IT NEWS

This post was authored by Hossein Jazi and Jérôme Segura

On May 29th, we identified an attack that we believe is part of a new campaign from an Advanced Persistent Threat actor known as Higaisa. The Higaisa APT is believed to be tied to the Korean peninsula, and was first disclosed by Tencent Security Threat Intelligence Center in early 2019.

The group’s activities go back to at least 2016 and include the use of Trojans such as Gh0st and PlugX, as well as mobile malware. Its targets include government officials and human rights organizations, as well as other entities related to North Korea.

In this latest incident, Higaisa used a malicious shortcut file ultimately responsible for creating a multi-stage attack that consists of several malicious scripts, payloads and decoy PDF documents.

Distribution

The threat actors used a malicious LNK file bundled within an archive file which was most likely distributed via spear-phishing.

We were able to identify two variants of this campaign that possibly have been distributed between May 12th and 31st:

• “CV_Colliers.rar”
• “Project link and New copyright policy.rar”

Both RAR archives bundle two malicious LNK files. In the newer variant (CV_Colliers.rar), the LNK files are disguised as a Curriculum Vitae (CV) and International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam results. The older one (Project link and New copyright policy.rar) seems to target product teams that are using zeplin.io.

The following shows the overall process flow when executing the malicious LNK file.

LNK file

The LNK file contains a list of commands that will be executed upon running, and a blob that is a base64 encoded compressed payload. Here is the list of commands that will be executed:

• Copy content of the LNK file into “g4ZokyumB2DC4.tmp” in %APPDATA% temp directory.
• Copy content of “certutil.exe” into “gosia.exe” ( “*ertu*.exe is used to bypass security detection).
• Look for the base64 blob using “findstr.exe” and write it to “cSi1rouy4.tmp”.
• Decode content of “cSi1rouy4.tmp” using “gosia.exe -decode” (certutil.exe -decode) and write it to “o423DFDS4.tmp”.
• Decompress content of “o423DFDS4.tmp” in temp directory along with a decoy PDF document using “expand.exe -F:*” (Figure 3) .
• Copy “66DF33DFG.tmp” and “34fDKfSD38.js” files into “C:UsersPublicDownloads” directory.
• Execute the JS file by calling Wscript.
• Open the decoy document.

The list of commands executed by this LNK shortcut is the same as the one reported by Anomali on the Higasia Covid-19 campaign. The only difference is the name of the tmp files and name of certutil.exe which in this new case is “gosia.exe”, while in the March campaign the name was “mosia.exe”.

Both LNK files embedded within the archive are executing similar commands with the different Command and Control (C&C) configurations. Running each of them would show a different decoy document.

JS file

The JavaScript file performs the following commands:

• Create “d3reEW.exe” in “C:UsersPublicDownloads” and store “cmd /c ipconfig” in it.
• Execute the dropped “svchast.exe”.
• Copy “svchhast.exe” into startup directory and rename it as “officeupdate.exe”.
• Add “officeupdate.exe” to scheduled tasks.
• Send a POST request to a hardcoded URL with “d3reEW.exe” as data.

svchast.exe

Svchast.exe is a small loader that loads the content of the shellcode stored in “63DF3DFG.tmp”.

In fact, this shellcode is a wrapper around the final shellcode. It performs some checks and then calls the final shellcode.

The final shellcode dynamically resolves the imports and allocates memory for the content that will be executed.

Finally it calls “CreateThread” to create a thread within its memory space to make HTTPS requests to its C&C server.

At the time of analysis, the server was down so we weren’t able to clearly identify the ultimate goal of this attack.

Chaining techniques for evasion

While most malware campaigns use a simple decoy document that typically retrieves a malware payload, more advanced attackers will often try unconventional means to infect their victims.

We reproduced this attack in our lab using an email as the infection vector, as we surmise that victims were spear-phished. Malwarebytes (in this case the Nebula business version) stopped the LNK file execution from WinRAR and therefore completely stopped the attack.

IOCs

CV_Colliers.rar
df999d24bde96decdbb65287ca0986db98f73b4ed477e18c3ef100064bceba6d

Project link and New copyright policy.rar
c3a45aaf6ba9f2a53d26a96406b6c34a56f364abe1dd54d55461b9cc5b9d9a04

Curriculum Vitae_WANG LEI_Hong Kong Polytechnic University.pdf.lnk
50d081e526beeb61dc6180f809d6230e7cc56d9a2562dd0f7e01f7c6e73388d9

Tokbox icon – Odds and Ends – iOS – Zeplin.lnk
1074654a3f3df73f6e0fd0ad81597c662b75c273c92dc75c5a6bea81f093ef81

International English Language Testing System certificate.pdf.lnk
c613487a5fc65b3b4ca855980e33dd327b3f37a61ce0809518ba98b454ebf68b

Curriculum Vitae_WANG LEI_Hong Kong Polytechnic University.pdf.lnk
dcd2531aa89a99f009a740eab43d2aa2b8c1ed7c8d7e755405039f3a235e23a6

Conversations – iOS – Swipe Icons – Zeplin.lnk
c0a0266f6df7f1235aeb4aad554e505320560967248c9c5cce7409fc77b56bd5

C2 domains (ipconfig exfiltration)
sixindent[.]epizy[.]com
goodhk[.]azurewebsites[.]net
zeplin[.]atwebpages[.]com

C2s used by svchast.exe
45.76.6[.]149
www.comcleanner[.]info

MITRE ATT&CK techniques

The post New LNK attack tied to Higaisa APT discovered appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Is it legal to buy stolen data from criminals? In most countries the answer would be no. But will it lead to a penalty or a fine? That is a different question and I’m afraid some companies and organizations will be inclined to seriously consider the last question even when they know the answer to the first one. Maybe we can at least agree that it is not ethical or recommended.

