02-April-2024
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: 1008
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:
Magnet Goblin is a financially motivated threat actor that quickly adopts and leverages 1-day vulnerabilities in public-facing services as an initial infection vector. At least in one case of Ivanti Connect Secure VPN (CVE-2024-21887), the exploit entered the group’s arsenal as fast as within 1 day after a POC for it was published. Campaigns that we were able to attribute to this actor targeted Ivanti, Magento, Qlink Sense and possibly Apache ActiveMQ. Analysis of the actor’s recent Ivanti Connect Secure VPN campaign revealed a novel Linux version of a malware called NerbianRAT, in addition to WARPWIRE, a JavaScript credential stealer. The actor’s arsenal also includes MiniNerbian, a small Linux backdoor, and remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools for Windows like ScreenConnect and AnyDesk. Checkpoint
Magnet Goblin APT - Bleepingcomputer |
The Threat Intelligence team at Metabase Q has recently uncovered a local group that created a new botnet self-proclaimed as “Fenix,” which specifically targets users accessing government services, particularly tax-paying individuals in Mexico and Chile. This botnet takes advantage of the tax season in both countries, which occurred last April. In their malicious campaign, the attackers redirect victims to fraudulent websites that mimic the official portals of the Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT) in Mexico and the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII) in Chile. These fake websites prompt users to download a supposed security tool, claiming it will enhance their portal navigation safety. However, unbeknownst to the victims, this download actually installs the initial stage of malware, ultimately enabling the theft of sensitive information such as credentials. Metabaseq
GIBON is a ransomware-type virus discovered by security researcher, Matthew Mesa. This malware is distributed via a malicious MS Office document attached to spam emails. The document contains a number of macro commands designed to download and install malware. Pcrisk
TheMoon is the code name for a family of malicious code. As early as February 2014, this malicious code family attracted widespread attention from security researchers. At the time, TheMoon was a botnet with worm-like propagation behavior targeting Linksys routers. Due to its strong ability to spread infection, there are many discussions in the safety community. Netlab
The following detections were updated this past week with changes to kill chain phase(s) or MITRE ATT&CK tactic(s)/technique(s):
An estimated one million WordPress websites have been compromised during a long-lasting campaign that exploits "all known and recently discovered theme and plugin vulnerabilities" to inject a Linux backdoor that researchers named Balad Injector.
The campaign has been running since 2017 and aims mostly to redirect to fake tech support pages, fraudulent lottery wins, and push notification scams. Bleepingcompute
Bumblebee is a custom loader written in C++ that has been used by multiple threat actors, including possible initial access brokers, to download and execute additional payloads since at least March 2022. Bumblebee has been linked to ransomware operations including Conti, Quantum, and Mountlocker and derived its name from the appearance of "bumblebee" in the user-agent. MITRE
Web skimming is a form of internet or carding fraud whereby a payment page on a website is compromised when malware is injected onto the page via compromising a third-party script service in order to steal payment information. Wikipedia
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".
gh0st RAT is a remote access tool (RAT). The source code is public and it has been used by multiple groups.
Source: 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
Lumma is an information stealer written in C, sold as a Malware-as-a-Service by LummaC on Russian-speaking underground forums and Telegram since at least August 2022. Lumma's capabilities are those of a classic stealer, with a focus on cryptocurrency wallets, and file grabber capabilities. Malpedia
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
RogueRaticate/FakeSG, a newer threat, injects obfuscated JavaScript code into stage 1 websites and uses Keitaro TDS for payload delivery. ZPHP/SmartApeSG leverages asynchronous requests, while ClearFake employs base64 encoded scripts and displays lures in different languages. Infosecurity
It leverages compromised websites and performs some of the most creative fingerprinting checks we’ve seen, before delivering its payload (NetSupport RAT). Malwarebytes
Stealc, first marketed by an actor named Plymouth on the XSS and BHF Russian-speaking underground forums on January 9, 2023, is written in C and comes with capabilities to steal data from web browsers, crypto wallets, email clients, and messaging apps.Hacker News
Stealc was developed on top of Vidar, Raccoon, Mars and RedLine.
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
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
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
Vidar (also known as Vidar Stealer) is a trojan (a malicious program) commonly used by cyber criminals. The program steals various personal information from users who have computers infected with the virus. Pcrsik
Zeus, ZeuS, or Zbot is a Trojan horse malware package that runs on versions of Microsoft Windows. While it can be used to carry out many malicious and criminal tasks, it is often used to steal banking information by man-in-the-browser keystroke logging and form grabbing. It is also used to install the CryptoLocker ransomware. Zeus is spread mainly through drive-by downloads and phishing schemes. First identified in July 2007 when it was used to steal information from the United States Department of Transportation, it became more widespread in March 2009.
In June 2009 security company Prevx discovered that Zeus had compromised over 74,000 FTP accounts on websites of such companies as the Bank of America, NASA, Monster.com, ABC, Oracle, Play.com, Cisco, Amazon, and BusinessWeek. Similarly to Koobface, Zeus has also been used to trick victims of technical support scams into giving the scam artists money through pop-up messages that claim the user has a virus, when in reality they might have no viruses at all. The scammers may use programs such as Command prompt or Event viewer to make the user believe that their computer is infected.
Source: Wikipedia
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 | ||
| Balada | 1 | exploitation | http | 91 | command and control, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2024-03-28 |
| Bumblebee | 1 | delivery | http | 4 | command and control, delivery | http, tcp-pkt | 2024-03-26 |
| Card Skimmer | 3 | delivery, command and control, actions on objectives | http | 20 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http, tls | 2024-03-28 |
| Fake Browser | 3 | exploitation | dns, tls, http | 398 | delivery, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2024-03-26 |
| Fenix Botnet | 54 | command and control | http, dns, tls | 54 | command and control | http, dns, tls | 2024-03-28 |
| Gh0st | 1 | command and control | tcp-pkt | 180 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2024-03-28 |
| Gibon Ransomware | 1 | command and control | http | 1 | command and control | http | 2024-03-28 |
| Keitaro | 6 | exploitation | dns, tls, http | 326 | command and control, delivery, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2024-03-29 |
| Lumma | 42 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 584 | actions on objectives, command and control, installation | dns, http, tls | 2024-03-30 |
| Magnet Goblin APT | 21 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 21 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 2024-03-28 |
| Phorpiex | 3 | command and control | dns, http, tls | 238 | command and control, delivery, weaponization | dns, http, smtp, tcp, tls, udp | 2024-03-29 |
| RogueRaticate | 2 | exploitation | http | 30 | command and control, delivery, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2024-03-28 |
| SocGholish | 6 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 929 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, exploitation, reconnaissance | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2024-03-26 |
| Stealc | 3 | command and control | http | 10 | command and control | http | 2024-03-29 |
| Stealer and Exfiltration | 1 | command and control | http | 437 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, exploitation, installation | dns, ftp, http, smtp, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2024-03-30 |
| TA4903 | 3 | delivery | dns, tls, http | 723 | delivery | dns, http, tls | 2024-03-26 |
| TA582 | 7 | command and control | dns, http, tls | 66 | command and control | dns, http, tls | 2024-03-29 |
| TheMoon | 2 | command and control | tcp, udp | 2 | command and control | tcp, udp | 2024-03-28 |
| Trojan Agent | 1 | actions on objectives | http | 481 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, ip, smtp, tcp, tcp-pkt, tcp-stream, tls, udp | 2024-03-28 |
| Vidar | 3 | command and control | http | 41 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, tls | 2024-03-29 |
| Zeus | 1 | command and control | http | 181 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, tcp, tls | 2024-03-28 |
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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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