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The Delphi variant of Zebrocy delivered in this attack campaign are very similar to the Delphi downloader discussed in our previous Zebrocy research published in June 2018. While this Delphi variant was known, the C# and VB.NET variants delivered in this attack campaign were previously unknown. An interesting note on these payloads is that all the Delphi payloads delivered in this campaign were packed with UPX, while none of the other payloads were packed. While we can only speculate on the specific reason, it is likely Sofacy packed only the Delphi variants in an attempt to increase evasion as the Delphi variant of Zebrocy is known and has been widely analyzed | ['T1027.002'] |
While PotPlayerDB.dat is a variant of PlugX malware, TA416 has updated the payload by changing both its encoding method and expanding the payload’s configuration capabilities. Historically, TA416 relied on the DLL launcher to decode the PlugX payload utilizing an XOR key included at the offset 0 within the PlugX DAT configuration file. One of the main ways it does this is by resolving API functions during runtime. Generally, malware loads a DLL, iterates over the set of exports of the DLL and hashes the string, looking for a matching hash. This iteration of PlugX does standard API hashing, but only to resolve the address of the functions GetProcAddress as well as LoadLibrary. Once those functions are resolved properly, it loads the rest of the functions via their text name | ['T1027'] |
Torisma uses this method to send data back to the C2 server read from the named pipe. This is the results of the execution of the shellcode on the victim’s system through the ViewPrevPage action and the results of this execution are sent and processed using this function | ['T1041'] |
Summary In early May, Unit 42 discovered an attack campaign against at least one defense company in Russia and one unidentified organization in South Korea delivering a variant of Bisonal malware. While not previously publicly documented, the variant has been in the wild since at least 2014. There are three primary differences between it and older Bisonal malware including a different cipher and encryption for C2 communication, and a large rewrite of the code for both network communication and maintaining persistence. To date, we have only collected 14 samples of this variant, indicating it may be sparingly used. The adversary behind these attacks lured the targets into launching the Microsoft Windows executable malware by masquerading it as a PDF file (using a fake PDF icon) and reusing publicly available data for the decoy PDF file’s contents. Attacks using Bisonal have been blogged about in the past. We believe it is likely these tools are being used by one group of attackers. Though Bisonal malware has been in the wild for at least seven years and frequently updated, the actors keep using same high-level playbooks. Common features of attacks involving Bisonal include | ['T1059.003'] |
Mustang Panda APT uses a package of binaries to load the actual payload and it is intentionally designed this way to bypass file scanners and sandboxes. Obviously, file scanners or sandboxes can’t detect the PlugX payload without the encrypted DAT file | ['T1027.001'] |
HOLMIUM has been observed using various vectors for initial access, including spear-phishing email, sometimes carrying archive attachments that exploit the CVE-2018-20250 vulnerability in WinRAR, and password-spraying. Many of their recent attacks, however, have involved the penetration testing tool Ruler used in tandem with compromised Exchange credentials | ['T1110.003'] |
Completing missions typically involves gathering and transferring information out of the target network, which may involve moving files through multiple systems before reaching the destination. APT40 has been observed consolidating files acquired from victim networks and using the archival tool rar.exe to compress and encrypt the data before exfiltration. We have also observed APT40 develop tools such as PAPERPUSH to aid in the effectiveness of their data targeting and theft | ['T1021.001'] |
L“ServicesActive”: This string is passed to the OpenSCManagerW API to retrieve active services. expand 32-byte kexpand 16-byte”: The constants used by the Salsa20 symmetric encryption algorithm | ['T1106'] |
It creates the folder "\ProgramData\AuditService\" and copies the clean file "lsass.exe" (taken from "\Windows\System32\") into the folder. The tainted "services.exe" installs "\ProgramData\AuditService\lsass.exe" as an autostart Windows service named "Audit Service". When the new "lsass.exe" service autostarts, the malicious file "sspisrv.dll" sideloads in the same folder. lsass.exe" will eventually crash because of a failure to load other dependencies | ['T1543.003', 'T1569.002'] |
Companies in multiple sectors are targeted in this campaign, including those operating in the automotive, pharmaceutical, and engineering sector, as well as managed service providers (MSPs | ['T1078'] |
Use of trusted channels: BoomBox is a uniquely developed downloader used to obtain a later-stage payload from an actor-controlled Dropbox account. All initial communications leverage the Dropbox API via HTTPS. Opportunity for restraint: Consistent with other tools utilized by NOBELIUM, BoomBox, VaporRage, and some variants of NativeZone conduct some level of profiling on an affected system’s environment. Ambiguity: VaporRage is a unique shellcode loader seen as the third-stage payload. VaporRage can download, decode, and execute an arbitrary payload fully in-memory. Such design and deployment patterns, which also include staging of payloads on a compromised website, hamper traditional artifacts and forensic investigations, allowing for unique payloads to remain undiscovered | ['T1071.001'] |