Why are we asking you this?

As we reported earlier, some ransomware operators make it a habit to exfiltrate data from the networks they break into. The stolen data are to be used as an extra incentive to persuade the victims into paying. If the victims don’t pay up, the stolen data will be published.

But now, the Sodinokibi, aka REvil, ransomware operators have come up with yet another way to make money using the stolen data. They have launched a new auction site used to sell victim’s stolen data to the highest bidder. Considering how this information could be interesting to several parties when it concerns a high profile victim or for a select few when it concerns a direct competitor, it makes sense to ask for a steep price.

The ransomware gang already ran a site called “Happy Blog” where they post samples of the stolen data and then threaten to release the actual files to the public. For the auction site they use this new format:

On the auction site you can find information about the organizations they have stolen data from and some information about what the data includes.

The auction procedure

On the site you can find these rules:

• To bid on an auction, you must register for each auction separately.
• After registration, you will need to make a deposit of 10% of the starting price. At the end of the auction the amount will be refunded (except for blockchain commission).
• If you have not paid your bid on the winning auction, you will lose your deposit. This is to ensure that none of the bidders make fake bids.
• All computational operations are performed in the cryptocurrency Monero (XMR).

By clicking “continue” you confirm that you agree to the terms above. You will be given a username/password and details of deposit payment.

In the description for each dataset, you find the starting price and the minimum deposit (10% of the starting price), but also a blitz price that allows you to buy the data without further bidding.

Only organizations and companies?

Apparently not. On their auction site the authors posted a hint that there might be more interesting data forthcoming.

“And we remember the Madonna and other people. Soon.”

As we have reported earlier, a lawfirm representing many megastars fell victim to the Sodinokibi gang as well. So, we anticipate that those stolen data may be in high demand and bring the criminals a pretty penny.

Buying stolen data

Buying these data is a bad idea for several reasons.

• You are keeping the ransomware business model alive by paying the ransomware operators. It does not matter whether that payment is a ransom or a payment for stolen data.
• It should not come as a surprise that dealing with criminals could pan out poorly. They may double-cross you or turn you into their next victim.
• Buying stolen data is illegal and the seller will know that you have done something illegal, which opens a new avenue of extortion.
• Data are easily copied, so who is going to guarantee that you will have exclusive access to the data you bought? A bunch of known criminals?
• Are you sure you will get your deposit back if you are outbid?

These auctions may be yet another trend in the ransomware-as-a-service business models, even though the extra exposure involved in selling data may slightly heighten the chances of the criminals getting caught. Many organizations have adapted to the fact that ransomware exists and have taken precautions by way of protection and by creating easy to deploy backups.

Information about Sodinokibi

In case you are interested in some more background information about the Sodinokibi ransomware we highly recommend these Malwarebytes resources:

Threat Spotlight: Sodinokibi ransomware attempts to fill GandCrab void

Sodinokibi drops greatest hits collection, and crime is the secret ingredient

Detection profile for Ransom.Sodinokibi

Stay out of their greedy claws, everyone!

The post Sodinokibi ransomware gang auctions off stolen data appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Games consoles and handhelds have always been an interesting battleground for hacking activities. The homebrew scene for using hardware in interesting ways has a long and varied history, especially where porting games to run on different platforms is concerned.

Tampering with games while playing them to gain a distinct advantage has always been frowned upon by the majority of players and developers, however. Nobody wants to play a game where they can be killed from the other side of the map, but that’s how things roll in PC gaming land. Aimbots, wallhacks, miners, autoclickers, you name it – it’s been done, and has been for many years.

In theory, a console’s architecture and limited functionality available to the owner should make it near impossible to directly alter the inner workings of said device. This has tended to hold up for all but the most advanced hardware hackers. This is why console hackers often took the path of least resistance and targeted data on the device which would be most open to tampering. That would be your save data.

Saving the day?

While everything else in a console is forever doomed to follow the same processes and routines repeatedly, from essential functions to the code running the game you’re playing, save data is the weak spot. It’s forever changing. It requires the device to allow it to be altered as it dynamically responds to thousands of your choices over the course of a session. The console saves a state, and reinserts it back into the game the next time you load up.

Even better for the hacking/modding communities, this data is often saved to a potentially vulnerable external device. When it isn’t, coders can usually come up with a way to craft tools which can extract the data from the device to a PC, where it can then be edited to their heart’s content before being put back.

While the console hardware of today is different from what’s gone before, and the security architecture is theoretically more advanced than what we had 10+ years ago, ultimately our gaming devices are still tied to most of the same functionality by necessity.

Take the Nintendo Switch, the hottest handheld around and current victim to save altering shenanigans. Players are altering data, dropping it into live game worlds, and benefiting from cheating. Nintendo will almost certainly be taking action, and bans could follow. Sounds exciting, right?

Before we get to that, let’s look at how saving on devices—and editing those saves—has evolved down the years.

Saving games through the years

Saving in games goes back almost as far as the dawn of gaming in the household itself, and Nintendo play a big part in its evolution over time. The first big smash games most people remember back at the dawn of gaming are Atari 2600 titles which didn’t need game saves. They were basic, strapped for memory, short, and often had no end as such…just the same levels looped but made faster, or more difficult.

