a word from stack into ax. Because the stack pointer is 0xFFFE initially, the last 2 bytes of the segment at 0xFFFE and 0xFFFF (which are 0 from experiments) are pop-ed into ax. Hence ax equals to 0.
At address seg000:0101, instruction xor ax, 214Fh makes ax = 0 ^ 0x214F = 0x214F
At address seg000:0104, instruction push ax makes 0x214F pushed into the stack.
At address seg000:0105, instruction and ax, 4140h makes ax = 0x214F ^ 0x4140 = 0x140 and al = 0x40 (low byte of ax)
At address seg000:0108, instruction push ax makes 0x140 pushed into the stack.
At address seg000:0109, instruction pop bx makes 0x140 poped out into bx.
At address seg000:010A, instruction xor al, 5Ch makes al = 0x40 ^ 0x5C = 0x1C and ax = 0x11C.
At address seg000:010C, instruction push ax makes 0x11C pushed into the stack.
At address seg000:010D, instruction pop dx makes 0x11C poped out into dx. Now dx = 0x11C which points to aEicarStandard $-terminated string.
seg000:011C 45 49 43 41 52 2D 53 54+aEicarStandard db 'EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!' seg000:013F 24 db 24h ; $
At address seg000:010E, instruction pop ax makes 0x214F poped out into ax.
At address seg000:010F, instruction xor ax, 2834h makes ax = 0x214F ^ 0x2834 = 0x97B and ah = 0x9 (high byte of ax).
The next 2 instructions at seg000:0112 and seg000:0113 pushes 0x97B into the stack and pops it out into si:
seg000:0112 50 push ax seg000:0113 5E pop si
Now, bx = 0x140 pointing to the word value 0x2B48 and si = 0x97B.
seg000:0140 loc_10140: ; CODE XREF: start+1Aj seg000:0140 48 dec ax seg000:0141 2B 48 2A sub cx, [bx+si+2Ah]
At address seg000:0114, instruction sub [bx], si makes the word value pointed to by bx equals to 0x2B48 – 0x97B = 0x21CD. Now the instruction at 0x140 becomes int 21h (CD 21). This is a characteristics of self-modifying code in EICAR test file.
The two next instructions increase bx to 0x142 and bx points to the word value 0x2A48.
seg000:0116 43 inc bx seg000:0117 43 inc bx
At address seg000:0118, instruction sub [bx], si makes the word value pointed to by bx equals to 0x2A48-0x97B = 0x20CD. Now the instruction at 0x142 becomes int 20h (CD 20). This is also a characteristics of self-modifying code in EICAR test file.
The next instruction at address seg000:011A always jumps to seg000:0140 because 0x2A48 is greater than 0x97B.
Now at address seg000:0140 the instruction int 21h is executed with the function code in ah = 0x9 (WRITE STRING TO STANDARD OUTPUT) and the $-terminated string to be written is pointed to by DS:DX (0x11C) which points to aEicarStandard $-terminated string. So, the string ‘EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!’ is written to the STDOUT.
The next instruction at address seg000:0142 (int 20h) terminates the executed EICAR program.
Full disassembly of EICAR Anti-Virus Test File:
seg000:0100 public start seg000:0100 start proc near seg000:0100 58 pop ax ; ax = 0 seg000:0101 35 4F 21 xor ax, 214Fh ; ax = 214Fh seg000:0104 50 push ax seg000:0105 25 40 41 and ax, 4140h ; ax = 0x140 seg000:0108 50 push ax seg000:0109 5B pop bx ; bx = 0x140 seg000:010A 34 5C xor al, 5Ch ; al = 0x1C seg000:010A ; ax = 0x11C seg000:010C 50 push ax seg000:010D 5A pop dx ; dx = 0x11C points to aEicarStandard string seg000:010E 58 pop ax ; ax = 0x214F seg000:010F 35 34 28 xor ax, 2834h ; ax = 0x97B; ah = 0x9 seg000:0112 50 push ax seg000:0113 5E pop si ; si = 0x97B seg000:0114 29 37 sub [bx], si ; 0x2B48-0x97b = 0x21CD seg000:0116 43 inc bx seg000:0117 43 inc bx seg000:0118 29 37 sub [bx], si ; 0x2A48-0x97B = 0x20CD seg000:011A 7D 24 jge short loc_10140 seg000:011A ; --------------------------------------------------------------------------- seg000:011C 45 49 43 41 52 2D 53 54+aEicarStandard db 'EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!' seg000:013F 24 db 24h ; $ seg000:0140 ; --------------------------------------------------------------------------- seg000:0140 seg000:0140 loc_10140: ; CODE XREF: start+1Aj seg000:0140 48 dec ax seg000:0141 2B 48 2A sub cx, [bx+si+2Ah] seg000:0141 start endp ; sp-analysis failed seg000:0141 seg000:0141 seg000 ends seg000:0141 seg000:0141 seg000:0141 end start
Here are some other interesting points from the analysis of the disassembly:
- All the opcodes/characters in the EICAR test file are ASCII printable characters (from 0x20 to 0x7E).
- Instruction pop ax to make ax equals to 0 at the beginning of the program is used although it’s not a good programming practice in comparison with xor ax, ax , it costs only 1 byte (58) in comparison with xor ax, ax which costs 2 bytes (31 C0).
- To call instructions int 21h and int 20h without using the byte CD (not an ASCII printable character), EICAR uses the self-modifying code technique.
- The instruction at seg000:011A uses jge instead of jmp because jge uses the opcode 7D which is an ASCII printable character in comparison with jmp (opcode EB is not an ASCII printable character).
Conclusion:
EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File is a benign program although it uses self-modifying code which is a common technique in the VX scene.
Some reference links:
- http://spike.scu.edu.au/~barry/interrupts.html
- http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/eicar/eicarcom.html