The maldocs used in this campaign typically contain a malicious VBA macro that downloads and activates the next stage of the infection chain. Although the VBA macro contains an auto open subroutine, it uses several VBA functions registered to trigger if the "Typing replaces selection" property is enabled in Microsoft Word. The VBA functions trigger when the victim types any content into the maldoc. Appdata%\desktop.iniThe next stage of the VBS is run using wscript.exe using a command such as:%windir%\System32\wscript.exe //e:vbscript //b <path_to_Stage_2>Macros dropping VBS to disk and running via wscript.exe | ['T1204.002', 'T1059.005', 'T1059.005'] |
The stage 2 payload for the macOS X malware was decoded and analyzed. The stage 2 malware has a variety of functionalities. Most importantly, it checks in with a C2 and, after connecting to the C2, can send or receive a payload, read and write files, execute commands via the terminal, etc | ['T1140'] |
Using the built-in expand.exe utility provided by Microsoft Windows, the dropper executes the following command, which will expand the CAB file and write the results to the provided directory | ['T1140'] |
In some instances, we have also seen the RemcosRAT malware family delivered as the final payload. Additionally, the process attempts to lower the overall security of the system by disabling security features in Microsoft Office and Windows Defender. The payloads themselves are rather interesting, as the developer wraps the malicious code with legitimate source code freely available online | ['T1204.002'] |
This data is gathered into an information structure which the RAT zips with an 8 bytes random generated password, which is then XORed with one byte | ['T1560'] |
On another occasion, CVE-2021-26411 was used, which is another exploit targeting Internet Explorer and legacy versions of Microsoft Edge. The redirect code was set up in the same way as CVE-2020-1380, the only difference being the exploit code used. The key part of the exploit code used is given in Figures 3 and 4 | ['T1203'] |
The threat actor accomplished this by using administrative accounts to connect via SMB to targeted users, and then copy their Chrome profile directories as well as data protection API (DPAPI) data | ['T1003.006'] |
TA416 has used SMTP2Go to impersonate various European diplomatic organizations since at least 2020. In this historical campaign, TA416 delivered a DropBox URL that delivered a PlugX variant aligning with Recorded Future’s analysis of "Red Delta" PlugX malware. Included below is a publicly available malicious Zip file hash from August 2020 delivered via a DropBox URL which is attributable to TA416/Red Delta | ['T1102'] |
One, called "frown.py," is responsible for the communications with the command and control (C2). It uses TLS to encrypt the communication that occurs on port 143. The RAT will answer the "who" command with a string that contains the username, computer name and the previously generated UUID. The "ice" command simply makes the RAT finish the connection procedure. This is responsible for the interpretation and execution of the C2 commands. The available commands are | ['T1573.002'] |
The use of the web bug reconnaissance technique suggests TA416 is being more discerning about which targets the group chooses to deliver malware payloads. Historically, the group primarily delivered web bug URLs alongside malware URLs to confirm receipt. In 2022, the group started to first profile users and then deliver malware URLs. This may be an attempt by TA416 to avoid having their malicious tools discovered and publicly disclosed. By narrowing the lens of targeting from broad phishing campaigns to focus on targets that have proven to be active and willing to open emails, TA416 increases its chance of success when following up with malicious malware payloads | ['T1566.002'] |
In such a situation, the malware will find and run the built-in Microsoft Windows InfDefaultInstall.exe program, which will install a DLL via an INF file. Should Tencent be installed, the malware will execute the InfDefaultInstall.exe program with an argument of ‘QQMgr.inf’. Otherwise, it will use ‘hccutils.inf’ as an argument | ['T1574.002'] |
Multiple samples contain UAC bypass code for both 32 and 64-bit systems. The UAC bypass code is stored as 'DAT' in the file's resource section | ['T1548.002'] |
On Sunday August 24, 2014 we observed a spear phish email sent to a Taiwanese government ministry. Attached to this email was a malicious Microsoft Word document (MD5: f6fafb7c30b1114befc93f39d0698560) that exploited CVE-2012-0158. It is worth noting that this email appeared to have been sent from another Taiwanese Government employee, implying that the email was sent from a valid but compromised account | ['T1204.002', 'T1566.001'] |
After successful lateral movement, the attackers tried to establish persistency on selected servers –targeting all domain controllers, but also other servers. To achieve persistency, they used WMI Event Subscription with a few different WMI objects | ['T1018'] |
Figure 3 shows a code excerpt from the embedded macro that checks which base64 blob should be decoded based on the iCheck variable, a Boolean value which is set to true if the victim system is running on a 64-bit system and false on a 32-bit system. If the system is found to be 64-bit, the base64 encoded blob on the left is decoded otherwise the base64 encoded blob on the right is decoded | ['T1082'] |
