MEMZ is a

trojan horse In Greek mythology, 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, Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending ...

created for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. 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 A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

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 Vinesauce is a collective of online content creators founded in 2010. The group primarily focuses on video game livestreaming and commentary videos. The group is most notable for content in which video games are corrupted to cause glitches, a ...

on his series ''Windows Destruction.'' Here, he demonstrated the trojan in action against a Windows 10

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...

after being provided with a copy by danooct1.

Payloads

The trojan gained notoriety for its unique and satirical

payloads Payload is the object or the entity that is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of t ...

which automatically activate after each other, some with delay. Examples of payloads include displaying a

Windows Notepad Windows Notepad is a simple text editor for Microsoft Windows, Windows; it creates and edits plain text documents. It was first released in 1983 to commercialize the computer mouse in MS-DOS. History In May 1983, at the COMDEX computer expo in ...

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 A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

; reversing text; and opening various random

programs, such as the calculator or command prompt. True to the program's name, many parts of the trojan are based on

Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

s; for example, the trojan overwrites the

master boot record A master boot record (MBR) is a type of boot sector in the first block of disk partitioning, partitioned computer mass storage devices like fixed disks or removable drives intended for use with IBM PC-compatible systems and beyond. The concept ...

with an animation of

Nyan Cat Nyan Cat is a YouTube video uploaded in April 2011, which became an Internet meme. The video merged a Japanese pop song with an animated cartoon cat with a Pop-Tarts, Pop-Tart for a torso flying through space and leaving a rainbow trail behind. Th ...

. 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.

"VineMEMZ"

A variant of MEMZ, dubbed "VineMEMZ", was coded by Leurak as a gift to Johansson after the livestream featuring the original MEMZ gained significant traction. This version of MEMZ is similar to the original, but features many references to

, especially Johansson's other game streams, such as the bootleg game ''7 Grand Dad'' and the

adware Adware, often called advertising-supported software by its developers, is software that generates revenue by automatically displaying Online advertising, online advertisements in the user interface or on a screen presented during the installatio ...

program

BonziBuddy BonziBuddy ( or , stylized as BonziBUDDY) is a discontinued freeware desktop virtual assistant created by Joe and Jay Bonzi. Upon a user's choice, it would share jokes and facts, manage downloads, sing songs, and talk, among other functions. ...

. This variant has also been released to the public.

References

2016 software Windows trojans Internet memes Internet trolling {{malware-stub