27-September-2022
Welcome to the weekly threat detection update report from Stamus Networks. Each week, you will receive this email with a summary of the updates.
Current Stamus Threat Intelligence (STI) release version: 556
This week, in addition to daily ruleset and IOC updates, we provided Stamus Security Platform customers with the following improved defense(s):
Note: a "method" as referenced below, is a discrete detection vector for a given threat.
The following detections were added to your Stamus NDR this past week:
This is an overlay-based banking trojan abusing accessibility, the infection method the standard one and it stores a list of applications in shared_preferences. It is focused on targeting LATAM banks and in this sample it focuses on Peru banks. entdark
Zanubis - pcrisk |
PowHeartBeat is a full-featured backdoor written in PowerShell, obfuscated using various techniques such as compression, encoding, and encryption. Based on ESET telemetry, we believe PowHeartBeat replaced CLRLoad in more recent Worok campaigns as the tool used to launch PNGLoad. The PowHeartBeat backdoor uses HTTP to communicate with the C&C Server and later until version 2.4, it was replaced by ICMP. NCERT
PowHeartBeat - welivesecurity |
The Borat RAT comes bundled with its components (e.g. binary builder, supporting modules, server certificates). According to Cyble this malware is an unique combination of RAT, Spyware, and ransomware. The supporting modules are included; a few of the capabilities: Keylogger, Ransomware, Audio/Webcam Recording, Process Hollowing, Browser Credential/Discord Token Stealing, etc. Malpedia
VileRAT is a Python implant, part of an evasive and highly intricate attack campaign against foreign exchange and cryptocurrency trading companies. Securelist
Malicious packages present in The Python Package Index (PyPI) Malicious PyPI
Remote Access Trojans are programs that provide the capability to allow covert surveillance or the ability to gain unauthorized access to a victim PC. Remote Access Trojans often mimic similar behaviors of keylogger applications by allowing the automated collection of keystrokes, usernames, passwords, screenshots, browser history, emails, chat lots, etc. Remote Access Trojans differ from keyloggers in that they provide the capability for an attacker to gain unauthorized remote access to the victim machine via specially configured communication protocols which are set up upon initial infection of the victim computer. This backdoor into the victim machine can allow an attacker unfettered access, including the ability to monitor user behavior, change computer settings, browse and copy files, utilize the bandwidth (Internet connection) for possible criminal activity, access connected systems, and more. Malwarebytes
The MS-ISAC has recently observed an increase in malware that is most often disseminated through malvertising. Malvertising, or malicious advertising, is the use of online, malicious advertisements to spread malware and compromise systems. Generally this occurs through the injection of unwanted or malicious code into ads. Malicious actors then pay legitimate online advertising networks to display the infected ads on various websites, exposing every user visiting these sites to the potential risk of infection. Generally, the legitimate advertising networks and websites are not aware they are serving malicious content. CIS
Malvertising Domain - malwarebytes
The following detections were updated this past week with changes to kill chain phase(s) or MITRE ATT&CK tactic(s)/technique(s):
VICEROY TIGER is an adversary with a nexus to India that has historically targeted entities throughout multiple sectors. Older activity targeted multiple sectors and countries; however, since 2015 this adversary appears to focus on entities in Pakistan with a particular focus on government and security organizations. This adversary consistently leverages spear phishing emails containing malicious Microsoft Office documents, malware designed to target the Android mobile platform, and phishing activity designed to harvest user credentials. In March 2017, the 360 Chasing Team found a sample of targeted attacks that confirmed the previously unknown sample of APT's attack actions, which the organization can now trace back at least in April 2016. The chasing team named the attack organization APT-C-35. In June 2017, the 360 Threat Intelligence Center discovered the organization’s new attack activity, confirmed and exposed the gang’s targeted attacks against Pakistan, and analyzed in detail. The unique EHDevel malicious code framework used by the organization. Malpedia
APT28 (also known as - Fancy Bear/Sofacy/Strontum) is a threat group that has been attributed to Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff by a July 2018 U.S. Department of Justice indictment.
This group reportedly compromised the Hillary Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2016 in an attempt to interfere with the U.S. presidential election. APT28 has been active since at least 2004.