As the tech evolved, games struggled to keep up and you ended up with would-be complicated titles hampered by no saves, or players given dozens of extra lives as a workaround which frankly felt a bit insulting towards our incredible gaming skills.

Atari 2600: Passwords enter the fray

Some early games dabbled in would-be save states by introducing basic codes you could punch into the title screen and pick up where you left off. The games at this point were still linear, so you could get away with this approach.

It’s faintly bizarre to look back now and think your “save game” equivalent at the time wasn’t your game saved at all; just some code punched into the cartridge to tell it to essentially start an entirely new game, with your handful of items, at a later level rather than the beginning.

There are actually quite a few Atari 2600 games with password/pick-up-where-you-left-off systems, an early indicator of the direction things were about to take.

N.E.S. – Batteries included

Things stepped up once Nintendo decided to dramatically bump the scope of what games were capable of. Legend of Zelda is usually hailed as the first major title which included a “proper” ability to save, via battery powered memory. This is called non-volatile memory, because it doesn’t need a constant flow of power to retain the data. Ultimately, games could be significantly bigger and better than ever before.

PlayStation 1: Memory cards on the table

Many of you reading this will have their first memory of console gaming knowledge firmly tethered to the original Playstation’s iconic memory cards. Even now, people debate what exactly “15 blocks of memory” means (good news, it’s been cleared up). The save functionality jammed inside of those NES cartridges was basically pulled out and turned into its own standalone device (see also: the Dreamcast VMU).

At this point, gamers finally had a way to take their save data away from the console, do what they want with it, then pop it back in. Unlike now, the games weren’t online. Things were mostly single player or local split screen. If you wanted to cheat, be it to gain extra lives, see all the levels, turn everyone into pumpkins, or anything else, you just fired up a cheat cartridge or used it to create your own cheats.

PlayStation 1: Regional difficulty

I primarily remember the console modding scene all about being able to play region locked discs, with many a furtive moment spent in vaguely dubious gaming stores asking if they’d chip your machine, wink wink. Some of you may remember a legendary (for the gaming scene) incident where a coverdisc giveaway involving a cheat code system went horribly wrong. I’ve still got the disc somewhere. No, you can’t have it.

Xbox 360 comes under fire

On the 360, all those years of learning how to edit files on consoles finally combined with online gameplay environments in many ways risky to the players.

Hex editing the data on PC with specially designed tools, rehashing it so the console thinks the data is the real deal, and then resigning it so you could use files tied to someone else’s profile resulted in all sorts of interesting antics. Changing the look of their gaming avatar on the console dashboard, unlocking lots of paid items from the marketplace after just one purchase, even joining gaming sessions with temporary names imitating well known game developers were all part of this boom in console modding activity.

Even worse were cases of modders removing their visible gaming name entirely, leading to situations where gamers couldn’t figure out how to report them for cheating, or even who they were. As always, the player data was the soft underbelly of the otherwise solid system.

How Nintendo changed up the game

Older Nintendo handhelds allowed you to copy saves to removable storage devices. Not so with the Switch. At launch, people quickly discovered that saves were not transferable from the handheld to external storage. All gamesave data resided on the handheld’s internal flash memory only.

Considering the many years of game tampering resulting in real-time shenanigans while people played, it probably made some sense to stop opening up portions of data to tampering. With it locked firmly into the device, that would likely help prevent hacks and cheating…right?

Oh, my sweet summer child

The SD card in the Switch is there for additional space should you download a lot of games. Buying physical titles as your primary source of gaming kicks means you may not need to bother with SD cards at all. It’s common for people to assume game saves end up on the SD along with downloaded game data, but that isn’t the case.

The game saves are kept tucked away on the device, and Nintendo are insistent you don’t go wandering off depositing your save files all over the place.

Anyone familiar with handheld modifications down the years will have some idea where this is heading…

Hacking the handheld Gibson

That’s right, it’s homebrew time. As the name suggests, homebrew is the stuff you come up with when the original hardware/software combination isn’t quite what you’re looking for. It’s the act and the art of popping closed systems, and making them dance to the beat you want. You might merely expand upon original functions, or modify them heavily, or even replace them entirely.

Just as Nintendo arguably drove forward the scope of game design and general tinkering by introducing battery saves to a mainstream audience, so too did they inadvertently push the word “Homebrew” into the public eye after enterprising (non Nintendo affiliated inviduals) came up with the “Wii Homebrew”. This permitted Wii users to access homebrew apps direct from the Wii system menu. From there, the word really took hold.

Taking a firm stance on firmware

Custom firmware is a specific form of homebrew which is the magic key to a system’s innards. With it, real ultimate power is yours. Unless there’s a permanently fatal flaw in the setup of a device which can’t be corrected, custom firmware is usually addressed by the manufacturer and you end up with a sort of permanent digital great divide. A patch goes in and locks down the firmware workaround forever.

At that point, all devices made prior to the fix become the end goal and they probably start fetching a pretty penny on ebay and elsewhere. The newer, later models which no longer respond to tampering? Sorry gang, you’re just not that cool anymore. There’s usually multiple ways to seize control of any device, and this is no different. Being able to boot up the device in recovery mode allows for the execution of unsigned code.

