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The macro decodes the dropped files using Windows certutil.exe with the following commands (certutil.exe is a legitimate built-in command-line program to manage certificates in Windows | ['T1140'] |
Cobalt Strike. Use scheduled tasks and batch files for automation. The use of LOLBins. Erasing Windows Event Logs, files and tasks | ['T1053.005'] |
In the detected attack, the Ragnar Locker actors used a GPO task to execute Microsoft Installer (msiexec.exe), passing parameters to download and silently install a 122 MB crafted, unsigned MSI package from a remote web server. The primary contents of the MSI package were | ['T1218.007'] |
Then, it modifies the Team Viewer registry settings. As we said, the Team Viewer components used in this campaign are not the original ones. They are slightly modified. The malware author replaced all the entries of “Teamviewer” strings in Team Viewer components. TeamViewer client registry settings are then HKLMSoftwareGoldstagerVersion5 and HKLMSoftwareCoinstagerVersion5 correspondingly. The launcher sets up several registry values that control how the remote access tool will work. This parameter represents a hash of the password with which a remote user has to connect to Team Viewer client. After that, the starter executes the very Team Viewer client netsvcs.exe | ['T1219'] |
Fake domains . Our latest Transparent Tribe research confirms that the group continues to create malicious domains mimicking defense-related entities as a core component of their operations. Security researchers previously discovered Transparent Tribe using sharingmymedia[.]com to host Android malware targeting Indian military and defense personnel.Figure 1: Maldoc masquerading as a congratulatory notice from CLAWS. The attackers then used this fake website, which they hosted on a domain that was nearly identical to its legitimate counterpart, to distribute ObliqueRAT. These examples highlight Transparent Tribe's heavy reliance on social engineering as a core TTP and the group's efforts to make their operations appear as legitimate as possible.Figure 2: Fake website cloned using HTTrack on May 29, 2020. Malicious file-sharing domains . Transparent Tribe also regularly registers domains that appear to be legitimate file- and media-sharing services. Lures and targeting . Transparent Tribe uses a variety of themes in their lures that evolved over time. Defense-themed lures . Transparent Tribe has historically used military and defense-themes in their phishing emails and maldocs to target Indian military and government personnel. Conference attendees . Transparent Tribe also finds attendees of specific conferences to target. HoneyTraps . Transparent Tribe consistently uses alluring documents and file names, commonly referred to as honeytraps, to trick victims into executing malicious content on their endpoints. Transparent Tribe uses generically themed content-hosting domains as well as malicious domains masquerading as legitimate defense-related websites | ['T1583.001'] |
AQUATIC PANDA continued their reconnaissance from the host, using native OS binaries to understand current privilege levels as well as system and domain details. OverWatch threat hunters also observed an attempt to discover and stop a third-party endpoint detection and response (EDR) service | ['T1562.001', 'T1007', 'T1518.001'] |
Konni malware family use a custom base64 key to encode the content of several files in the exfiltration phase. We observed the same flow of data reconnaissance and exfiltration across all campaigns | ['T1132.001'] |
Another interesting finding is that Bazar Loader has now implemented a Domain Generation Algorithm using the current date as a seed | ['T1568.002'] |
Once the skimmer has the credit card details, it serializes the copied data into a string and encodes it with Base64. Then, it performs a character permutation on the encoded string to make sure it can’t be directly decoded with Base64 decoding | ['T1560.003'] |
The HTTP request retrieves contents of the files present in the repository with an interesting validation which checks that the retrieved file is a PNG. The file that was earlier retrieved was named “readme.png”; this PNG file has one of the malicious modules embedded in it. It then executes GetNumberOfMethods and saves the result obtained by the module. This file committed to the repo contains the result of the commands executed by the module on the target system. To commit the file the malware makes a PUT HTTP request to Github | ['T1564.001'] |
UNC2465 used phishing emails and legitimate services to deliver the SMOKEDHAM backdoor. SMOKEDHAM is a .NET backdoor that supports keylogging, taking screenshots, and executing arbitrary .NET commands. During one incident, the threat actor appeared to establish a line of communication with the victim before sending a malicious Google Drive link delivering an archive containing an LNK downloader. More recent UNC2465 emails have used Dropbox links with a ZIP archive containing malicious LNK files that, when executed, would ultimately lead to SMOKEDHAM being downloaded onto the system. UNC2465 has used Advanced IP Scanner, BLOODHOUND, and RDP for internal reconnaissance and lateral movement activities within victim environments. The threat actor has used Mimikatz for credential harvesting to escalate privileges in the victim network. Mandiant has observed the threat actor using PsExec and cron jobs to deploy the DARKSIDE ransomware. UNC2465 has called the customer support lines of victims and told them that data was stolen and instructed them to follow the link in the ransom note | ['T1204.001', 'T1598.003'] |