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 newly dropped executable is a loader Trojan responsible for installing and running the payload of this attack. Overall, SofacyCarberp does initial reconnaissance by gathering system information and sending it to the C2 server prior to downloading additional tools to the system. These differences include a new hashing algorithm to resolve API functions and to find running browser processes for injection, as well as changes to the C2 communication mechanisms as explained in detail within the appendix. 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. 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 | ['T1105'] |
As Hui explains, this happens because ngrok.io URLs stay online for only around 12 hours, and by the time security researchers identify a new C&C URL, the ngrok.io link changes to a new one, hiding the botnet from researchers once more. This allows the botnet to survive more than other botnets that host C&C servers on popular hosting platforms where security firms can usually intervene via abuse requests | ['T1568.002'] |
As mentioned, FALLCHILL was reported as the final payload for Celas Trade Pro. All FALLCHILL samples use 16-byte hardcoded RC4 keys for sending data, similar to the 16-byte keys in the AppleJeus samples | ['T1573.001'] |
If the connection to the C2 server is successful, the script parses the output and invokes it using IEX. The script sleeps for a random number of seconds between 60 and 100 after each attempt to reach the C2. The GET requests will be parsed by LitePower and invoked using PowerShell’s IEX function | ['T1059.001', 'T1071.001'] |
It only installs the second-stage script in the default registry value under the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\sibot. Variant B registers a scheduled task named Sibot and programmed to run daily. This task, which is saved by Windows in the file C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\sibot, runs the following command-line daily | ['T1112'] |
The exploit used, named EternalBlue, exploits a vulnerability in the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol which allows the malware to spread to all unpatched Windows systems from XP to 2016 on a network that have this protocol enabled. This vulnerability allows remote code execution over SMB v1. WannaCry utilizes this exploit by crafting a custom SMB session request with hard-coded values based on the target system | ['T1210'] |
networkDll32 Trickbot uses this encrypted module to scan the network and steal relevant network information. It executes the following commands to gather information on the infected system | ['T1016'] |
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 | ['T1059.005'] |
The folder C:\Users\Public\Administrador\logs\ is created to store screenshots, as well as the number of mouse clicks the user has triggered while browsing the banking sites (Figure 12). The screenshots are continuously saved as .jpg images | ['T1119'] |
The official AutoIt3 interpreter comes as part of the AutoIt installation package, and it is used by the malware to execute the compiled script. The VBS script runs the AutoIt interpreter, passing the compiled script as an argument. Once executed, it loads the library, which was also passed as an argument to call a hardcoded exported function | ['T1059.005'] |
1) Resolves WINAPI functions 2) Hides its GUI using ShowWindow WINAPI call 3) Compares if the DLL is being ran by wmplayer | ['T1564.003'] |
BADNEWS Much of BADNEWS has remained consistent from when it was originally discussed by Forcepoint in August 2016. To briefly recap, the BADNEWS malware family acts as a backdoor, with communication occurring over HTTP. A number of commands are provided to the attackers, including the ability to download and execute additional information, upload documents of interest, and take screenshots of the desktop | ['T1102.001'] |
Throughout the years, Kimsuky has been using an array of malware in their operations. The infrastructure of some of the malware used by Kimsuky can be tracked using pattern analysis of the URI structures used by some of their tools. The following table maps commonly observed URI patterns to their respective malware | ['T1566.001'] |
This is not the first time Turla has used PowerShell in-memory loaders to increase its chances of bypassing security products. After a few months, Turla has improved these scripts and is now using them to load a wide range of custom malware from its traditional arsenal. PowerShell Loader . The PowerShell loader has three main steps: persistence, decryption and loading into memory of the embedded executable or library. It reads the Windows Registry key where the encrypted payload is stored, and contains the password and the salt needed to decrypt the payload. WMI consumer PowerShell command . Finally, the script stores the encrypted payload in the Windows registry. Hijacked profile.ps1 file . The base64-encoded PowerShell command is very similar to the one used in the WMI consumers. The key and the salt are also different for each script and are not stored in the script, but only in the WMI filter or in the profile.ps1 file. Patching of AmsiScanBuffer function . Payloads . The PowerShell scripts we have presented are generic components used to load various payloads, such as an RPC Backdoor and a PowerShell backdoor. We have seen operators use this backdoor for the following purposes: Conclusion . In a 2018 blogpost, we predicted that Turla would use more and more generic tools. Finally, the usage of open-source tools does not mean Turla has stopped using its custom tools | ['T1140'] |
