25-June-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: 1081
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:
Warmcookie is the name of a backdoor-type malware. Malicious programs within this classification are designed to open a "backdoor" to compromised systems; the goal is to cause further infection (i.e., download/install additional malware).
Warmcookie has been around since at least the spring of 2024, with suspected older versions being released even earlier. At the time of writing, this backdoor is actively spread via targeted email spam campaigns. Pcrisk
In mid-April 2024, researchers found compromised sites containing an inject leading to an iframe on pley[.]es. This iframe was shown as an overlay error message claiming that a faulty browser update needed to be fixed. Researchers dubbed this activity cluster ClickFix.
The error message asked the victim to open “Windows PowerShell (Admin)” (which will open an UAC prompt) and then right-click to paste the code. If this was done, PowerShell would run another remote PowerShell script that would download and run an executable, eventually leading to Vidar Stealer. However, just a few days later, after discovery, the payload domain used in the PowerShell was taken offline. Thus, despite the error being displayed on compromised websites, it could not lead to an infection.
After a few days of this semi-functional state, 15 May 2024, the custom content of the iframe was replaced with the ClearFake inject. It is still serving this inject in early June 2024. As the pley[.]es domain itself seems to be compromised, it’s unclear if these two activity sets – ClearFake and ClickFix – started to work with each other, or if the ClearFake actor re-compromised the iframe, replacing the code with its own content.
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
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
There are several malicious fake updates campaigns being run across thousands of compromised websites. This campaign appears to have started around July 19th, 2023. Based on a search on PublicWWW of the injection base64 there are at least 434 infected sites. The name is a reference to the majority of the Javascript being used without obfuscation. One noticeable difference from SocGholish is that there appears to be no tracking of visits by IP or cookies. As an analyst you can you go back to the compromised site over and over coming from the same IP and not clearing your browser cache. This also means the site owner is more likely to see the infection as well. When a user visits a compromised website with ClearFake, the page initially loads as normal before the whole page is taken over by a call to action to update Chrome.
On the index page of the compromised site there is a Javascript injection. The Javascript is base64 encoded. Presumably this is a dynamic injection and will change over time to reflect the new host for the initial payload. On the index page of the compromised site there is a Javascript injection. The Javascript is base64 encoded. Presumably this is a dynamic injection and will change over time to reflect the new host for the initial payload. The second web call returns a Javascript that creates an iframe to house the fake update UI. The iframe src is set to a Keitaro endpoint. The response from the Keitaro endpoint is the foundation for the HTML to be rendered within the iframe.
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".
Phishing is a type of online scam that targets consumers by sending them an e-mail that appears to be from a well-known source – an internet service provider, a bank, or a mortgage company, for example. It asks the consumer to provide personal identifying information. Then a scammer uses the information to open new accounts, or invade the consumer’s existing accounts. There are several tips that consumers can follow to avoid phishing scams, such as not responding to e-mails or pop-up messages that ask for personal or financial information.
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
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
Parrot TDS acts as a gateway for further malicious campaigns to reach potential victims. In this particular case, the infected sites’ appearances are altered by a campaign called FakeUpdate (also known as SocGholish), which uses JavaScript to display fake notices for users to update their browser, offering an update file for download. The file observed being delivered to victims is a remote access tool. Avast
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
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
Malicious programs of this family secretly send information to the criminal from the user’s infected Android mobile device. Kaspersky
An adversary with sophisticated levels of expertise and significant resources, allowing it through the use of multiple different attack vectors (e.g., cyber, physical, and deception), to generate opportunities to achieve its objectives which are typically to establish and extend its presence within the information technology infrastructure of organizations for purposes of continually exfiltrating information and/or to undermine or impede critical aspects of a mission, program, or organization, or place itself in a position to do so in the future; moreover, the advanced persistent threat pursues its objectives repeatedly over an extended period of time, adapting to a defender’s efforts to resist it, and with determination to maintain the level of interaction needed to execute its objectives. NIST.)
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
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 | ||
| APT35 | 6 | delivery | dns, tls, http | 784 | command and control, delivery | dns, ftp, http, tcp, tls, udp | 2024-06-19 |
| Banker Stealer | 3 | command and control | dns, http, tls | 405 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http, smtp, tcp, tls | 2024-06-20 |
| ClearFake | 30 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 176 | command and control, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2024-06-22 |
| ClickFix | 31 | exploitation, command and control, delivery | http, dns, tls | 31 | exploitation, command and control, delivery | http, dns, tls | 2024-06-22 |
| Fake Browser | 34 | command and control, exploitation | dns, tls, http | 648 | command and control, delivery, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2024-06-22 |
| Fake Service | 12 | command and control, delivery | dns, tls, http | 100 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, tcp, tls | 2024-06-18 |
| Keitaro | 2 | exploitation | dns, tls | 363 | command and control, delivery, exploitation | dns, http, tls | 2024-06-19 |
| Lumma | 33 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 1066 | actions on objectives, command and control, installation | dns, http, tls | 2024-06-22 |
| MuddyWater | 2 | command and control | tcp | 52 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp, tls | 2024-06-21 |
| Parrot TDS | 1 | command and control | http | 59 | command and control, delivery | dns, http, tls | 2024-06-18 |
| SocGholish | 3 | command and control | dns, tls, http | 987 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, exploitation, reconnaissance | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2024-06-18 |
| Stealer and Exfiltration | 5 | actions on objectives | http, dns, tls | 435 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, exploitation, installation | dns, ftp, http, smtp, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2024-06-19 |
| TA4903 | 3 | delivery | dns, tls, http | 867 | delivery | dns, http, tls | 2024-06-21 |
| Trojan Agent | 1 | command and control | tcp-pkt | 588 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, ip, smtp, tcp, tcp-pkt, tcp-stream, tls, udp | 2024-06-21 |
| TrojanSpy-Android | 9 | command and control | dns, http, tls | 1563 | actions on objectives, command and control, delivery, installation | dns, http, tcp, tls | 2024-06-20 |
| Unknown APT | 2 | command and control | http | 57 | command and control, delivery | dns, http, tls | 2024-06-19 |
| WARMCOOKIE | 2 | command and control, actions on objectives | http | 4 | command and control, actions on objectives | http | 2024-06-18 |
| XRat | 1 | command and control | tcp | 21 | command and control | dns, http, icmp, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2024-06-22 |
| XWorm | 51 | command and control | tcp-pkt | 1165 | command and control, delivery | dns, http, tcp, tcp-pkt, tls | 2024-06-19 |
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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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