Xbash is data-destructive; destroying Linux-based databases as part of its ransomware capabilities. We can also find NO functionality within Xbash that would enable restoration after the ransom is paid | ['T1485'] |
The CoinTicker app also creates a user launch agent, named .espl.plist, that runs the same command periodically | ['T1543.001'] |
This specific key is set to point towards the path of the previously copied Cardinal RAT executable path. The executable will periodically query this registry key to ensure it is set appropriately. If the executable finds the registry key has been deleted, it will re-set it. The Load registry key acts as a persistence mechanism, ensuring that this Cardinal RAT executes every time a user logs on. More information about the Load registry key may be found here | ['T1547.001'] |
The 'ssonsvr.exe' file is a legitimate Citrix executable that will be used to sideload the malicious ‘pnipcn.dll’ file | ['T1574.002'] |
1) Writes itself to %AppData%\Microsoft\Word\log.ps1 2) Sets up persistence for this file, using a run key. 6) Removes all registry entries that are left behind during the dropper process | ['T1070.004'] |
The process identifiers or PIDs to be hidden are stored in the shared memory "Global\<computer_name>." If the shared memory doesn't exist, it takes the PID embedded by the first-stage shellcode. In this case, the intention of the malicious code is to hide Waterbear’s backdoor activities from the security product. Therefore, the first-stage shellcode takes the PID of the Windows Service — which the first-stage shellcode and the succeeding backdoor both inject into — hides the target process, and embeds that PID into the second-stage shellcode | ['T1055.003'] |
Analysis of the F.bmp image revealed that it is indeed using Least Significant Bit (LSB) Steganography [9,10], a commonly used form of steganography that embeds data in an image without significantly affecting its appearance | ['T1001.002'] |
Smoke Loader not only installs its original sample but also replaces it with a fresh version, which is downloaded from the C&C – path: http://<CnC address>/system32.exe. This trick makes detection more difficult – updated samples are repacked by a different crypter, may also have their set of C&Cs changed | ['T1105'] |
The MainConnectionIo function checks if the Windows Firewall is enabled, sets the Tcp Keep Alive value and Non-blocking mode connection options and receives data from the remote host through the ReceiveCommandData function. If the communication fails, ZxShell disables the firewall by modifying the registry key | ['T1562.004'] |
Payloads are now hosted on compromised websites. The payloads hosted on these websites consist of seemingly benign BMP image files. The malicious macros download the images and the ObliqueRAT payload is extracted to disk. The ObliqueRAT payload is renamed with the .pif file extension | ['T1027.003'] |
Since version 0.4.1 Creates a new Primary Refresh Token (PRT) as JWT to be used to sign-in as the user | ['T1606.002'] |
PowerShower, named and previously disclosed by Palo Alto Networks in their blogspot (see above), is a malicious piece of PowerShell designed to receive PowerShell and VBS modules to execute on the local computer. This malware has been used since October 2018 by Cloud Atlas as a validator and now as a second stage. The differences in the two versions reside mostly in anti-forensics features for the validator version of PowerShower | ['T1041'] |
Also, the postinstall script moves the .CrashReporter program to a new location /Library/JMTTrader/CrashReporter and makes it executable. Because the LaunchDaemon will not run automatically after the plist file is moved, the postinstall script launches CrashReporter with the Maintain parameter and runs it in the background (Create or Modify System Process: Launch Daemon [T1543.004 | ['T1059.004'] |
The HTTP request retrieves contents of the files present in the repository with an interesting validation which checks that the retrieved file is a PNG. The file that was earlier retrieved was named “readme.png”; this PNG file has one of the malicious modules embedded in it. It then executes GetNumberOfMethods and saves the result obtained by the module. This result is committed to the remote repo under the metafiles directory with a filename denoting the time at which the module was executed. This file committed to the repo contains the result of the commands executed by the module on the target system. To commit the file the malware makes a PUT HTTP request to Github | ['T1102.002'] |
The bot attempts to create a MUTEX using the value of variable “VL” to ensure that only one instance of the bot is running. The bot will proceed to create a copy of itself as %TEMP%/svchost.exe, execute that file, and terminate itself. The newly executed copy will create an autostart registry key to ensure persistence upon system reboot | ['T1547.001'] |
We will discuss the Spark backdoor’s functionality in detail later in this blog, but this specific sample has the following configuration | ['T1027.002'] |
The first module downloaded by the GRIFFON malware to the victim’s computer is an information-gathering JScript, which allows the cybercriminals to understand the context of the infected workstation. This module mainly relies on WMI and Windows objects to deliver results, which will be sent back to the operators | ['T1124', 'T1082', 'T1069.002'] |
Embedded Downloader Trojan The M payload (referenced previously along with the R payload, above) injected and executed within the memory space of the other process is a downloader Trojan. This specific downloader appears to have been created using a VB2Exe tool, as the functional code that carries out the downloading functionality exists as a VBScript embedded within the payload. The payload extracts this VBScript from a resource and saves it to a file that it extracts from another resource. The payload is downloaded from the following location and saved to "%PUBLIC%\svchost32.exe | ['T1059.003', 'T1059.001'] |