There’s a lot more to it than this, and everything from selecting the specific exploit to preparing the SD card in the right way to make everything go without a hitch can be a painstaking process. People will often make backups in case anything goes wrong, something that can easily befall inexperienced homebrew enthusiasts. Nintendo modders are also very particular about disabling any features which could allow Nintendo to trace hacks to their device and ban it from Nintendo services.

Once all of that is done, the device owner is finally ready to start playing with their chosen custom firmware. There may well be additional steps at this point depending on the ultimate objective, but let’s just wind forward to the part where people are messing with their saves.

Animal Crossing takes a trip to Modding Island

As you’ve seen, data moving is not something Nintendo is keen on here. Merely transferring your saves from an old device to a new one legitimately is a little bit more complicated than “copy and move.” Here, we’re weirdly back in the same editing land we found ourselves in during the Xbox360 days.

Dragging and dropping specific files into the folders related to the custom firmware is how people were doing it back in March. These techniques tend to evolve quickly over time allowing for greater customisation, and indeed from all accounts this latest hack relies on specific save editing tools. But what are they doing?

It’s full of stars

Put simply, it’s all about star fragments. These are rare crafting components in the game and focusing on them seems to have replaced creating lots of bells as the number one Animal Crossing cheat of choice.

Using save editors, star fragment trees (which don’t exist in the game normally) are popping up on islands belonging to players. You don’t even need to have put them there yourself to begin with, as you can dig them up from other islands, trade them, or have them planted for you by friends. As with all things not originating from the source, there are some big clanging caveats to go with them. 

Nintendo almost certainly have an idea who is using them or introducing them into the gamespace. That could end up with action being taken against the players. It’s also been reported that the items are one use only, so after that they’re of no use whatsoever. Players have also claimed the items can break parts of the player’s island, resulting in so-called “dead tiles”—which can’t be used anymore—and corrupted saves.

It’s tricky enough making legitimate modded files work in games which support modding activity, especially as updates to the base game often result in the mod needing to be altered and updated, too.

Here, we have these bizarre items dumped into a game where QA support for modding doesn’t exist, so if updates for the base game at a later date make these things break your game completely, I doubt Nintendo will do anything about it. It’s a huge clanging Buyer Beware, is what it is.

Risky business

Even without the perils of Nintendo detecting your device due to a mistake on your part and banning your device at a later date, you could easily brick the handheld while setting things up, or corrupt your saves, or even fall foul to fake firmware downloads. Not everything in modding land is benign, and we’d advise people to consider carefully if the risks here outweigh the benefits.

The post A brief history of video game saves and data modification appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

“Hey Joe, I wanted to remind you that starting next Monday you will be expected to teach from home. The lesson material is in your inbox along with the list of pupils that are expected to follow them. We are sure it will take some adjustments, but we trust that by working together we can make the best of the current situation.  If you have any questions, feel free to let us know.”

Basically, that is the scenario many teachers across the globe have found themselves in—or are about to find themselves in—because of the broad shelter-in-place orders now in effect to limit the spread of coronavirus. And we still don’t know how long this could all last. In fact, teaching from home might become a part of the new normal when the new school year starts after the summer.

We have covered some of the perils that come with working from home but teaching from home poses some extra hurdles. Not only are you entertaining a demanding audience, you are working with sensitive data about children. As indicated, we have already handed our readers some general tips for working from home (WFH), but collaborating with co-workers and teaching children are two different beasts altogether. Let us go over some pointers that are specific for teaching from home.

Get your house prepped for video calls

You probably already know that there are some children in your class that notice everything, especially if it is outside of the scope of the lesson. To limit the number of distractions you can:

• Take a good look at the background. Is there anything that could possibly get more attention than the subject at hand? In some of the software packages you can choose a virtual background if you would rather not display your real surroundings.
• Make sure everyone in your household knows when not to disturb you. Ideally you’ll be in a separate room with a warning sign at the door when you are working, so the people in your household know when not to burst in.

Optimize your lessons

Teaching from home is a different craft then teaching in front of the class, but you probably already knew that. Some things you can use to your advantage when working from home:

• Stream what you can. You can broadcast or upload a prepared lesson or part thereof. After viewing you can discuss it with the students. It relieves the stress of “performing live” and it’s easier on your internet connection since it uses less bandwidth than a conference call.
• Don’t go overboard with the prepared lessons. Your students learn more when they are part of a discussion or otherwise engaged in the subject matter.
• Virtual classes, virtual breaks. It is easy to forget that your students need a break now and then just as they would in the real life classroom, but allowing them to move away from the computer will cause disruptions that are longer then you intended. Show some funny video or discuss a lighthearted theme as a virtual break.

Adjust your teaching to the circumstances

Decide on the most important learning goals as you may not achieve all the goals you would have reached by teaching in person and strive to at least meet those minimum requirements. Everything extra should be considered a bonus.

Looking after individual students that are falling behind is harder when you are teaching from home. The direct human contact is an important factor in how well we are able to pick up whether a student is struggling. And it’s hard be patient rather than telling them what the answer is because we have at least 20 other students that need our help as well. Encourage those that are struggling and give them the time to come up with their own answers.

Teaching from home: technology

It is not very likely that you will have the luxury of choosing your own tools and software. Chances are you will have to make do with what you get.

Familiarize yourself with the technology before you jump in at the deep end. Utilizing the teaching tools could become a nightmare if you have to figure out how everything works on the fly.

Once you are familiar with the software and hardware it is a lot easier to take advantage of the things the technology has to offer.