This appears to be an implementation of hashbusting — a method of obfuscation in which a malware sample is subtly changed on the fly so each sample has a different checksum. As a result, the SHA256 hash of each payload downloaded from the sites in question appeared to be unique. However, the SSDEEP fuzzy hash of this sample was as follows | ['T1027.005'] |
By using these methods, Kimsuky can gain login and password information and/or launch malware outside of some application allowlisting solutions | ['T1133'] |
Once delivered, Egregor will perform a sequence of language checks in a similar manner to both Maze and Sekhmet, before attempting to enumerate all connected drives. If successful, it connects to a command and control (C2) server to grab a list of directories present on the enumerated drives to search. Any files in these directories are then extracted and sent back to the C2 server | ['T1039'] |
After the driver is loaded, the VSS service is disabled using the Control Service Manager. Following this, a number of additional threads are created. A thread is created to handle the system reboot. It will sleep for the time specified by a command line parameter of 35 minutes, at which point the system will be restarted by an API call to InitializeSystemShutdownExW | ['T1134'] |
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. It uses RC4 encryption and custom Base64 encoding to obfuscate HTTP traffic. xxmm (also known as Minzen) — This RAT and likely successor to Daserf AES-encrypts HTTP communications using a one-time encryption key. As of this publication, BRONZE BUTLER demonstrates a preference for concurrently using Datper and xxmm in its operations. CTU researchers identified an xxmm builder for xxmm (see Figure 2), which suggests that the threat actors customize the xxmm malware settings based on the target. 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 the ‘net time' command to check the local time on the target system. Search proxy log files for evidence of web server scanning using the URL patterns associated with BRONZE BUTLER activity. Use an advanced endpoint threat detection (AETD) solution to monitor activity on network endpoints. In particular, review network access for use of mobile USB modems on corporate systems | ['T1124'] |
The hooked WriteFile procedure’s main purpose is to save the file handle of the subject file to write and install another hook in the CloseHandle API function | ['T1005'] |
The first of FIN7's new tools is BOOSTWRITE – an in-memory-only dropper that decrypts embedded payloads using an encryption key retrieved from a remote server at runtime. FIN7 has been observed making small changes to this malware family using multiple methods to avoid traditional antivirus detection, including a BOOSTWRITE sample where the dropper was signed by a valid Certificate Authority. While CARBANAK has been thoroughly analyzed and has been used maliciously by several financial attackers including FIN7, RDFSNIFFER is a newly-identified tool recovered by Mandiant investigators | ['T1587.001'] |
The first layer of the FYAnti loader decrypts an embedded .NET module and executes it using the CppHostCLR technique. The .NET module is packed using “ConfuserEx v1.0.0” and acts as yet another loader that searches for a file in the “C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\” directory with file sizes between 100,000 and 500,000 | ['T1027.002', 'T1083'] |
Once gaining a foothold, the threat actors use off-the-shelf tools to ensure persistence, including Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to maintain access. While GDPR requirements prevented us from pivoting on Registrant information, the actors reused IP space, reused a certificate, and the aforementioned domain mimicking technique allowed for some pivoting. Toolset . Once gaining a foothold on a user’s system, the threat actors behind STOLEN PENCIL use Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) for remote point-and-click access. This means a human is behind the keyboard interacting with a compromised system, and not using a RAT (Remote Access Trojan) with a command-and-control site acting as a proxy between the threat actor and the compromised system. A compromised or stolen certificate was used to sign several PE files used in STOLEN PENCIL for two sets of tools: - MECHANICAL Logs keystrokes to %userprofile%\appdata\roaming\apach. GREASE a tool to add a Windows administrator account with a specific username/password and enable RDP, circumventing any firewall rules. defaultes/1qaz2wsx#EDC - a tool to add a Windows administrator account with a specific username/password and enable RDP, circumventing any firewall rules. Figure 5: Certificate used to sign MECHANICAL/GREASE While the threat actors did use a few tools to automate intrusions, we also found a ZIP archive of tools that demonstrate their propensity for password theft to propagate. Using a combination of stolen passwords, backdoor accounts, and a forced-open RDP service, the threat actors are likely to retain a foothold on a compromised system. Conclusion . While we were able to gain insight into the threat actor’s TTPs (Tools, Techniques, & Procedures) behind STOLEN PENCIL, this is clearly just a small window into their activity | ['T1078.003'] |
This simple backdoor is likely used as a second-chance backdoor to maintain access to the system, even if the primary malware is removed. It could also be used as a second-stage dropper to infect the system with additional malware | ['T1105'] |
Layer 2 uses a classic Adobe Flash Player Vector corruption technique to develop its heap corruption vulnerability to a full relative read/write available to ActionScript3. In this technique, the attacker sprays Adobe Flash Player Vectors to the heap, and triggers a write vulnerability to change the size of one of the vectors. For more details on this technique, see Flash in 2015 | ['T1203'] |