The script “enu.cmd” created an administrator account, disabled the host-based firewall, and globally opened port 3389 for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access. The script then attempted to add the newly created account to the administrators group to gain elevated privileges. This script contained hard-coded values for the group name “administrator” in Spanish, Italian, German, French, and English | ['T1562.004', 'T1098'] |
As we can see, the flow is obfuscated. But in Pony this technique is used in more sophisticated way because there are some junk instructions added between the PUSH and the RET in addition to a never executed bogus conditional jump | ['T1027'] |
Screenshot: takes system screenshots and saves them to %AppData% before sending them to the C2 via a POST request | ['T1113'] |
If nothing like that is detected, the malware will decrypt the third stage and execute it by using the process hollowing technique, commonly used by malware authors. In this version, the payloads are encrypted with the same XOR-based algorithm as the one used in previous versions, however in this latest version, the payload is encrypted twice, with different keys | ['T1027', 'T1497.001'] |
As mentioned in the table above, version 3 has two forms - one is an independent executable, and the other is a loader that loads a DLL from the resources section and executes it. Even before doing any static / dynamic analysis, we can use VirusTotal to determine that the resources section probably contains more data, in this case an encrypted DLL that is loaded into memory | ['T1055.001'] |
As noted, there are two distinct variants of ServHelper: a “tunnel” variant and a “downloader” variant. The “downloader” variant is stripped of the tunneling and hijacking functionality and is used as a basic downloader | ['T1021.001'] |
BoomBox proceeds to upload the data above (masquerading as a PDF file) to a dedicated-per-victim-system folder in Dropbox. For demonstration purposes, an example HTTP(s) POST request used to upload the file/data to Dropbox is included below | ['T1567.002'] |
Exfiltration over control server channel: data is exfiltrated over the control server channel using a custom protocol - Commonly used port: the attackers used common ports such as port 443 for control server communications - Service execution: registers the implant as a service on the victim’s machine - Automated collection: the implant automatically collects data about the victim and sends it to the control server - Data from local system: local system is discovered and data is gathered - Process discovery: implants can list processes running on the system - System time discovery: part of the data reconnaissance method, the system time is also sent to the control server - File deletion:: malware can wipe files indicated by the attacker | ['T1124', 'T1119', 'T1041'] |
The backdoor also collects some rudimentary information about the compromised computer including some basic network adapter information, system version information, and language settings | ['T1016', 'T1082'] |
The exact date when the malware was compiled is unknown – the recent wrapper DLL samples were tampered with by the malware authors, with the PE timestamps manually set to zero values. However, during our research, we found an earlier version of the malware with a PE timestamp reading Oct 13, 2013, so the compilation date of the later version is almost surely more recent | ['T1070.006'] |
PowerShell Cobalt Strike Beacon - New payload + new C2 domain - PowerShell Obfuscator - All the new PowerShell payloads are obfuscated using a publicly available script adapted from a Daniel Bohannon’s GitHub project. Using this tool, the attackers could overcome a password reset. Customized Windows Credentials Dumper - A PowerShell password dumper that is based on a known password dumping tool, using PowerShell bypass and reflective loading. The attackers specifically used it to obtain Outlook passwords. Customized Outlook Credentials Dumper - Inspired by known Outlook credentials dumpers. Mimikatz - PowerShell and Binary versions, with multiple layers of obfuscation | ['T1003.001'] |
Any other command that doesn’t fit the above patterns will be forwarded and processed as an argument to ‘cmd.exe /c’ and run via the ‘ShellExecuteW’ API. Additionally, each beacon is accompanied with a screenshot that is initially saved as ‘scr.jpg’ in the public directory and subsequently issued to the C2 using the same HTTP POST request as in the ‘uploadsf’ command | ['T1106'] |
The malware uses the AMAP SDK to get accurate location of infected devices by GPS, mobile network (such as base stations), WiFi and other information. MobileOrder acts on instructions provided by its C2 server, which it communicates with over TCP port 3728. All C2 communications are encrypted with the AES algorithm using a key generated by computing five MD5 hashes starting with the key "1qazxcvbnm", and adding a salt value of “.)1/” in each iteration | ['T1082'] |
In order to avoid in-memory scanning during runtime, the payload encrypts all of the function blocks before executing the actual malicious routine. Afterwards, whenever it needs to use a function, it will decrypt the function, execute it, and encrypt the function back again, as can be seen in Figure 4. If a function will not be used on the rest of the execution, it will be scrambled by another mess-up function, as illustrated in Figure 6. The mess-up function muddles up the bytes with random values and makes the input blocks unrecoverable. The purpose of this is to further avoid being detected by a certain cybersecurity solution | ['T1027.005'] |
