ILOVEYOU, sometimes referred to as Love Letter, was a computer worm that attacked tens of millions of Windows personal computers on and after 5 May 2000 local time in the Philippines when it started spreading as an email message with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" and the attachment "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.". The first file extension 'VBS' was most often hidden by default on Windows computers of the time, leading unwitting users to think it was a normal text file. Opening the attachment activated the Visual Basic script. The worm did damage on the local machine, overwriting image files, and sent a copy of itself to the first 50 addresses in theWindows Address Book used by Microsoft Outlook.
Four things led to the success of ILOVEYOU.
- It relied on the scripting engine system setting being enabled. The engine had not been known to have ever been used previously and Microsoft received scathing criticism for leaving such a powerful (and dangerous) tool enabled by default with no one aware of its existence.
- It took advantage of a Microsoft algorithm for hiding file extensions. Windows had begun hiding extensions by default; the algorithm parsed file names from right to left, stopping at the first 'period' ('dot'). The attachment (which had two file extensions) could thus display the inner file extension 'TXT' as the real extension; text files are considered to be innocuous as they are normally incapable of running executable code.
- It utilised social engineering to entice users to open the attachment (out of actual desire to connect or simple curiosity) to ensure continued propagation.
- It exploited systemic weaknesses in the design of Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Windows which led to unused features easily running malicious code capable of achieving complete access to the operating system, secondary storage, and system and user data simply by unwitting users clicking on an icon.
Spread
Messages generated in the Philippines began to spread westwards through corporate email systems. Because the worm used mailing lists as its source of targets, the messages often appeared to come from acquaintances and were therefore often regarded as considered "safe" by their victims, providing further incentive to open them. Only a few users at each site had to access the attachment in order to generate millions more messages that crippled mail systems and overwrote millions of files on computers in each successive network
Impact
The worm is believed to have originated near manila in the Philippines on 5 May 2000 local time and to thereafter have spread westward across the world, moving first to Hong Kong, then to Europe, and finally the US as people reported to their offices that Friday morning. The outbreak was later estimated to have caused US $5.5 billion in damages worldwide.Already ten days later 50 million infections had been reported. Most of the damage cited was the time and effort spent getting rid of the infection and recovering damaged files from backup. In order to protect themselves, The Pentagon, CIA, the British Parliament, and most large corporations were forced to completely shut down their mail systems.
Architecture of the Worm
The ILOVEYOU script (the attachment) was written in Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting (VBS) which ran in Microsoft Outlook and was enabled by default. The script added Windows Registrydata for automatic startup on system boot.
The worm then searched connected drives and replaced files with extensions JPG, JPEG, VBS, VBE, JS, JSE, CSS, WSH, SCT, DOC, HTA, MP2, and MP3 with copies of itself, whilst appending the additional file extension VBS.
The worm propagated itself by sending out copies of the payload to the first 50 entries in theMicrosoft Outlook address book (Windows Address Book). It also downloaded the Barok trojan renamed for the occasion as "WIN-BUGSFIX.EXE"
Developments
On 5 May 2000 two young Filipino computer programmers named Reomel Ramores and Onel de Guzman became the target of a criminal investigation by the Philippines' National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents. The NBI received a complaint from Sky Internet, a local Internet service provider (ISP). The ISP claimed that they have received numerous calls from European computer users, complaining that malware in the form of an "ILOVEYOU" worm was sent to their computers through the said ISP.
After several days of surveillance and investigation spearheaded by Darwin Bawasanta, systems development manager of Sky Internet, the NBI was able to trace a frequently appearing telephone number which turned out to be that of Ramores' apartment in Manila. His residence was searched by the NBI and Ramores was consequently arrested and placed on inquest investigation before the Department of Justice (DOJ). Onel de Guzman was likewise arrested in absentia. At that point, the NBI were at a loss as to what felony or crime to charge them with. There were some agents who suggested they might be charged with violation of Republic Act 8484 or the Access Device Regulation Act, a law designed mainly to penalisecredit card fraud, the reason supposedly being that both used, if not stole, pre-paid Internet cards which enabled them to use several ISPs. Another school of thought within the NBI suggested Ramores and de Guzman could be charged with malicious mischief, a felony involving damage to property under the Philippines Revised Penal Code enacted in 1932. But the drawback with a charge of malicious mischief is that one of its elements, aside from damage to property, was intent to damage, and de Guzman and Igi Gando claimed during custodial investigation that de Guzman may have merely unwittingly released the worm.
To show intent, the NBI investigated AMA Computer College where de Guzman dropped out at the very end of his final year. They found that de Guzman was not only quite familiar with computer viruses but had in fact proposed to use one. For his undergraduate thesis, de Guzman proposed the implementation of a trojan to steal Internet login passwords. De Guzman proposed that users would finally be able to afford an Internet connection. The proposal was rejected by the College of Computer Studies board, prompting de Guzman to cancel his studies the day before graduation.
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