Agent Tesla is a spyware Trojan written for the .NET framework that has been observed since at least 2014. MITRE
Backdoors are designed to give malicious users remote control over an infected computer. In terms of functionality, Backdoors are similar to many administration systems designed and distributed by software developers.
These types of malicious programs make it possible to do anything the author wants on the infected computer: send and receive files, launch files or delete them, display messages, delete data, reboot the computer, etc.
The programs in this category are often used in order to unite a group of victim computers and form a botnet or zombie network. This gives malicious users centralized control over an army of infected computers which can then be used for criminal purposes.
There is also a group of Backdoors which are capable of spreading via networks and infecting other computers as Net-Worms do. The difference is that such Backdoors do not spread automatically (as Net-Worms do), but only upon a special “command” from the malicious user that controls them. Kaspersky
DarkCrystal, also known as dcRAT, is a Remote Access Trojan (RAT). Malware of this type is designed to enable remote access and control over an infected device. RATs can manipulate machines in various ways and can have likewise varied functionalities. DarkCrystal is a dangerous piece of software, which poses a significant threat to device and user safety. DcRat
Trojan.Win32.Downware is a specific detection used by Emsisoft Anti-Malware, AVG Antivirus and other antivirus products to indicate and detect a Potentially Unwanted Program. A potentially unwanted application is a program that contains adware, installs toolbars or has other unclear objectives. Malwaretips
Malware actors often try to infect/add specific code to legitimate binaries in an effort to trojanize (generate segment-padded trojans) those binaries and take advantage of allowed executable on the system.
In computing, the Executable and Linkable Format[citation needed] (ELF, formerly named Extensible Linking Format), is a common standard file format for executable files, object code, shared libraries, and core dumps. First published in the specification for the application binary interface (ABI) of the Unix operating system version named System V Release 4 (SVR4), and later in the Tool Interface Standard, it was quickly accepted among different vendors of Unix systems. In 1999, it was chosen as the standard binary file format for Unix and Unix-like systems on x86 processors by the 86open project. Wikipedia
BASHLITE (also known as Gafgyt, Lizkebab, Qbot, Torlus and LizardStresser) is malware which infects Linux systems in order to launch distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS).Originally it was also known under the name Bashdoor, but this term now refers to the exploit method used by the malware. It has been used to launch attacks of up to 400 Gbps. Wikipedia
Gamaredon Group is a threat group that has been active since at least 2013 and has targeted individuals likely involved in the Ukrainian government. The name Gamaredon Group comes from a misspelling of the word "Armageddon", which was detected in the adversary's early campaigns. MITRE
Cyber criminals violated the law TDS (Traffic Direction System) platform Keitaro and used it to redirect them users in exploit kits RIG and Fallout in order to infect them with malicious software.
TDS platforms are designed for redirection of users in particular sites. Legitimate TDS platforms, such as Keitaro, are mainly used by individuals and companies that want to advertise services or their products. Platforms drive users to the pages that companies want, targeting specific customers and promoting an ad campaign. techbizweb
Remote Access Trojans are programs that provide the capability to allow covert surveillance or the ability to gain unauthorized access to a victim PC. Remote Access Trojans often mimic similar behaviors of keylogger applications by allowing the automated collection of keystrokes, usernames, passwords, screenshots, browser history, emails, chat lots, etc. Remote Access Trojans differ from keyloggers in that they provide the capability for an attacker to gain unauthorized remote access to the victim machine via specially configured communication protocols which are set up upon initial infection of the victim computer. This backdoor into the victim machine can allow an attacker unfettered access, including the ability to monitor user behavior, change computer settings, browse and copy files, utilize the bandwidth (Internet connection) for possible criminal activity, access connected systems, and more. Malwarebytes
Meterpreter is an advanced, dynamically extensible payload that uses in-memory DLL injection stagers and is extended over the network at runtime. It communicates over the stager socket and provides a comprehensive client-side Ruby API. It features command history, tab completion, channels, and more.