The malware can also download and execute additional components served to it by the control server. The mechanism for downloading additional components is based on the Computer Name and UserName of the endpoint provided by the malware process to the control server in the following HTTP GET request | ['T1033'] |
Note that the heading of the message box is ‘ASKOD’, a reference to the Ukrainian electronic document management system. This initiative is meant to enforce electronic digital signatures through the use of cryptographic keys like the Алмаз-1К (transliterated as ‘Almaz-1K’ or translated to ‘Diamond-1K’) shown below | ['T1036'] |
It then executes a new instance of itself in a new process. Also, it will remove the original file via the following command that is executed in a batch script named 'date.bat | ['T1059.003', 'T1059.003'] |
The last one is used by this setup, and in this mode the ransomware encrypts the files on all available mapped network drives | ['T1486', 'T1564.006'] |
The library used to hide Winnti’s system activity is a copy of the open-source userland rootkit Azazel¹⁰, with minor changes. When executed, it will register symbols for multiple commonly used functions, including: open(), rmdir(), and unlink(), and modify their returns to hide the malware’s operations | ['T1014'] |
The arp.exe command is used to display and modify entries in the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) cache. Adversaries may attempt to use the command to discover remote systems they could compromise | ['T1018'] |
We refer to these attacks as MuddyWater due to the confusion in attributing these attacks. Although the activity was previously linked by others to the FIN7 threat actor group, our research suggests the activity is in fact espionage related and unlikely to be FIN7 related. The MuddyWater attacks are primarily against Middle Eastern nations. However, we have also observed attacks against surrounding nations and beyond, including targets in India and the USA. These attacks have also been tracked by several other researchers on Twitter and elsewhere. The activity has been consistent throughout 2017 and, based on our analysis, targets or is suspected to target, entities in the following countries | ['T1027', 'T1027'] |
FlawedGrace creates, encrypts, and stores a configuration file containing the C&C IPs and ports in a “<hex digits>.dat” file (e.g. C:\ProgramData\21851a60.dat”). The first 16 bytes of the file are an AES initialization vector (IV). The rest of the data is AES-encrypted in CBC mode | ['T1027'] |
Capable of stealing documents sent to the printer queue. Steals written CD images. Capable of stealing files previously seen on removable drives once they are available again. Steals Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, FireFox and RealNetworks cookies | ['T1539'] |
Once the threat actor mapped the network and obtained credentials (through net use), they began to move laterally. The threat actor relied on WMI and PsExec to move laterally and install their tools across multiple assets | ['T1047'] |
In March 2016, a financially motivated threat actor launched several tailored spear phishing campaigns primarily targeting the retail, restaurant, and hospitality industries. The emails contained variations of Microsoft Word documents with embedded macros that, when enabled, downloaded and executed a malicious downloader that we refer to as PUNCHBUGGY | ['T1566.001'] |
Our dynamic analysis showed Lokibot’s behavior, including the benefits and drawbacks of several unpacking methods. Lokibot also used an infected system machine global unique identifier (GUID) value to generate a mutex (an MD5 hash) that acted as a flag to prevent itself from infecting the same machine again. The subject lines of the campaign messages usually started with or included the term “proforma. The malicious attachment was a DOCX, with a file name that also included “proforma” in its pattern. TLP: WHITE https://www.us-cert.gov/tlpCharacteristicsLokibot is an information stealer; the main functionality of its binary is to collect system and application credentials, and user information to send back to the attacker. We conducted dynamic analysis to observe network and system behavior once it infected our Windows OS. It starts from the tenth byte in the data section of the initial TCP POST request. The binary’s hardcoded strings provided data about the binary’s characteristics, behavior, and main functionality.Section HeadersFrom the section headers and distribution of each section, the binary appears to be fairly normal. There are no unusual sections, and the size and distribution of the sections, especially .text, mirrors a standard unpacked binary (Figure 6).File Metadata and StringsThe binary is a PEx86 binary, which can be run on both x86 and 64-bit Windows OS. We determined that the binary was packed because we did not see the C2 URL or any signs of being an information stealer (such as an applications list) in the binary strings and resources | ['T1555'] |
Then it uses a net use command to connect to the network drive. It then checks, in a loop, as shown in Figure 12, if a command is available. This backdoor can only execute additional PowerShell scripts. It writes the command results in another OneDrive subfolder and encrypts it with the XOR key 0xAA | ['T1059.001'] |