Teaching from home: privacy and compliance

It is hard to give general guidelines when it comes to aligning with all the different privacy and compliance guidelines. In some countries it would be against privacy regulations if students can hear their classmates in a video conference call, even if they are asking a question about the lessons. Make sure you are aware of your local rules and regulations, so you don’t get caught off-guard.

Handle data and access with care

The key here is to avoid unauthorized views of confidential information. Here are a few ways to shore up physical security while WFH:

• If you need to leave your home for supplies or other reasons, make sure your work devices are inaccessible.
• Should you be living with a roommate or young children, be sure to lock your computer even when you step away for just a bit. Don’t tempt others in your household by leaving information accessible. This is true even for the workplace, so it is imperative for WFH.
• If you can’t carve out a separate workspace in your home, be sure to collect your devices at the end of your workday and store them someplace out of sight.
• Access to a computer’s desktop should at least be password protected, and the password should be strong. Even if the entire machine is stolen, a strong, mandatory password will keep the thief from easily accessing sensitive school information.
• Encryption also helps protect information on stolen or compromised computers. Check whether data encryption is active on your work machine. Not sure? Ask your IT department whether you have it, and if they think it’s necessary.
• If you’re connecting your work computer to your home network, make sure you don’t make it visible to other computers in the network. If you have to add it to the HomeGroup, then make sure the option to share files is off.
• Secure your home Wi-Fi with a strong password and do the same for access to the settings on your home router. Be sure to change the default password it came with!

Teaching from home: security

Whether you are going to use your own laptop or one provided by your school, make sure to keep the data safe. It is important to realize that you will likely be storing sensitive information about your students on a system that is connected to your home network and maybe even on your personal device.

And last but not least, familiarize yourself with the security settings of the software you are going to use. We have an extensive guide for Zoom that can also serve as a set of directions for other similar software packages. You definitely don’t want your classes to be interrupted by Zoombombers.

Stay safe, everyone!

The post Teaching from home might become part of every teachers’ job description appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we published our most recent episode of our podcast Lock and Code, providing an in-depth discussion on web browser privacy, looked at the membership bump for the Coalition against Stalkerware, and dug into EDR solutions. We also looked at twists added to the threat scene by Maze Ransomware.

Other cybersecurity news

• Breach affects major service provider: A cloud server breach serves as stepping stone for data theft. (Source: Infosec Magazine)

• LiveJournal hits the news: Up to 26 million logins are up for grabs, and it’s possible they’re related to LiveJournal. (Source: DreamWidth)

• Red Cross warning: The ICRC and more asked governments to get a firm grip of cyber attacks targeting hospitals and medical systems. (Source: CNET)

• When websites portscan: Intetesting research highlighted security and privacy concerns for  both websites and the people using them. (Source: The Register)

• Warnings abound that unemployment claim scams are on the rise as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Source: WKZO) 

• Zoom bombing brings serious consequences: The FBI are investigating zoom bombers deploying illegal imagery and videos on unsuspecting victims. (Source: The Hill)

• Fake news, free speech: There are claims that some Governments are using the pandemic, and information related to it, as a way to potentially crack down on free speech. (Source: Foreign Policy)

• Prepping for 5G conspiracy theories: A look at how the DHS is getting itself  ready for the  inevitable wave of tall tales hitting the US. (Source: Wired)

• Student discovers security / doorbell camera flaws: A computer science student contacted many big industry players to explain where things may be going wrong. (Source: Help Net Security)

• Ransomware attacks continue: There may be a pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped some individuals from causing mayhem anyway. (Source: WRBL)

Stay safe, everyone!

The post A week in security (May 25 – 31) appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

In the first three months of 2020, as the world clamped down to limit coronavirus, cyber threats ramped up.

Our latest, special edition for our quarterly CTNT report focuses on recent, increased malware threats which all have one, big thing in common—using coronavirus as a lure. Our report, “Cybercrime tactics and techniques: Attack on home base,” analyzes the trojans, info stealers, and botnets that threat actors delivered to increasingly more homes from January to March of this year.

Our report looks at more than attack volume, though. It also captures the actual models that threat actors used to try and trick unsuspecting victims. From an email purporting to come fom UNICEF, to another claiming to contain information about proper face mask usage, to a much-discussed, fraudulent map posing as a legitimate, global coronavirus case tracker from John Hopkins University—it’s all here in our latest report.

Malwarebytes researchers have been following these attack methods for months.

We found a scam email that preyed on individuals’ desire to offer support during the pandemic. We investigated activity from a reported Pakistani state-sponsored threat actor spreading a remote access Trojan through a coronavirus-themed spearphishing campaign. We discovered countless impersonating emails and snake-oil pitches hiding a variety of keyloggers, ransomware, and data stealers.

In today’s report, we now have the data to show what malware threats, specifically, increased in the first three months of 2020.

