11-April-2023
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: 716
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 malware functions as a backdoor and communicates with command and control (C2) while masquerading as DNS, allowing attackers to bypass network security controls such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems. Elasitc
Loaders, for the most part, have one job: grab malicious executables or payloads from an attacker-controlled server. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t more happening under the hood of some, such as a user-friendly UI, self-healing capabilities, or the equivalent of a retail shop where a botmaster can sell his bots to potential clients.
Loaders are essentially basic remote access Trojans that give an attacker the ability to remotely interact with and control a compromised computer, or bot. While traditionally lightweight (smaller than 50 KB in size) in order to bypass detection by antivirus and other security monitoring technology, loaders evolve, and their viability to cybercriminals remains. Flashpoint
A digitally signed and trojanized version of the 3CX Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) desktop client is reportedly being used to target the company’s customers in an ongoing supply chain attack.
3CX is a VoIP IPBX software development company whose 3CX Phone System is used by more than 600,000 companies worldwide and has over 12 million daily users. Bleepingcomputer
3CX - Thehackernews |
APT43 is a prolific cyber operator that supports the interests of the North Korean regime. The group combines moderately-sophisticated technical capabilities with aggressive social engineering tactics, especially against South Korean and U.S.-based government organizations, academics, and think tanks focused on Korean peninsula geopolitical issues. Mandiant
APT43 - Mandiant | APT43 - Microsoft | APT43 - Malpedia | APT43 - Bleepingcomputer |
The following detections were updated this past week with changes to kill chain phase(s) or MITRE ATT&CK tactic(s)/technique(s):
Magic Hound is an Iranian-sponsored threat group that conducts long term, resource-intensive cyber espionage operations, likely on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They have targeted U.S. and Middle Eastern government and military personnel, academics, journalists, and organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), via complex social engineering campaigns since at least 2014. MITRE
Malware of this family uses advertising as its main monetization method. The malware uses different methods to display as many ads as possible to the user, including by installing new adware.
These Trojans can get root privileges in order to hide in the system folder, which makes the Trojans very difficult to remove. Kaspersky
A remote access tool (RAT) is a piece of software that allows a remote user to control a system as if they had physical access to that system. An adversary may utilize existing RATs, modify existing RATs, or create their own RAT. MITRE
In July 2022, SEKOIA.IO discovered a new Golang botnet advertised by its alleged developer as Aurora botnet since April 2022. Since we published an analysis of the malware and the profile of the threat actor advertising Aurora on underground forums for our clients, the botnet’s activity slowed down. Since September 2022, Aurora malware is advertised as an infostealer and several traffers teams announced they added it to their malware toolset. Furthermore, SEKOIA.IO observed an increase in the number of Aurora samples distributed in the wild, as well as C2 servers. As the Aurora malware is widespread, not well detected, or publicly documented either, SEKOIA.IO analysed Aurora in depth and share the results of our investigation in this article. Sekois
Voice phishing attacks have a long history in the South Korean market. According to the report published on the South Korean government website, financial losses due to voice phishing constituted approximately 600 million USD in 2020, with the number of victims reaching as many as 170,000 people in the period from 2016 to 2020.
Check Point Research discovered more than 2500 samples of the FakeCalls malware that used a variety of combinations of mimicked financial organizations and implemented anti-analysis (also called evasions) techniques. The malware developers paid special attention to the protection of their malware, using several unique evasions that we had not previously seen in the wild. Check Point Research
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
Proofpoint researchers have recently begun tracking the Phorpiex/Trik botnet (SDBot fork, referred to as Trik throughout this post) as several sophisticated actors have been using it to distribute a range of malware. Despite the recent attention, though, Trik, not to be confused with the TrickBot banking Trojan, is a relatively old botnet. It is not especially sophisticated or complex but has been active for almost a decade, flying under the radar and attracting a solid customer base of threat actors. As we began tracking this botnet more closely, we discovered that a number of familiar actors were repeatedly leveraging Trik’s power and distribution capabilities for delivery of their malware.
