Attackers typically try to pass off malware as legitimate applications or as potentially unwanted programs that users deliberately search for and download, such as cheats or cracks. They often rely on ad and affiliate networks to deliver their creations to victims’ devices. This post examines a less conventional case: a well-known backdoor distributed under the guise of adware. The attackers may have chosen this distribution method because the adware was signed by the developer. On top of that, users often manually add these apps to exclusions, so their useful features don’t get blocked.
Some time ago, a client asked us to analyze a file with the MD5 hash c24e99f9437feacaa63766a3cde3fe3d and add it to our detection database. We initially classified it as adware, but a cursory analysis turned up suspicious network activity, which prompted us to dig deeper. It turned out the sample did far more than serve ads. In fact, its advertising functionality doesn’t even work; instead, it triggers an infection chain that delivers the ValleyRAT backdoor.
Read more…
Source: Kaspersky
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Threat Actors Chaining Unpatched VMware Vulnerabilities for Full System Control
June 2, 2022
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is releasing this CSA to warn organizations that malicious cyber actors, likely advanced persistent threat (APT) actors, are exploiting CVE-2022-22954 and CVE-2022-22960 separately and in combination. These vulnerabilities affect certain versions of VMware Workspace ONE Access, VMware Identity Manager (vIDM), VMware vRealize Automation (vRA), VMware Cloud Foundation, and ...
- YourCyanide: A CMD-Based Ransomware With Multiple Layers of Obfuscation
June 2, 2022
The Trend Micro Threat Hunting team recently analyzed a series of CMD-based ransomware variants with a number capabilities such as stealing user information, bypassing remote desktop connections, and propagating through email and physical drives. In this blog entry, Trend Micro researchers will analyze YourCyanide, the latest variant of the CMD-based ransomware family that started with GonnaCope. ...
- Takedown of SMS-based FluBot spyware infecting Android phones
June 1, 2022
An international law enforcement operation involving 11 countries has resulted in the takedown of one of the fastest-spreading mobile malware to date. Known as FluBot, this Android malware has been spreading aggressively through SMS, stealing passwords, online banking details and other sensitive information from infected smartphones across the world. Its infrastructure was successfully disrupted earlier ...
- Using Python to unearth a goldmine of threat intelligence from leaked chat logs
June 1, 2022
Dealing with a great amount of data can be time consuming, thus using Python can be very powerful to help analysts sort information and extract the most relevant data for their investigation. The open-source tools library, MSTICPy, for example, is a Python tool dedicated to threat intelligence. It aims to help threat analysts acquire, enrich, ...
- FBI: Karakurt Data Extortion Group
June 1, 2022
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are releasing this joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to provide information on the Karakurt data extortion group, also known as the Karakurt Team and Karakurt Lair. Karakurt actors have employed a ...
- Patch Your WSO2: CVE-2022-29464 Exploited to Install Linux-Compatible Cobalt Strike Beacons, Other Malware
May 31, 2022
Trend Micro researchers observed vulnerability CVE-2022-29464 being exploited in the wild since April, allowing unrestricted file uploads resulting to arbitrary remote code execution (RCE). Disclosed and patched in April, the security gap was ranked Critical at 9.8 and affects a number of WSO2 products. It requires no user interaction and administrative privileges for abuse, and ...