Key takeaways: Attack on home base

• Cybercriminals quickly transitioned to delivering years-old malware with brand new campaigns that preyed on the confusion, fear, and uncertainty surrounding the global coronavirus pandemic.
• Malwarebytes discovered that the backdoor malware NetWiredRC, which laid low for roughly five months in 2019, dramatically increased its activity at the start of 2020, with a detection increase of at least 200 percent by March compared to last December.
• The time period between January and February was, for several of the malware types analyzed, a precursor to even greater, increased detection activity between February and March.
• Malwarebytes recorded increased detections of nearly 110 percent between February and March for the malware AveMaria, a dangerous remote access trojan that can provide remote desktop access and remote webcam control, with the additional ability to steal passwords.
• Malwarebytes recorded increased detections of more than 160 percent between February and March for the malware DanaBot, an invasive trojan and information stealer that can swipe online banking account credentials.
• Phishing campaigns appear to be the most popular attack method, but cybercriminals have also gotten creative with fraudulent websites that hide malware.
• A 26 percent increase in credit card skimming activity in March puts home shoppers at greater risk

To learn more about the attack methods and malware types targeting individuals today, and to find recommendations on how to protect your—and your remote employees’—home base, read the full report:

Cybercrime tactics and techniques: Attack on home base

The post Coronavirus campaigns lead to surge in malware threats, Labs report finds appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

An extra way to create leverage against victims of ransomware has been introduced by the developers of the Maze ransomware. If the victim is not convinced that she should pay the criminals because her files are encrypted, there could be an extra method of extortion. Over time, more organizations have found ways to keep safe copies of their important files or use some kind of rollback technology to restore their systems to the state they were in before the attack.

To have some leverage over these organizations, the ransomware attackers steal data from the infiltrated system while they deploy their ransomware. They then threaten to publish the data if the victim decides not to pay. Depending on the kind of data, this can be a rather compelling reason to give in.

Maze introduces leaked data

In the last quarter of 2019, Maze’s developers introduced this new extortion method. And, as if ransomware alone wasn’t bad enough, since the introduction of this methodology, many other ransomware peddlers have started to adopt it. The most well-known ransomware families besides Maze that use data exfiltration as a side-dish for ransomware are Clop, Sodinokibi, and DoppelPaymer.

The dubious honor of being noted as the first victim went to Allied Universal, a California-based security services firm. Allied Universal saw 700MB of stolen data being dumped after they refused to meet the ransom demand set by Maze. Nowadays, most of the ransomware gangs involved in this double featured attack have dedicated websites where they threaten to publish the data stolen from victims that are reluctant to pay up.

Characteristics of Maze ransomware

Maze ransomware was developed as a variant of ChaCha ransomware and was initially discovered by Malwarebytes Director of Threat Intelligence Jérôme Segura in May of 2019. Since December of 2019, the gang has been very active making many high profile victims in almost every vertical: finance, technology, telecommunications, healthcare, government, construction, hospitality, media and communications, utilities and energy, pharma and life sciences, education, insurance, wholesale, and legal.

The main forms of distribution for Maze are:

• malspam campaigns utilizing weaponized attachments, mostly Word and Excel files
• RDP brute force attacks

Initially Maze was distributed through websites using an exploit kit such as the Fallout EK and Spelevo EK, which has been seen using Flash Player vulnerabilities. Maze ransomware has also utilized exploits against Pulse VPN, as well as the Windows VBScript Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerability to get into a network.

No matter which method was used to gain a foothold in the network, the next step for the Maze operators is to obtain elevated privileges, conduct lateral movement, and begin to deploy file encryption across all drives. However, before encrypting the data, these operators are known to exfiltrate the files they come across. These files will then be put to use as a means to gain extra leverage, threatening with public exposure.

MAZE uses two algorithms to encrypt the files, ChaCha20 and RSA. After encryption the program appends a string of random 4-7 characters at the end of each file. When the malware has finished encrypting all the targeted files it changes the desktop wallpaper to this image:

In addition, a voice message is played to the user of the affected system, alerting them of the encryption.

IOCs for Maze ransomware

Maze creates a file called DECRYPT-FILES.txt in each folder that contains encrypted files. It skips some folders among which are:
• %windir%
• %programdata%
• Program Files
• %appdata%local

It also skips all the files of the following types:
• dll
• exe
• lnk
• sys

This ransom note called DECRYPT-FILES.txt contains instructions for the victim:

They then promise that:

After the payment the data will be removed from our disks and decryptor will be given to you, so you can restore all your files.

SHA 256 hashes:

19aaa6c900a5642941d4ebc309433e783befa4cccd1a5af8c86f6e257bf0a72e 

6878f7bd90434ac5a76ac2208a5198ce1a60ae20e8505fc110bd8e42b3657d13

9ad15385f04a6d8dd58b4390e32d876070e339eee6b8da586852d7467514d1b1

b950db9229db2f37a7eb5368308de3aafcea0fd217c614daedb7f334292d801e

Protection

Malwarebytes protects users with a combination of different layers including one that stops the attack very early on and is completely signature-less.

Besides using Malwarebytes, we also recommend to:

• Deny access to Public IPs to important ports (RDP port 3389).
• Allow access to only IPs which are under your control.
• Along with blocking RDP port, we also suggest blocking SMB port 445. In general, it is advised to block unused ports.
• Apply the latest Microsoft update packages and keep your Operating system and antivirus fully updated.

Payments

While our advice as always is not to pay the criminals since you are keeping their business model alive by doing so, we do understand that missing crucial files can be a compelling reason to pay them anyway. And with the new twist of publishing exfiltrated data that the Maze operators introduced, there is an extra reason at hand. Throwing confidential data online has proven to be an effective extra persuasion as many organizations can’t afford to have them publicly available.

Stay safe, everyone!

The post Maze: the ransomware that introduced an extra twist appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Since its inception, the endpoint detection and response (EDR) market has evolved rapidly with new innovations to better address the cyber landscape and meet customers’ needs for an effective and simple solution that just works.

