MEMZ
MEMZ is a trojan horse created for Microsoft Windows. The name of the malware refers to its purpose as a humorous Trojan intended to replicate the effects of early computer viruses.
Origin
MEMZ was originally created by Leurak for YouTuber danooct1's Viewer-Made Malware series. Leurak was a schooler when the Trojan was created. It was later featured by Joel Johansson, alias Vargskelethor, a member of the livestreaming group Vinesauce on his series Windows Destruction. Here, he demonstrated the trojan in action against a Windows 10 virtual machine after being provided with a copy by danooct1.Payloads
The trojan gained notoriety for its unique and satirical payloads which automatically activate after each other, some with delay. Examples of payloads include displaying a Windows Notepad file that reads:Others include randomly moving the cursor slightly; opening up comedic Google searches under Google.co.ck, such as "how to remove a virus" and "how to get money" on the user's web browser; reversing text; and opening various random Microsoft Windows programs, such as the calculator or command prompt. True to the program's name, many parts of the trojan are based on Internet memes; for example, the trojan overwrites the master boot record with an animation of Nyan Cat. 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 the user full control about which payloads are active.