Once used exclusively by the cybercriminals behind REVil ransomware and the Gootkit banking trojan, GootLoader and its primary payload have evolved into an initial access as a service platform—with Gootkit providing information stealing capabilities as well as the capability to deploy post-exploitation tools and ransomware.
GootLoader is known for using search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning for its initial access. Victims are often enticed into clicking on malicious adware or links disguised as legitimate marketing, or in this case a legitimate Google search directing the user to a compromised website hosting a malicious payload masquerading as the desired file. If the malware remains undetected on the victim’s machine, it makes way for a second-stage payload known as GootKit, which is a highly evasive info stealer and remote access Trojan (RAT) used to establish a persistent foothold in the victim’s network environment.
Read more…
Source: Sophos
Related:
- New Privilege Escalation Flaw Affects Most Linux Distributions
October 26, 2018
An Indian security researcher has discovered a highly critical flaw in X.Org Server package that impacts OpenBSD and most Linux distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Red Hat, and Fedora. Xorg X server is a popular open-source implementation of the X11 system (display server) that offers a graphical environment to a wider range of hardware and OS platforms. It ...
- Unusual Remote Execution Bug in Cisco WebEx Discovered by Researchers
October 25, 2018
While remote code execution vulnerabilities are pretty common, a new one discovered in Cisco’s WebEx online and video collaboration software is definitely different. That is because users can remotely execute commands through a component of the WebEx client even when WebEx does not listen for remote connections. Remote code execution vulnerabilities are bugs that allow a users ...
- StrongPity APT Changes Tactics to Stay Stealthy
October 23, 2018
After being exposed, the APT made minor adjustments in their tactics to stay off the security radar. The APT group behind the sophisticated malware known as StrongPity (a.k.a. Promethium) has changed its tactics, after various research groups analyzed the malware and exposed its methods of deployment. The efforts have allowed the group to return to hidden ...
- Two Critical RCE Bugs Patched in Drupal 7 and 8
October 20, 2018
Drupal is urging users to upgrade to the latest release that fixes two critical remote code execution bugs impacting Drupal 7 and Drupal 8. Developers have also identified three additional “moderately critical” vulnerabilities. “A remote attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system,” according to a security bulletin posted by the United States ...
- jQuery File Upload Plugin Vulnerable for 8 Years and Only Hackers Knew
October 19, 2018
Of the thousands of plugins for the jQuery framework, one of the most popular of them harbored for at least three years an oversight in code that eluded the security community, despite public availability of tutorials that explained how it could be exploited. The bug affects the widely used jQuery File Upload widget and allowed an attacker to upload ...
- SettingContent-ms can be Abused to Drop Complex DeepLink and Icon-based Payload
October 18, 2018
Microsoft’s SettingContent-ms has become a recent topic of interest. In July, we saw one spam campaign use malicious SettingContent-ms files embedded in a PDF to drop the remote access Trojan FlawedAmmyy, a RAT also used by the Necurs botnet. That campaign was mostly targeting banks in different countries across Asia and Europe. SettingContent-ms is a recent addition to ...