Filter the target machines: setup.bat first checks if the hostname of the machine is one of the following: PIS-APP, PIS-MOB, WSUSPROXY or PIS-DB. Download the malicious files onto the machine: the same batch file downloads a cab archive named env.cab from a remote address in the internal network: \\railways.ir\sysvol\railways.ir\scripts\env.cab. The use of specific hostnames and internal paths indicates the attacker had prior knowledge of the environment. Extract and run additional tools: update.bat, which was extracted and started by setup.bat, uses the password hackemall to extract the next stages: cache.bat, msrun.bat and bcd.bat. Corrupt the boot: bcd.bat is used in order to harm the boot process | ['T1059.001', 'T1489'] |
The BONDUPDATER Trojan contains basic backdoor functionality, allowing threat actors to upload and download files, as well as the ability to execute commands. BONDUPDATER, like other OilRig tools, uses DNS tunneling to communicate with its C2 server | ['T1105', 'T1059.003', 'T1071.004'] |
As mentioned in our earlier technical report on Trojan.Hydraq, the back door allows the attacker to perform any of the following activities: - Adjust token privileges. Check status, control, and end processes and services. Create, modify, and delete registry subkeys. Retrieve a list of logical drives | ['T1083'] |
The actor then tested connectivity to an IP managed by the victim’s service provider. Once connectivity to the service provider IP was verified, the actor established the service provider IP as a proxy for the victim’s SOGU backdoor. This effectively routes SOGU malware traffic through the victim’s service provider, which likely indicates a foothold on the service provider’s network. The tactic also serves to mask malicious C2 and exfiltration traffic and make it appear innocuous | ['T1090.002'] |
The malware component, test.exe, uses the Windows command "cmd.exe" /C whoami” to verify it is running with the elevated privileges of “System” and creates persistence by creating the following scheduled task | ['T1059.003', 'T1053.005', 'T1033'] |
The download process is the same with the previous variant, the loader resolves the command and control server IP address using a hardcoded list of DNS servers and then downloads the corresponding file. An interesting addition, in the latest samples, is the use of an alternative command and control server IP address, in case the primary one fails. The alternative IP address is generated by applying a bitwise XOR operation to each byte of the resolved command and control IP address with the byte 0xFE. In addition, as a possible anti-behaviour method, the loader verifies that the command and control server IP address is not ‘127.0.0.1’. Both of these methods are also present in the latest Team9 backdoor variants | ['T1008'] |
Audit all remote authentications from trusted networks or service providers. Detect mismatches by correlating credentials used within internal networks with those employed on external-facing systems. Log use of system administrator commands such as net, ipconfig, and ping | ['T1133'] |
1) Use PowerShell Constrained Language Mode as it uses IEX, Add-Type, and New-Object. 2) Lock PowerShell Execution Policy, must be set to “AllSigned” via GPO. 3) An allowlisting solution to prevent certain process child-parent execution hierarchies | ['T1559.002'] |
The main functionality of the macros remained the same as in a previous APT34 campaign: The malicious macros use the MouseAvailable function for evasion, and create a scheduled task to execute a payload embedded within the document | ['T1053.005'] |
Since the 2016 publication, Microsoft has come across an evolution of PLATINUM’s file-transfer tool, one that uses the Intel® Active Management Technology (AMT) Serial-over-LAN (SOL) channel for communication | ['T1105'] |
Maze creates a mutex with the name “Global\x” where x is a special value that is unique per machine. For example, in the next screenshot (some information has been deleted to anonymize the machine used for the analysis) is an example of this behavior | ['T1047'] |
Additionally, one of the samples is able to capture screenshots of the infected system. To perform this task, the developer used the GDI API: A keylogger is also present in the analyzed sample. The SetWindowsHookEx() API is used to retrieve the stroked keys. The GetKeyNameText() API is used to retrieve a string that represents the name of a key. In addition to the key, the title of the foreground window is stored in order to known where the infected user is typing (by using the GetForegroundWindow() and GetWindowText() API | ['T1113'] |
Endpoint Protection . Buckeye cyberespionage group shifts gaze from US to Hong Kong . Buckeye (also known as APT3, Gothic Panda, UPS Team, and TG-0110) is a cyberespionage group that is believed to have been operating for well over half a decade. Buckeye used a remote access Trojan (Backdoor.Pirpi) in attacks against a US organization’s network in 2009. Symantec has identified additional tools used by the group, which will be discussed later. Organizations that Buckeye targeted over time, per region . Malware and tools . Buckeye uses a number of hacking tools as well as malware. Buckeye uses Backdoor.Pirpi, a remote access Trojan capable of reading, writing, and executing files and programs. As mentioned previously, Buckeye also uses a number of hacking tools, including the following: Keylogger: The keylogger is configured using the command line parameters: NetworkService, Replace, Install, Register and Unregister. RemoteCMD: This tool executes commands on remote computers, similar to the PsExec tool. On execution, the tool injects itself into lsass.exe and is triggered with the argument “dig”. OSinfo: OSInfo is a general purpose, system information gathering tool. It has the following command line argument help: ChromePass: A tool from NirSoft used for recovering passwords stored in the Chrome browser. This, coupled with the group’s use of zero-day exploits in the past, customized tools, and the types of organizations being targeted would suggest that Buckeye is a state-sponsored cyberespionage group | ['T1059.003'] |
