05-December-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: 918
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 Security Platform (SSP) this past week:
Researchers have uncovered a long-term cyber-espionage campaign that used a combination of legitimate software packages and commodity malware tools to target a variety of heavy industry, government intelligence agencies and political activists. Known as the TeamSpy crew because of its affinity for using the legitimate TeamViewer application as part of its toolset, the attackers may have been active for as long as 10 years, researchers say. The attack appears to be a years-long espionage campaign, but experts who have analyzed the victim profile, malware components and command-and-control infrastructure say that it’s not entirely clear what kind of data the attackers are going after. What is clear, though, is that the attackers have been at this for a long time and that they have specific people in mind as targets. Researchers at the CrySyS Lab in Hungary were alerted by the Hungarian National Security Authority to an attack against a high-profile target in the country and began looking into the campaign. They quickly discovered that some of the infrastructure being used in the attack had been in use for some time and that the target they were investigating was by no means the only one. Malpedia
In computing, a Trojan horse (or simply trojan) is any malware which misleads users of its true intent. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek story of the deceptive Trojan Horse that led to the fall of the city of Troy.
Trojans are generally spread by some form of social engineering, for example where a user is duped into executing an email attachment disguised to appear not suspicious, (e.g., a routine form to be filled in), or by clicking on some fake advertisement on social media or anywhere else. Although their payload can be anything, many modern forms act as a backdoor, contacting a controller which can then have unauthorized access to the affected computer. Trojans may allow an attacker to access users' personal information such as banking information, passwords, or personal identity. It can also delete a user's files or infect other devices connected to the network. Ransomware attacks are often carried out using a trojan.
Deathhm - DFIR Report | Deathhm - Microsoft | Deathhm - Alienvault |
Teal Kurma, a Türkiye-nexus threat actor, was highly active between 2018 and 2020 before seemingly disappearing from open source reporting.3, 4 At the time of this heightened activity, the threat actor was involved in conducting large scale and prolonged Domain Name Server (DNS) hijacking attacks. DNS hijacking is when a threat actor manipulates how DNS queries are resolved, resulting in users being redirected to malicious websites. Since then, Teal Kurma has altered its tactics to include additional tools, which are still in use at present, to achieve its espionage focused actions on objectives. PwC
According to open source research, the threat actor has historically focused on exploiting vulnerabilities for initial access since at least 2017. We assess that Teal Kurma has likely continued leveraging major CVEs in its current campaigns, particularly ones with publicly available proof-of-concept code such as CVE-2021-44228, CVE-2021-21974, and CVE-2022-0847. Once inside a network, the threat actor runs a shell script (upxa.sh) that drops an executable to disk which calls out to a threat actor controlled web server. PwC
The following detections were updated this past week with changes to kill chain phase(s) or MITRE ATT&CK tactic(s)/technique(s):
Adversaries may communicate using a custom command and control protocol instead of encapsulating commands/data in an existing Standard Application Layer Protocol. Implementations include mimicking well-known protocols or developing custom protocols (including raw sockets) on top of fundamental protocols provided by TCP/IP/another standard network stack.
This Delphi loader misuses Cloud storage services, such as Google Drive to download the Delphi stager component. The Delphi stager has the actual payload embedded as a resource and starts it. Malpedia
Attackers are utilizing hacked web sites that promote fake browser updates to infect targets with banking trojans. In some cases, post exploitation toolkits are later executed to encrypt the compromised network with ransomware.
Between May and September 2019, FireEye has conducted multiple incident response cases where enterprise customers were infected with malware through fake browser updates.
Hacked sites would display these "fakeupdates" through JavaScript alerts that state the user is using an old version of a web browser and that they should download an offered "update" to keep the browser running "smoothly and securely".