Metepreter was originally written by skape for Metasploit 2.x, common extensions were merged for 3.x and is currently undergoing an overhaul for Metasploit 3.3. The server portion is implemented in plain C and is now compiled with MSVC, making it somewhat portable. The client can be written in any language but Metasploit has a full-featured Ruby client API. OffensiveSecurity
Mirai (Japanese: 未来, lit. 'future') is a malware that turns networked devices running Linux into remotely controlled bots that can be used as part of a botnet in large-scale network attacks. It primarily targets online consumer devices such as IP cameras and home routers. The Mirai botnet was first found in August 2016 by MalwareMustDie, a white hat malware research group, and has been used in some of the largest and most disruptive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, including an attack on 20 September 2016 on computer security journalist Brian Krebs' web site, an attack on French web host OVH, and the October 2016 Dyn cyberattack. According to a chat log between Anna-senpai and Robert Coelho, Mirai was named after the 2011 TV anime series Mirai Nikki.
Source: Wikipedia
Molerats is a politically-motivated threat group that has been operating since 2012. The group's victims have primarily been in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. MITRE
MuddyWater is an Iranian threat group that has primarily targeted Middle Eastern nations, and has also targeted European and North American nations. The group's victims are mainly in the telecommunications, government (IT services), and oil sectors. Activity from this group was previously linked to FIN7, but the group is believed to be a distinct group possibly motivated by espionage. MITRE
Mandiant is currently tracking 12 malware families associated with the exploitation of Pulse Secure VPN devices. These families are related to the circumvention of authentication and backdoor access to these devices, but they are not necessarily related to each other and have been observed in separate investigations. It is likely that multiple actors are responsible for the creation and deployment of these various code families.
The focus of this report is on the activities of UNC2630 against U.S. Defense Industrial base (DIB) networks, but detailed malware analysis and detection methods for all samples observed at U.S. and European victim organizations are provided in the technical annex to assist network defenders in identifying a large range of malicious activity on affected appliances. Analysis is ongoing to determine the extent of the activity.
Mandiant continues to collaborate with the Ivanti and Pulse Secure teams, Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC), and relevant government and law enforcement agencies to investigate the threat, as well as develop recommendations and mitigations for affected Pulse Secure VPN appliance owners. FireEye
Raccoon is a stealer and collects "passwords, cookies and autofill from all popular browsers (including FireFox x64), CC data, system information, almost all existing desktop wallets of cryptocurrencies". Malpedia
Remcos is a closed-source tool that is marketed as a remote control and surveillance software by a company called Breaking Security.
Remcos has been observed being used in malware campaigns.
It leverages compromised websites and performs some of the most creative fingerprinting checks we’ve seen, before delivering its payload (NetSupport RAT). Malwarebytes
The term info stealer is self-explanatory. This type of malware resides in an infected computer and gathers data in order to send it to the attacker. Typical targets are credentials used in online banking services, social media sites, emails, or FTP accounts.
Info stealers may use many methods of data acquisition. The most common are:
hooking browsers (and sometimes other applications) and stealing credentials that are typed by the user using web injection scripts that are adding extra fields to web forms and submitting information from them to a server owned by the attacker form grabbing (finding specific opened windows and stealing their content) keylogging stealing passwords saved in the system and cookies Modern info stealers are usually parts of botnets. Sometimes the target of attack and related events are configured remotely by the command sent from the Command and Control server (C&C). Malwarebytes
DPRK APT actor tracked by Proofpoint as TA444 Malpedia
Again, the generic nature of this detection means that the Payloads performed by this group of trojans may be highly variable, and therefore difficult to describe specifically. This group of trojans has been observed to perform any, or all, of the following actions:
redirect Web traffic
- manipulate certain Windows or third-party applications including settings or configurations
- drop or install additional malicious programs
- download and run additional malicious programs
Please note that this list is not exhaustive.