During one investigation, APT32 was observed using a privilege escalation exploit (CVE-2016-7255) masquerading as a Windows hotfix. In another investigation, APT32 compromised the McAfee ePO infrastructure to distribute their malware as a software deployment task in which all systems pulled the payload from the ePO server using the proprietary SPIPE protocol. APT32 also used hidden or non-printing characters to help visually camouflage their malware on a system. For example, APT32 installed one backdoor as a persistent service with a legitimate service name that had a Unicode no-break space character appended to it | ['T1072'] |
Through the use of this platform, the operator was able to monitor and manage various compromised email accounts simultaneously | ['T1586.002'] |
As seen in Figure 7, this .NET executable uses a GitHub repository to obtain and execute a downloader. This repository is now gone, but we were able to download a copy of it while it was still available | ['T1102'] |
Along with the change to using a DLL, Qbot also changed where it stores configuration information on the infected host. Earlier versions of Qbot stored this data within a DAT file in the same randomly named folder as the malicious binary. As of late 2020, this data is now stored in the registry, under a randomly named subkey under HKCU\Software\Microsoft. While this move to the registry keeps things a bit more hidden from prying eyes, in both cases the presence of a randomly named value under the Microsoft folder/key should be cause to investigate | ['T1112'] |
Mandiant has created a task force & initiated a Global Event to track the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Department of State, hosted on a page made to look like another Department of State Public Affairs official's personal drive, and used a legitimate Department of State form as a decoy. There are several similarities and technical overlaps between the 14 November 2018, phishing campaign and the suspected APT29 phishing campaign on 9 November 2016, both of which occurred shortly after U.S. However, the new campaign included creative new elements as well as a seemingly deliberate reuse of old phishing tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), including using the same system to weaponize a Windows shortcut (LNK) file. It has also been over a year since we have conclusively identified APT29 activity, which raises questions about the timing and the similarities of the activity after such a long interlude. The shortcut file was crafted to execute a PowerShell command that read, decoded, and executed additional code from within the shortcut file. Previous APT29 activity targeted some of the same recipients of this email campaign, and APT29 has leveraged large waves of emails in previous campaigns. On execution, the PowerShell command extracted and executed the Cobalt Strike BEACON backdoor and decoy PDF. For example, the use of 'FromBase'+0x40+'String', in place of FromBase64String, the PowerShell command used to decode base64. The decoded command consisted of additional PowerShell that read the content of ds7002.lnk from offset 0x5e2be to offset 0x623b6, base64 decoded the extracted content, and executed it as additional PowerShell content | ['T1059.001'] |
The Emissary configuration is now encrypted using a custom algorithm that uses the "srand" function to seed the "rand" function using a value of 2563. This seed value causes the "rand" function to generate the same values each time, which Emissary will use as a key along with the XOR operation. The configuration now contains the version number of Emissary, instead of the version being hardcoded into the Trojan | ['T1027'] |
Actors behind Agent Tesla campaigns have also used malicious Office documents to facilitate first-stage delivery. Specially-crafted documents, exploiting Office vulnerabilities such as CVE-2017-11882 and CVE-2017-8570, have been leveraged, even in present day campaigns. These and similar exploits allow for quick delivery and execution with minimal user interaction (beyond opening the malicious documents and allowing active content to proceed | ['T1203'] |
The following information is gathered from the endpoint, stored in the file 1.hwp, and sent to the control server | ['T1074.001'] |
Using previously stolen credentials the attacker logged into a domain controller and copied tools into the %TEMP% directory. Copied tools included AdFind.exe (Active Directory enumeration utility), a batch script (Figure 2), and a copy of the 7-Zip archive utility. Downloaded utilities were copied to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\. - The attacker performed host and network reconnaissance using built-in Windows commands. AdFind.exe was executed using the previously noted batch script, which was crafted to pass the utility a series of commands that were used to collect information about Active Directory users, systems, OUs, subnets, groups, and trust objects. The output from each command was saved to an individual text file alongside the AdFind.exe utility (Figure 2). - This process was performed twice on the same domain controller, 10 hours apart. Between executions of Adfind the attacker tested access to multiple domain controllers in the victim environment, including the one later used to deploy Ryuk. The attacker logged into a domain controller and copied instances of PSExec.exe, a batch script used to kill processes and stop services, and an instance of Ryuk onto the system. Using PsExec the attacker copied the process/service killing batch script to the %TEMP% folder on hundreds of computers across the victim environment, from which it was then executed. The attacker then used PsExec to copy the Ryuk binary to the %SystemRoot% directories of these same computers | ['T1018'] |