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
Adversaries may abuse PowerShell commands and scripts for execution. PowerShell is a powerful interactive command-line interface and scripting environment included in the Windows operating system. [1] Adversaries can use PowerShell to perform a number of actions, including discovery of information and execution of code. Examples include the Start-Process cmdlet which can be used to run an executable and the Invoke-Command cmdlet which runs a command locally or on a remote computer (though administrator permissions are required to use PowerShell to connect to remote systems). MITRE
Silent Librarian is a group that has targeted research and proprietary data at universities, government agencies, and private sector companies worldwide since at least 2013. Members of Silent Librarian are known to have been affiliated with the Iran-based Mabna Institute which has conducted cyber intrusions at the behest of the government of Iran, specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).[ MITRE
It leverages compromised websites and performs some of the most creative fingerprinting checks we’ve seen, before delivering its payload (NetSupport RAT). Malwarebytes
A proxy botnet called 'Socks5Systemz' has been infecting computers worldwide via the 'PrivateLoader' and 'Amadey' malware loaders, currently counting 10,000 infected devices.
The malware infects computers and turns them into traffic-forwarding proxies for malicious, illegal, or anonymous traffic. It sells this service to subscribers who pay between $1 and $140 per day in crypto to access it. Bleeping Computer
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
An advanced persistent threat (APT) is a stealthy computer network threat actor, typically a nation state or state-sponsored group, which gains unauthorized access to a computer network and remains undetected for an extended period. In recent times, the term may also refer to non-state sponsored groups conducting large-scale targeted intrusions for specific goals.
Such threat actors' motivations are typically political or economic. To date, every major business sector has recorded instances of attacks by advanced actors with specific goals seeking to steal, spy or disrupt. These include government, defense, financial services, legal services, industrial, telecoms, consumer goods, and many more. Some groups utilize traditional espionage vectors, including social engineering, human intelligence and infiltration to gain access to a physical location to enable network attacks. The purpose of these attacks is to place custom malicious code on one or multiple computers for specific tasks.
Source: Wikipedia
TA577 is a prolific cybercrime threat actor tracked by Proofpoint since mid-2020. This actor conducts broad targeting across various industries and geographies, and Proofpoint has observed TA577 deliver payloads including Qbot, IcedID, SystemBC, SmokeLoader, Ursnif, and Cobalt Strike. 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
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 | ||
| Command and Control | 1 | command and control | tls | 322 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, tcp, tls | 2023-12-09 |
| DBatLoader | 3 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 9 | command and control, delivery | dns, http, tls | 2023-12-07 |
| Deathhm | 1 | delivery | http | 1 | delivery | http | 2023-12-07 |
| Fake Browser | 6 | exploitation | dns, tls, http | 180 | delivery, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2023-12-08 |
| Keitaro | 4 | exploitation | tls, dns, http | 252 | command and control, delivery, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2023-12-05 |
| Powershell | 5 | delivery, command and control | http, tcp | 37 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt | 2023-12-07 |
| Silent Librarian | 3 | command and control | dns, http, tls | 33 | command and control | dns, http, tls | 2023-12-09 |
| SnappyTCP | 3 | command and control | http | 3 | command and control | http | 2023-12-07 |
| SocGholish | 6 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 863 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, exploitation, reconnaissance | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2023-12-07 |
| Socks5Systemz | 2 | command and control | http | 6 | command and control | http | 2023-12-05 |
| Stealer and Exfiltration | 1 | actions on objectives | tcp | 384 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, exploitation, installation | dns, ftp, http, smtp, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2023-12-06 |
| TA4903 | 15 | delivery | dns, tls, http | 513 | delivery | dns, http, tls | 2023-12-09 |
| TA577 | 2 | command and control | http | 3 | command and control | http | 2023-12-05 |
| Teal Kurma | 39 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 39 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 2023-12-07 |
| TeamSpy | 6 | command and control | http | 6 | command and control | http | 2023-12-07 |
| Trojan Agent | 1 | delivery | http | 430 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, ip, smtp, tcp, tcp-pkt, tcp-stream, tls, udp | 2023-12-07 |
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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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