Microsoft
This threat can give a malicious hacker unauthorized access and control of your PC. Microsoft
The following threat detection(s) were improved this past week with new or updated threat methods.
| Name of threat | New coverage | Total coverage | Last updated | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Detection methods | Kill chain phases | Protocols involved | Detection methods | Kill chain phases | Protocols involved | ||
| APT-C-35 | 3 | command and control | http, dns, tls | 154 | command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp, tls | 2022-09-22 |
| APT28 | 1 | command and control | http | 306 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2022-09-24 |
| AgentTesla | 1 | command and control | smtp | 36 | actions on objectives, command and control | dns, ftp, http, smtp, tcp, tls | 2022-09-20 |
| Backdoor | 1 | command and control | tcp | 366 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, ftp, http, icmp, smtp, tcp, tls, udp | 2022-09-20 |
| Borat RAT | 1 | command and control | tls | 1 | command and control | tls | 2022-09-20 |
| DCRAT | 2 | command and control | http | 38 | actions on objectives, command and control | dns, http, tls | 2022-09-20 |
| Downware | 1 | installation | http | 13 | command and control, installation | http, tls | 2022-09-24 |
| ELF | 5 | command and control | tcp | 73 | command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls, udp | 2022-09-20 |
| Gafygt | 1 | command and control | tcp | 34 | command and control, delivery | http, tcp | 2022-09-20 |
| Gamaredon | 6 | actions on objectives, delivery, command and control | http, dns | 119 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http | 2022-09-21 |
| Keitaro | 1 | command and control | dns | 48 | command and control, delivery, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2022-09-20 |
| LuminosityRAT | 5 | actions on objectives, command and control | tcp | 11 | actions on objectives, command and control | tcp | 2022-09-20 |
| Malicious PyPI | 5 | delivery, actions on objectives | http, dns, tls | 5 | delivery, actions on objectives | http, dns, tls | 2022-09-20 |
| Malvertising Domain | 33 | command and control | dns | 33 | command and control | dns | 2022-09-20 |
| Meterpreter | 1 | installation | tcp | 87 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | http, tcp, tls | 2022-09-20 |
| Mirai | 2 | reconnaissance, command and control | http | 202 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, reconnaissance | dns, http, tcp | 2022-09-20 |
| Molerats | 4 | command and control | dns | 52 | command and control, delivery | dns, http, tls | 2022-09-23 |
| MuddyWater | 1 | command and control | dns | 37 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http, tls | 2022-09-20 |
| PowHeartBeat | 4 | command and control | dns, icmp, http | 4 | command and control | dns, icmp, http | 2022-09-20 |
| Pulse VPN exploits | 4 | command and control | http | 5 | command and control | http | 2022-09-20 |
| Raccoon Stealer | 2 | command and control | http | 133 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | http, tls | 2022-09-22 |
| Remcos | 4 | command and control | tcp | 857 | command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt | 2022-09-23 |
| SocGholish | 15 | command and control, delivery | dns, http | 134 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, reconnaissance | dns, http, tcp, tls | 2022-09-24 |
| Stelega | 1 | actions on objectives | http | 6 | actions on objectives, command and control | dns, http | 2022-09-21 |
| TA444 | 22 | command and control | dns, tls | 93 | command and control | dns, http, tls | 2022-09-23 |
| Trojan Agent | 1 | command and control | http | 362 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, ip, smtp, tcp, tcp-pkt, tcp-stream, udp | 2022-09-20 |
| UNK Compromise Framework | 3 | installation, command and control | http | 3 | installation, command and control | http | 2022-09-20 |
| Unk | 1 | actions on objectives | http | 187 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, ftp, http, smtp, tcp, tls | 2022-09-20 |
| VileRAT | 1 | command and control | dns | 1 | command and control | dns | 2022-09-20 |
| Zanubis | 1 | command and control | dns | 1 | command and control | dns | 2022-09-20 |
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Stamus Networks believes in a world where defenders are heroes, and a future where those they protect remain safe. As organizations face threats from well-funded adversaries, we relentlessly pursue solutions that make the defender’s job easier and more impactful. The global leader in Suricata-based network security solutions, Stamus Networks helps enterprise security teams know more, respond sooner and mitigate their risk with insights gathered from cloud and on-premise network activity. Our Stamus Security Platform combines the best of intrusion detection (IDS), network security monitoring (NSM), and network detection and response (NDR) systems into a single solution that exposes serious and imminent threats to critical assets and empowers rapid response.
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