But finding something that just works means something quite different for every business, depending on their size, security expertise, and requirements.

Collectively, the EDR market has experienced three, sizable waves of innovation:

Wave 1: event visibility

With the market introduction of EDR solutions, the first innovation wave focused on providing security teams with visibility into all events that happen in the organization.

The predominant use case of a “first wave” EDR product is for the end user to search among millions of events and hope to find the “needle in the haystack” event that was critical and actionable.

However, this type of detection and response approach failed to provide enough relevant context or actionable intelligence for it to be useful for organizations with a security team of any size or skill level. Instead, the first wave of EDR solutions were mainly adopted by organizations with extremely experienced incident response investigators and Security Operations Center (SOC) teams with level 3-trained analysts who could apply the EDR event visibility as an additional datapoint during an attack investigation.

Wave 2: event alerting

Most EDR products in the market today are second-innovation-wave offerings. To address the first wave’s “needle in the haystack” usability shortcomings, EDR products added alert capabilities alongside the vast sea of event visibility and context.

However, these EDR offerings are not fully automated and are known to cause alert fatigue as the alerts are not correlated to an actionable remediation process. The practical usage for incident response efforts require a SOC level 2 analyst to analyze and investigate each detection, in-depth, to determine if it is critical or actionable, before closing the ticket.

What has the third wave introduced?

The EDR market is beginning to see some vendors—in a third wave of innovation—largely focus on democratizing security with usability and automation enhancements that make EDR an effective tool for organizations large and small and with security teams of any skill level.

There have been several market drivers creating the need for this third wave. First, with advances in attacker tools, cyber criminals have expanded their attack targets from enterprise-sized organizations to equally include small- and medium-sized businesses. In fact, small business victims now account for 43% of all corporate data breaches according to Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigation Report. In parallel, the market has continued to see a widening and unsustainable gap in the available cyber security staff, which (ISC)² is now estimating at a global workforce shortage of 4.07 million.

With the number and severity of attacks increasing, combined with the pervasive lack of available or highly skilled cybersecurity staff, demand has increased for EDR solutions that can address these issues. Third-wave-EDR products strive to meet that need with the inclusion of:

• Actionability

The third wave of EDR products finds us at the height of automation’s promise, raising only actionable alerts to the end user. The premise is that the visibility and context of the first and second EDR waves are important but shouldn’t get in the way of actionability. Without actionability, an EDR product becomes unusable by organizations that don’t have large or advanced security teams to investigate these tens of thousands of daily events.

• Automation

This latest wave of EDR products has achieved the Herculean task of fully automating EDR—from detection through to remediation—to support small-to-medium organizations without a large security team, enabling them to benefit from the same advanced EDR technology that has been in use by organizations with trained security personnel.

• Comprehensive security

Third wave EDR products provide a tightly integrated set of capabilities to effectively manage the attack chain—from proactive protection to detection of a suspicious activity and automated incident response. These capabilities create an ecosystem that informs, learns, and adapts from itself, so, in essence, the whole security stack is greater than the sum of the parts.

Third-party testing

With these waves of EDR innovations, how do third-party test labs play a role in the selection process?

To aide companies in their search, third-party evaluation and testing resources have been available to help prospective buyers narrow the field in vendor selection. The unique paradox with these resources is that the testing methodologies are designed with a specific and narrowly defined scope to “even the playing field,” which, in turn, typically renders the testing one step behind the latest, cutting-edge EDR innovation. This makes sense, of course, because test centers cannot adapt their standardized methodologies until after they have seen and understood the latest EDR advances.

Given that the EDR market has moved into its third wave, testing labs will also need to adapt their evaluation and testing criteria to incorporate these innovations.

For example:

• Actionability vs. alert fatigue

Tests will need to discern between actionability and alert fatigue. The third wave of EDR products are focused on providing a customer-centric approach that makes security accessible and easy for organizations of all sizes, with security teams of all capabilities.

In terms of testing, that means avoiding alert fatigue by sharing only actionable detections found within suspicious activity—those that are most relevant to ultimately prevent an attack. These solutions provide additional drill-down search options to view detections if a security analyst wants to dig into them, and third-wave testing criteria should incorporate the concept of a “primary UI event notification” vs. a “secondary UI for searching additional detections.”

• Testing the whole and not the separate parts for effectiveness

Tests will need to focus on the overall efficacy of the solution that evaluates the integrated EDR ecosystem of protection, detection, and remediation working together as they were designed for real world functionality, rather than creating artificial product deficits by shutting off part of the system, such as protection, in order to narrowly test detection capabilities.

How can companies navigate this reality?

Third-party tests are a good resource to understand how different solutions fair against a specific testing methodology. Yet, because the tests innovate a cycle behind the technology they’re intended to evaluate, ultimately, no standardized test is as good as doing a solid proof of concept in an organization’s live environment.

In the same way that companies turn to trusted colleagues and community resources—like Spiceworks and Reddit forums—when finding suggestions on good EDR solutions, third party tests provide a valuable, similar resource: to serve as a compass guide on the top group of EDR solutions to evaluate.