Just like Rampant Kitten, both threat groups attempted to gather information from the Keepass password manager and changed the execution flow of Telegram Desktop to ensure the persistence of their malware | ['T1555.005'] |
In this campaign, Palmerworm is also using stolen code-signing certificates to sign its payloads, which makes the payloads appear more legitimate and therefore more difficult for security software to detect. Palmerworm has been publicly documented using stolen code-signing certificates in previous attack campaigns | ['T1588.003'] |
After the malware is downloaded and files verified, the script will check in the C:\Program Files\ directory for the presence Avast antivirus, which happens to be the most common installed AV worldwide | ['T1518.001'] |
Monday, February 12, 2018 . Olympic Destroyer Takes Aim At Winter Olympics . This blog post is authored by Warren Mercer and Paul Rascagneres. Officials at the games confirmed some technical issues to non-critical systems and they completed recovery within around 12 hours. The destructive nature of this malware aims to render the machine unusable by deleting shadow copies, event logs and trying to use PsExec & WMI to further move through the environment. This feature explains why we discovered several samples with different sets of credentials that were collected from previously infected systems. Dropped Files . Browser Credential Stealer . Olympic Destroyer drops a browser credential stealer. SQLite is embedded in the sample: . System Credential Stealer . In additional to the browsers credential stealer, Olympic Destroyer drops and executes a system stealer. This step is executed to ensure that file recovery is not trivial - WBAdmin can be used to recover individual files, folders and also whole drives so this would be a very convenient tool for a sysadmin to use in order to aid recovery. Additionally, the destroyer disables all the services on the system: The malware uses the ChangeServiceConfigW API to change the start type to 4 which means: "Disabled: Specifies that the service should not be started. Legitimate File . Additionally, the Olympic Destroyer drops the legitimate, digitally signed, PsExec file in order to perform lateral movement by using this legitimate tool from Microsoft. categories . Subscribe To Our Feed . Blog Archive . - - - - - - - - - - - - ▼ February (14) CannibalRAT targets Brazil Who Wasn’t Responsible for Olympic Destroyer | ['T1490'] |
To install a malicious shim database, the attacker invokes a Microsoft utility called sdbinst.exe through a PowerShell script | ['T1059.001'] |
When connecting to web shells on a target network GALLIUM has been observed employing Taiwan-based servers. Observed IP addresses appear to be exclusive to GALLIUM, have little to no legitimate activity, and are reused in multiple operations. These servers provide high fidelity pivot points during an investigation | ['T1583.004'] |
During this process, the adversary identifies data of interest from the network of the victim. This can be anything from file and directory-listings, configuration files, manuals, email stores in the guise of OST- and PST-files, file shares with intellectual property (IP), and data scraped from memory. If the data is small enough, it is exfiltrated through the command and control channel of the Cobalt Strike beacons. However, usually the data is compressed with WinRAR, staged on another system of the victim, and from there copied to a OneDrive-account controlled by the adversary | ['T1114.001', 'T1083'] |
As the result of the RC4 encryption may contain binary data, the malware additionally encodes it in BASE64, to match the HTTP specification | ['T1132.001'] |
We attribute this campaign with high confidence to an actor named WIRTE, which is a lesser-known threat actor first publicly referenced by our colleagues at Lab52 in 2019. We further suspect, with low confidence, that the WIRTE group has relations with the Gaza Cybergang threat actor | ['T1036.005'] |
1) QEMU Linux images. 2) Shell scripts used to launch the QEMU images. 3) Daemons used to start the shell scripts at boot and keep them running. 4) A CPU monitor shell script with an accompanying daemon that can start/stop the mining based on CPU usage and whether the Activity Monitor process is running | ['T1059.004'] |
Retefe is different from most banking Trojans, which typically attack web browser software to capture login credentials before they are encrypted with SSL and sent to the bank’s web server. Instead, Retefe uses the Windows PowerShell to execute a series of commands that installs a new root certificate on the system and a proxy configuration to re-route the traffic to the targeted banking websites | ['T1553.004'] |
Remote desktop available via VNC. Hidden Remote desktop available via RDPWrap. Privilege escalation (even for the latest Win10 updates) Remote WebCam control. Remote Shell. Remote desktop available via VNC. Hidden Remote desktop available via RDPWrap. Remote Shell. Remote desktop available via VNC. Hidden Remote desktop available via RDPWrap. Privilege escalation (even for the latest Win10 updates) - Remote WebCam control | ['T1021.005'] |