Analysis shows that Trik has been present for a decade and first began spreading via Windows Live Messenger and removable USB storage. It later began including Skype in its worming capabilities but this appears to have stopped a few years ago and Trik now propagates via removable media storage and email spam. Proofpoint
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
Adversaries may delete, alter, or send SMS messages without user authorization. This could be used to hide C2 SMS messages, spread malware, or various external effects. This can be accomplished by requesting the RECEIVE_SMS or SEND_SMS permissions depending on what the malware is attempting to do. If the app is set as the default SMS handler on the device, the SMS_DELIVER broadcast intent can be registered, which allows the app to write to the SMS content provider. The content provider directly modifies the messaging database on the device, which could allow malicious applications with this ability to insert, modify, or delete arbitrary messages on the device. MITRE
Snake is the name of a malicious program, which is classified as a keylogger. As the classification implies, the primary functionality of this malware is keylogging. Hence, Snake infections pose a threat to the privacy/safety of all and any typed information. Pcrisk
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
A Trojan downloader is a type of Trojan horse that downloads and installs files, often malicious programs. A Trojan horse is a type of software that looks legitimate but can be malicious in nature. Sometimes these programs can be downloaded onto a device without the user’s knowledge or consent. A Trojan’s purpose is to damage, disrupt, steal, or generally inflict some other harm on your computer and devices. Norton
Malicious programs of this family secretly send information to the criminal from the user’s infected Android mobile device. Kaspersky
During a routine threat-hunting exercise, Cyble research labs discovered a dark web post where a malware developer was advertising a powerful Windows RAT. Cyble
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 | ||
| 3CX | 3 | command and control | http | 3 | command and control | http | 2023-04-05 |
| APT35 | 1 | command and control | http | 208 | command and control, delivery | dns, ftp, http, tcp, tls, udp | 2023-04-06 |
| APT43 | 1 | command and control | http | 1 | command and control | http | 2023-04-05 |
| Android Trojan Agent | 1 | command and control | http | 185 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp, tls | 2023-04-05 |
| AsyncRAT | 1 | command and control | dns | 424 | command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp, tls | 2023-04-05 |
| Aurora | 1 | command and control | dns | 8 | actions on objectives, command and control | dns, http, tcp-pkt | 2023-04-07 |
| CrDatLoader | 13 | command and control | tcp-pkt, dns | 13 | command and control | tcp-pkt, dns | 2023-04-05 |
| FakeCalls | 2 | command and control | dns | 17 | command and control | dns, http | 2023-04-04 |
| Gamaredon | 20 | command and control | dns | 218 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp-pkt, tls | 2023-04-07 |
| Keitaro | 1 | command and control | dns | 59 | command and control, delivery, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2023-04-06 |
| NetSupport RAT | 4 | command and control | dns | 13 | actions on objectives, command and control, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2023-04-06 |
| Phorpiex | 2 | weaponization | smtp | 104 | command and control, delivery, weaponization | dns, http, smtp, tcp, udp | 2023-04-08 |
| Raccoon Stealer | 2 | actions on objectives | http | 140 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | http, tls | 2023-04-07 |
| SOMNIRECORD | 4 | command and control | dns | 4 | command and control | dns | 2023-04-05 |
| SmsThief | 1 | command and control | dns | 147 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp, tls, udp | 2023-04-04 |
| SnakeKeylogger | 2 | delivery, command and control | http, dns | 11 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, ftp, ftp-data, http, smtp | 2023-04-06 |
| SocGholish | 2 | command and control | dns, http | 270 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, exploitation, reconnaissance | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2023-04-08 |
| Stealer and Exfiltration | 3 | installation, command and control, actions on objectives | http | 324 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, exploitation, installation | dns, ftp, http, smtp, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2023-04-05 |
| Trojan Downloader | 2 | delivery | http | 246 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, tcp, tls, udp | 2023-04-05 |
| TrojanSpy-Android | 3 | command and control | http | 483 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, tcp, tls | 2023-04-04 |
| XWorm | 59 | command and control | tcp-pkt | 559 | command and control | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt | 2023-04-07 |
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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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