Summary In the past few months, Unit 42 has observed the Patchwork group, alternatively known as Dropping Elephant and Monsoon, conducting campaigns against targets located in the Indian subcontinent. Patchwork threat actors utilized a pair of EPS exploits rolled into legitimate, albeit malicious, documents in order to propagate their updated BADNEWS payload. The use of weaponized legitimate documents is a longstanding operational standard of this group. The BADNEWS malware payload, which these malicious documents ultimately deliver, has been updated since the last public report in December 2017. These changes to BADNEWS, as well as the use of recent EPS-based exploits, demonstrate that the group are actively updating their toolsets in efforts to stay ahead of the security community. In this posting, we detail our findings and document these changes. Delivery The malicious documents that Unit 42 examined contained legitimate decoy lures as well as malicious embedded EPS files targeting the CVE-2015-2545 and CVE-2017-0261 vulnerabilities. Older documents used by Patchwork focused on the CVE-2017-0261 vulnerability, however in late January 2018 when, paradoxically, newer documents abandoned this vulnerability to attack the older CVE-2015-2545 vulnerability. The lures are primarily documents of interest to Pakistani nuclear organizations and the Pakistani military as can be seen in the images below | ['T1203'] |
1) Brute-force using a pre-defined list of usernames and passwords in an attempt to login to Admin panels | ['T1110.001'] |
Sakula obfuscates many of its strings using single-byte XOR obfuscation. Samples with a 2012 compile timestamp use a key value of either 0x88 or 0x56. Samples compiled in 2013 and 2014 use a key value of 0x56, while the lone 2015 sample uses 0x57 | ['T1027'] |
We euphemistically refer to the bit fiddling function in the interest of brevity. Looking through it, we see calls to Windows APIs to acquire a cryptographic context provider and generate random bytes. It’s likely this is being used for an inlined crypto implementation and byte overwriting, but the mechanism isn’t entirely clear at this time | ['T1106'] |
A base working directory will contain the files/folders related to Carbon. This directory is chosen randomly among the folders in %ProgramFiles% but excluding “WindowsApps | ['T1074.001'] |
Kimsuky employs a wide variety of malware such as Gold Dragon, Babyshark, Appleseed, etc. The module meant for exfiltrating files from the endpoint uses a distinct filepath list specified by the threat actors.Organizations must remain vigilant against motivated adversaries that conduct targeted attacks | ['T1583.006'] |
Daserf — This backdoor has the functionality of a remote shell and can be used to execute commands, upload and download data, capture screenshots, and log keystrokes. As of this publication, BRONZE BUTLER demonstrates a preference for concurrently using Datper and xxmm in its operations. Source: Secureworks) - xxmm downloader (also known as KVNDM) — This simple downloader's code is similar to the main xxmm payload. MSGet — This persistent downloader uses a dead-drop resolver (DDR) to download and execute another malicious payload. DGet — This simple downloader (see Figure 4) is similar to the wget web server retrieval tool. Source: Secureworks) - Screen Capture Tool— This tool can capture the desktop of a victim's system (see Figure 5). Figure 5. Source: Secureworks) - RarStar — This custom tool uploads RAR archives to a specified URL as POST data (see Figure 6). RarStar encodes the POST data using Base64 and a custom XOR algorithm. T-SMB Scan — This SMB scanning tool was originally published on a Chinese program-sharing website (pudn.com). BRONZE BUTLER removed its help message functionality. Use downloaders or other malware to send the new list to a compromised host. Search proxy log files for evidence of web server scanning using the URL patterns associated with BRONZE BUTLER activity | ['T1105'] |
The goal of targeting some victims appears to be to obtain data. How this data is obtained likely differs per victim, but we observed the usage of several custom DLL files used to continuously retrieve data from memory of systems where such data is typically processed | ['T1119'] |
SUNSPOT was identified on disk with a filename of taskhostsvc.exe (SHA256 Hash: c45c9bda8db1d470f1fd0dcc346dc449839eb5ce9a948c70369230af0b3ef168), and internally named taskhostw.exe by its developers. It was likely built on 2020-02-20 11:40:02, according to the build timestamp found in the binary, which is consistent with the currently assessed StellarParticle supply chain attack timeline. StellarParticle operators maintained the persistence of SUNSPOT by creating a scheduled task set to execute when the host boots | ['T1036.005', 'T1053.005'] |
The downloaded file named install_flash_player.exe needs to be manually launched by the victim. To operate correctly, it needs elevated administrative privileges which it attempts to obtain using the standard UAC prompt. If started, it will save the malicious DLL as C:Windowsinfpub.dat and launch it using rundll32 | ['T1218.011'] |
The data is encrypted using a series of XOR and addition operations, followed by decompression using the ZLIB library | ['T1573.001'] |
If the user account doesn’t have local administrative or domain administrative permissions, the adversary attempts to discover which local or domain admin accounts exist, and exfiltrates the admin’s usernames. To identify if privileged users are active on remote servers, the adversary makes use of PsLogList from Microsoft Sysinternals to retrieve the Security event logs. The built-in Windows quser-command to show logged on users is also heavily used by them. If such a privileged user was recently active on a server the adversary executes Cobalt Strike’s built-in Mimikatz to dump its password hashes | ['T1087.002'] |