The use of specific hostnames and internal paths indicates the attacker had prior knowledge of the environment. Extract and run additional tools: update.bat, which was extracted and started by setup.bat, uses the password hackemall to extract the next stages: cache.bat, msrun.bat and bcd.bat. Corrupt the boot: bcd.bat is used in order to harm the boot process | ['T1070.001'] |
The tool is used to hide the threat actors’ tools and services. The tool’s configuration was added to registry run keys on a victim’s computer | ['T1547.001', 'T1112'] |
When loaded with startup command 2, the installer can copy the original explorer.exe file inside its current running directory and rename d3d9.dll to uxtheme.dll. In this case the persistence is achieved by loading the original explorer.exe from its startup location and, using DLL side-loading, passing the execution control to the stage 4 malware (discussed in next section | ['T1036.005'] |
After all the initial HTTP GET requests, the malware starts to gather JSON-formatted system data. For all the fixed drives in the system, the network module stores the disk name and size, as well as computer and user name, Windows directory, host IP, etc | ['T1082'] |
Backdating, or timestomping, is a technique used by many threat actors which involves the manipulation of the creation timestamps or compilation date of a file in order to thwart analysis attempts (anti-forensics). It is suspected that the creation date of most of the files mentioned in this report were tampered with by the threat actors and backdated to 2016 | ['T1070.006'] |
KillDisk, along with the multipurpose, cyberespionage-related BlackEnergy, was used in cyberattacks in late December 2015 against Ukraine’s energy sector as well as its banking, rail, and mining industries. The malware has since metamorphosed into a threat used for digital extortion, affecting Windows and Linux platforms | ['T1083'] |
RemoteCMD: This tool executes commands on remote computers, similar to the PsExec tool. Usage is: %s shareIp domain [USER INFORMATION||[USER NAME AND PASSWORD]] [/run:[COMMAND | ['T1569.002', 'T1053.005'] |
The new wave of Shamoon is accompanied by a .Net tool kit that spreads Shamoon Version 3 and the wiper Filerase | ['T1569.002'] |
Typical file exfiltration modules deployed by threat actors usually consist of the ability to enumerate and exfiltrate files. These implants enumerate files in specific drives or directories and exfiltrate the file lists first. Once the attackers identify the files of interest, the module is instrumented for exfiltration of the files.The VBScript-based file recon module used by the attackers is somewhat different. It downloads a file listing from a remote location that contains the file paths of specific files of interest to the attackers. The file listing is so precise that the attackers know the exact file paths of the files they're looking for on an infected endpoint. This prevents re-infection of the target.A marker file is created in an attacker-specified folder and is checked before the exfiltration module begins its malicious activities. If the marker file is not found, the module will proceed with its recon and exfiltration activities.In August 2021, we saw a minor variation of the same script being deployed in the wild. Instead, it's hardcoded into the scripts showing that the attackers already know the identities of the targets that they are trying to infect. This indicates that this is a highly targeted attack.In October 2021, we observed another update in the file exfiltration scripts | ['T1083'] |
After achieving access to staging targets, the threat actors installed tools to carry out operations against intended victims. On one occasion, threat actors installed the free version of FortiClient, which they presumably used as a VPN client to connect to intended target networks | ['T1105'] |
NCCIC observed multiple methods used by NotPetya to propagate across a network. The first and—in most cases—most effective method, uses a modified version of the Mimikatz tool to steal the user’s Windows credentials. The cyber threat actor can then use the stolen credentials, along with the native Windows Management Instrumentation Command Line (WMIC) tool or the Microsoft SysInternals utility, psexec.exe, to access other systems on the network. Another method for propagation uses the EternalBlue exploit tool to target unpatched systems running a vulnerable version of SMBv1 | ['T1003.001'] |
At face value, ISMInjector is obfuscated with the off-the-shelf SmartAssembly .NET obfuscator created by red-gate.com. The first execution of ISMInjector starts by copying itself to %localappdata%\srvBS.txt and enables persistent access to the system | ['T1027'] |
Speaking on the vulnerability leveraged by this attack, while we spotted the attack performed via Office 2007 running on Windows XP, this is actually a fault existing in a TIFF-processing component shipped with Microsoft Office. Therefore, not only are Office 2007 with Windows XP vulnerable to this attack, but also more environments are affected by this vulnerability. In addition, our later research showed this exploit also works on Office 2007 running on Windows 7. The Labs has been actively working on getting every piece of details of this exploit, we may share our additional findings in the near future | ['T1203'] |