When evaluating EDR solutions, organizations should focus on selecting a vendor with a detection and remediation strategy that aligns with their objectives. Some criteria to consider when developing an EDR evaluation include:

1. Identify the risks: where is all the sensitive data located and what are the routes to that data?
2. Prioritize protection on the data that matters: sensitive organizational and customer data.
3. Consider the level of available security expertise. Most organizations don’t have enough cyber security experts, so evaluations should look at the solution’s complexity level. Does it require additional integrations, have a complex UI, or need additional skillset to operate?
4. Consider the organization’s brand and reputation in peer review sites, such as G2Crowd, Gartner Peer Insights, and Capterra.
5. Choose the solution or solutions to evaluate that have the capabilities that align with the defined criteria.

In the end, once an organization has narrowed the field of EDR solutions to the group that they want to evaluate, nothing can replace the experience of conducting a live test to see how the product stands up in their unique environment, against their real-time attacks, and with their trusted team learning to navigate the solution to see how easy or difficult it is to manage.

EDR has grown at a blistering pace to do one thing—help you and your business detect, prevent, and remediate cyber threats. By better understanding the testing landscape today, you can better deliver on your EDR results tomorrow.

The post The best test for an EDR solution is one that works for you appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Today, the Coalition Against Stalkerware brought aboard 11 new organizations to address the potentially dangerous capabilities of stalkerware, an invasive, digital threat that can rob individuals of their expectation of, and right to, privacy. These types of apps can provide domestic abusers with a new avenue of control over their survivors’ lives, granting wrongful, unfettered access to text messages, phone calls, emails, GPS location data, and online browsing behavior.

Founded last year, the Coalition Against Stalkerware brings together cybersecurity vendors, domestic violence organizations, and digital rights advocates.

Since its launch, Coalition members have published updated statistics on stalkerware-type apps, conducted vital research on their popularity, and informed journalists about why this subject matters. Further, the Coalition’s founding cybersecurity members—including Malwarebytes—have worked together to share intelligence to improve their products. This month, Malwarebytes also offered a remote training about mobile device security for the San Mateo-based nonprofit Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse.  

Today, the Coalition grows larger and stronger. We welcome Anonyome Labs, AppEsteem Corporation, Bundesverband Frauenberatungsstellen und Frauennotrufe (bff), Centre Hubertine Auclert, Copperhead, Corrata, Commonwealth Peoples’ Association of Uganda, Cyber Peace Foundation, F-Secure, Illinois Stalking Advocacy Center, and AEquitas with its Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center (SPARC).

With the new additions, the Coalition Against Stalkerware is now 21 partners strong, with participation in the United States, Canada, Ireland, India, Uganda, France, Germany, and Greece. We are also represented within a network of support groups spread across Switzerland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Norway, Georgia, Moldova, Italy, Austria, Cyprus, and Bosnia.

This global support comes at a necessary time.

In late January, the world shifted. Continuously more governments implemented shelter-in-place orders to prevent the spread of coronavirus. These efforts are for the public’s safety—attempts to slow down an illness deadlier and more contagious than the flu. But for survivors of domestic abuse, harm comes not just from the outside world—sometimes it lives at the same address.

In China, the non-governmental organization Equality, which works to stop violence against women, reported increased call volume to its support hotline. In Spain, a similar uptick of 18 percent occurred. And in France, police reported a 30 percent surge in domestic violence across the nation.

These issues are worldwide. Support can be local.

The Coalition already depends on multidisciplinary expertise to better understand and address the threat of stalkerware. We lean on domestic abuse advocates to learn about why there is no one-size-fits-all solution to these problems, and why we, as cybersecurity vendors, should not presume that all domestic abuse survivors can comfortably access the malware-scanning tools we build. We lean on digital rights experts to inform us about how these types of potentially invasive apps intersect with the law, and potentially violate our rights. And we lean on one another in the cybersecurity industry to improve our products to detect stalkerware-type apps.

With today’s additions, we’re expanding our approach to multidisciplinary expertise. We are leaning on experts who support survivors in languages we sometimes don’t speak, and who, through decades of committed work, have built immeasurable trust within their communities beyond our current reach.

We work better when we work together.

The post Coalition Against Stalkerware bulks up global membership appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

This week on Lock and Code, we discuss the top security headlines generated right here on Labs and around the Internet. In addition, we talk to Pieter Arntz, malware intelligence researcher at Malwarebytes, about web browser privacy—an often neglected subcategory of data privacy. Without the proper restrictions, browsers can allow web trackers to follow you around the Internet, resulting in that curious ad seeming to find you from website to website. But, according to Arntz, there are ways to fight back.

Tune in for all this and more on the latest episode of Lock and Code, with host David Ruiz.

You can also find us on the Apple iTunes store, on Google Play Music, plus whatever preferred podcast platform you use.

We cover our own research on:

• When the coronavirus infodemic strikes
• 10 best practices for MSPs to secure their clients and themselves from ransomware
• Shining a light on “Silent Night” Zloader/Zbot
• Going dark: encryption and law enforcement

Plus other cybersecurity news:

• Mandrake, a sophisticated Android spyware that hides in plain sight, was finally unearthed after years of being active. (Source: ZDNet)
• Face masks used to protect from coronavirus also frustrated facial recognition systems. (Source: The Register)
• A hacker was found selling dating app user data and credentials in an underground forum. (Source: Sophos’s Naked Security Blog)
• Security researchers debunked myths surrounding Magecart attacks. (Source: Help Net Security)
• Business email compromise (BEC) scammers defrauded Norfund, Norway’s state investment fund, worth $10M USD. (Source: BleepingComputer)

Stay safe, everyone!

The post Lock and Code S1Ep7: Sounding the trumpet on web browser privacy with Pieter Arntz appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.