The macro prepends the string -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- to the beginning of the base64 encoded payload and appends -----END CERTIFICATE----- to the end of the data. The macro then writes this data to a text file in the C:\Programdata folder using a random filename with the .txt extension. The macro then uses the command certutil -decode to decode the contents of this text file and outputs the decoded content to a randomly named file with a .exe extension in the C:\Programdata folder. The macro sleeps for two seconds and then executes the newly dropped executable. Open-source Delivery Document Generator It appears that Sofacy may have used an open-source tool called Luckystrike to generate the delivery document and/or the macro used in this attack. Luckystrike, which was presented at DerbyCon 6 in September 2016, is a Microsoft PowerShell-based tool that generates malicious delivery documents by allowing a user to add a macro to an Excel or Word document to execute an embedded payload. We believe Sofacy used this tool, as the macro within their delivery document closely resembles the macros found within Luckystrike. To confirm our suspicions, we generated a malicious Excel file with Luckystrike and compared its macro to the macro found within Sofacy's delivery document. We found that there was only one difference between the macros besides the random function name and random cell values that the Luckystrike tool generates for each created payload | ['T1140'] |
The first thing this malware does is it copies itself to the startup directory for persistence | ['T1547.001'] |
In this blog post, we provide an in-depth analysis of Linux/Ebury. It is a sophisticated backdoor used to steal OpenSSH credentials and maintain access to a compromised server. According to previous reports, this backdoor has been in the wild for at least two years. Linux/Ebury comes in two different shapes: a malicious library and a patch to the main OpenSSH binaries. The malicious library is a modified version of libkeyutils.so. This shared library is loaded by all OpenSSH executables files such as ssh, sshd and ssh-agent. We will describe how the backdoor works and how the OpenSSH functionalities are hooked | ['T1554'] |
Our latest Transparent Tribe research confirms that the group continues to create malicious domains mimicking defense-related entities as a core component of their operations. The victim is encouraged to click on an embedded URL hosted on sharingmymedia[.]com, which then downloads ObliqueRAT, the trojan discovered by Talos in 2020 associated with threat activity targeting entities in South Asia. We cannot confirm how the maldocs were delivered to victims, but we suspect they were probably sent as attachments to phishing emails based on previous threat actor behavior and the targeted nature of this particular lure. Security researchers previously discovered Transparent Tribe using sharingmymedia[.]com to host Android malware targeting Indian military and defense personnel.Figure 1: Maldoc masquerading as a congratulatory notice from CLAWS. In such cases, adversaries would deliver phishing maldocs to targets containing a malicious VBA macro that extracted either the CrimsonRAT executable or a ZIP archive embedded in the maldoc. The macro dropped the implant to the disk, setting up persistence mechanisms and eventually executing the payload on the infected endpoint. For example, attackers leveraging ObliqueRAT started hosting their malicious payloads on compromised websites instead of embedding the malware in the maldoc. Figure 2 shows the attackers' use of HTTrack, a free website copier program, to duplicate a legitimate website to use for their own malicious purposes. These examples highlight Transparent Tribe's heavy reliance on social engineering as a core TTP and the group's efforts to make their operations appear as legitimate as possible.Figure 2: Fake website cloned using HTTrack on May 29, 2020. The malicious domain prompts the victim to enter their name and email address to sign up and download a seemingly important "guide on pay and allowance | ['T1608.004'] |
It uses the string 5cd8f17f4086744065eb0992a09e05a2 as its mutex as well as its registry hive in the affected machine. It uses the value tcpClient_0 as its HTTP server, where it will receive all stolen information from the infected machine. However, since the value was set to null, all stolen information will be sent to the same C&C server | ['T1041'] |
The recording of audio data from the internal microphone is also rather new. Of course, other malware exists which can record audio, but key here is Flame’s completeness – the ability to steal data in so many different ways | ['T1123'] |
PipeMon’s first stage consists of a password-protected RARSFX executable embedded in the .rsrc section of its launcher. Once written to disk, the RARSFX is executed with CreateProcess by providing the decryption password in an argument, as follows | ['T1106'] |
Finally, after the initial beaconing, receiving a configuration, and exfiltrating stolen information from the infected machine, AZORult may download the next payload. For example, in the campaign described at the beginning of this post, AZORult downloads Hermes 2.1 ransomware after it exfiltrates the victim’s data and credentials | ['T1105'] |
While FIN7 has embedded VBE as OLE objects for over a year, they continue to update their script launching mechanisms. In the current lures, both the malicious DOCX and RTF attempt to convince the user to double-click on the image in the document, as seen in Figure 1. This spawns the hidden embedded malicious LNK file in the document. Overall, this is a more effective phishing tactic since the malicious content is embedded in the document content rather than packaged in the OLE object | ['T1497.002'] |