Volexity has identified multiple new attack campaigns being launched by OceanLotus via multiple fake websites and Facebook pages that have been set up within the last year. In addition to targeting those within Vietnam, Volexity has seen renewed targeting of OceanLotus's neighbors throughout Southeast Asia. These websites have been observed profiling users, redirecting to phishing pages, and being leveraged to distribute malware payloads for Windows and OSX. This post will focus on one of the larger campaigns where OceanLotus has leveraged multiple fake news websites to target users | ['T1585.001'] |
modifying permissions, modifying credentials, adding or changing permission groups, modifying account settings, or modifying how authentication is performed) to maintain access to credentials and certain permission levels within an environment (Account Manipulation [T1098]) - Steal the credentials of a specific user or service account to bypass access controls and retain access to remote systems and externally available services (Valid Accounts [T1078]) - Use the Task Scheduler to run programs at system startup or on a scheduled basis for persistence, conduct remote execution for lateral movement, gain SYSTEM privileges for privilege escalation, or run a process under the context of a specified account (Scheduled Task/Job [T1053]) - Abuse the Windows DLLs search order and programs that ambiguously specify DLLs to gain privilege escalation and persistence (Hijack Execution Flow: DLL Search Order Hijacking [T1056.004]) - Exploit hooking to load and execute malicious code within the context of another process to mask the execution, allow access to the process’s memory, and, possibly, gain elevated privileges (Input Capture: Credential API Hooking [T1574.001]) - Use remote services to persist within a victim’s network (External Remote Services [T1133 | ['T1505.003', 'T1569.002', 'T1053.005'] |
The shellcode uses a 16-byte XOR key for decrypting the data as shown in Figure 10 | ['T1140'] |
Recent samples, with the ability to discover wireless network settings and credentials will spawn an instance of netsh.exe after a brief sleeping period (after launch). The syntax utilized initially is | ['T1016'] |
TA551 has distributed different families of malware, including Ursnif (Gozi/ISFB), Valak and IcedID. TA551 malspam spoofs legitimate email chains based on data retrieved from previously infected Windows hosts. This is a generic statement asking the recipient to open an attached ZIP archive using the supplied password. File names for the ZIP archives use the name of the company being spoofed in the email. For example, if the spoofed sender is [email protected], the ZIP attachment would be named companyname.zip. In 2020, we also started seeing emails with info.zip or request.zip as the attached ZIP archive names. These password-protected ZIP attachments contain a Word document with macros to install malware. File names for the extracted Word documents follow noticeable patterns that have evolved as this campaign has progressed. URLs generated by the associated Word macros also follow noticeable patterns that have also evolved as this campaign has progressed | ['T1566.001'] |
This section describes how we identified additional Stealth Falcon victims and bait content, and traced Stealth Falcon’s spyware to additional C2 servers | ['T1071.001'] |
Talos has identified two different infection vectors associated with this particular campaign. The first vector relies on a trojanized document that fetches a remote template and then uses a known exploit. The second vector is a trojanized Word document that prompts the victim to enable macros and run a Visual Basic script. Once the luncher.doc was downloaded, it used CVE-2017-11882, to execute code on the victim's machine. The stager will be described in more detail in the next section | ['T1059.001'] |
Connects a computer to or disconnects a computer from a shared resource, or displays information about computer connections. The command also controls persistent net connections. Used without parameters, net use retrieves a list of network connections | ['T1070.005'] |
The malware then allows the user to open the file as normal without any indication to the user that anything has occurred | ['T1074.001'] |
These keystrokes would run PowerShell commands that downloaded and installed various malware strains that acted as backdoors for the attackers into the victims’ networks | ['T1091'] |
SlideShare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. This talk will showcase the obstacles overcome during one of the largest and most advanced breaches Mandiant has ever responded to, the novel investigative techniques employed, and the lessons learned that allowed us to help remediate it. Details a massive intrusion by Russian APT29 (AKA CozyDuke, Cozy Bear) . Every IR presents unique challenges. This talk will showcase the obstacles overcome during one of the largest and most advanced breaches Mandiant has ever responded to, the novel investigative techniques employed, and the lessons learned that allowed us to help remediate it. RAR) included deleted items in Accessed Files STEALTHYATTACKER FUN FACT: Now it’s built-in. DERBYCON 2016 #NOEASYBREACH Matt Dunwoody @matthewdunwoody Nick Carr @itsreallynick 22 likes . Views . You have now unlocked unlimited access to 20M+ documents. Unlimited Reading . Learn faster and smarter from top experts . Unlimited Downloading . Download to take your learnings offline and on the go . You also get free access to Scribd. Instant access to millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts and more. Free access to premium services like Tuneln, Mubi and more. Enjoy access to millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more from Scribd | ['T1070.004'] |
Subsets and Splits