The Bazar Loader malware was using a code signing certificate signed by Digicert under the organization NOSOV SP Z O O | ['T1588.003'] |
The sample checks that the machine is domain joined and retrieves the domain name before execution continues. A userID is generated by computing the MD5 of a network interface MAC address that is up and not a loopback device, the domain name, and the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\MachineGuid | ['T1016'] |
The worm also includes code to scan for open Docker API’s using masscan, then spin up docker images and install itself | ['T1046'] |
The campaigns use a TrickBot downloader that is signed and uses an icon to pretend it is a Microsoft Word document. To avoid suspicion, the decoy message suggests the user should update Microsoft Word or open the file from another computer | ['T1036'] |
Sakula also leverages single-byte XOR encoding to obfuscate various strings and files embedded in the resource section, which are subsequently used for User Account Control (UAC) bypass on both 32 and 64-bit systems. Analysis . CTU researchers performed detailed analysis on 346 Sakula samples, including the installer and all dropped files used by the malware to run. Source: Dell SecureWorks) . Installation . In most of the samples collected by the CTU research team, Sakula maintains persistence by setting the registry Run key (SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\) in either the HKLM or HKCU hive. In the samples compiled in 2014, the adversary switched to adding the Run key by invoking cmd.exe: The registry value and filename vary by sample. Three of the analyzed samples placed files in %APPDATA%, while the remaining Sakula samples placed files in a directory under %ALLUSERSPROFILE%. A small number of samples did not use an additional subdirectory. The msi.dll file is configured to read and XOR-decode setup.msi, also located in the same directory, and run it in memory. Based on whether the compromised system is 32-bit or 64-bit, the appropriate file is written and run using cmd.exe calling rundll32 on the DLL with the PlayWin32 or PlayWin64 export. Center509671.dat). In a small group of Sakula samples from 2013, the install process also modified the hosts file to point some of the victim's subdomains to various IP addresses within the victim's own organization. The malware also registered a file as a command component within the registry. In the Sakula samples where the install process performed cleanup, the malware invoked cmd.exe | ['T1059.003'] |
The initial attack did not produce the desired result; The attackers made a second attempt, with a ransomware payload named license.exe, launched from the same location. But before they launched it, they executed a script that disabled Windows Defender’s Real-Time Monitoring feature | ['T1562.001'] |
The data found within this file is encrypted using a single-byte xor key of 0x41. The file header structure, with the underlying data still encrypted, can be seen below | ['T1560.003'] |
Since version 0.2.6 This function creates a Kerberos ticket with given user details and server (usually AZUREADSSOACC) password. Uses only user’s SID and server password | ['T1558.002'] |
The NtdsAudit utility is an auditing tool for Active Directory databases. It allows the user to collect useful statistics related to accounts and passwords. The utility was found on various systems of a victim and matches the NtdsAudit.exe program file version v2.0.5 published on the GitHub project page | ['T1201'] |
In addition to plainpwd and CredRaptor the toolkit includes a keylogger. The keylogger uses a standard technique to capture keystrokes, specifically the SetWindowsHookEx function | ['T1056.001'] |
After the anti-analysis checks are complete, the loader starts preparing the infected environment for the downloading of additional payloads. There are 3 download attempts (and thus 3 GET requests trailing by a different numeric ID), the payloads are downloaded subsequently to the user’s %temp% folder | ['T1071.001'] |
In 2018, CTU researchers observed several GOLD KINGSWOOD campaigns involving SpicyOmelette, a tool used by the group during initial exploitation of an organization. This sophisticated JavaScript remote access tool is generally delivered via phishing, and it uses multiple defense evasion techniques to hinder prevention and detection activities. GOLD KINGSWOOD delivered SpicyOmelette through a phishing email containing a shortened link that appeared to be a PDF document attachment. When clicked, the link used the Google AppEngine to redirect the system to a GOLD KINGSWOOD-controlled Amazon Web Services (AWS) URL that installed a signed JavaScript file, which was SpicyOmelette | ['T1566.002'] |
Putty – can be leveraged by attackers for remote access, to exfiltrate data and send it back to attackers - PSExec – is a legitimate Microsoft tool that can be exploited by malicious actors and used for lateral movement across victim networks - SNScan – this tool can be used for network reconnaissance, to find other potential targets on victim networks - WinRAR – is an archiving tool that can be used to compress files (potentially to make them easier to send back to attackers) and also to extract files from zipped folders | ['T1046'] |
In order to execute the additional modules, the malware uses the process hollowing technique for hiding the malicious payload inside an allowlisted process, such as svchost.exe. The payloads are stored encrypted in the filesystem and decrypted in the memory as they are executed | ['T1055.012'] |