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:
- Oil-and-Gas APT Pivots to U.S. Power Plants
January 10, 2020
A known APT group with ties to the Iran-linked APT33, dubbed Magnallium, has expanded its targeting from the global oil-and-gas industry to specifically include electric companies in North America. That’s according to a report from Dragos, released Thursday, which noted that the discovery is part of a broader trend in which cybercriminals focused on critical infrastructure are branching ...
- Operation AppleJeus Sequel
January 10, 2020
The Lazarus group is currently one of the most active and prolific APT actors. In 2018, Kaspersky published a report on one of their campaigns, named Operation AppleJeus. Notably, this operation marked the first time Lazarus had targeted macOS users, with the group inventing a fake company in order to deliver their manipulated application and exploit ...
- Exploit Fully Breaks SHA-1, Lowers the Attack Bar
January 9, 2020
A proof-of-concept attack has been pioneered that “fully and practically” breaks the Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1) code-signing encryption, used by legacy computers to sign the certificates that authenticate software downloads and prevent man-in-the-middle tampering. The exploit was developed by Gaëtan Leurent and Thomas Peyrin, academic researchers at Inria France and Nanyang Technological University/Temasek Laboratories in Singapore. They ...
- TrickBot Adds Custom, Stealthy Backdoor to its Arsenal
January 9, 2020
The Russian-speaking cybercriminals behind the TrickBot malware have developed a stealthy backdoor dubbed “PowerTrick,” in order to infiltrate high-value targets. According to research from SentinelLabs, released on Thursday, PowerTrick is designed to execute commands and return the results in Base64 format. It’s deployed as a module after the initial TrickBot infection has already taken hold on ...
- Threat Spotlight: Amadey Bot Targets Non-Russian Users
January 8, 2020
Amadey is a simple Trojan bot first discovered in October of 2018. It is primarily used for collecting information on a victim’s environment, though it can also deliver other malware. A major infection vector for Amadey are exploit kits such as RigEK and Fallout EK. During our monitoring, we also observed this Trojan being delivered via AZORult Infostealer on ...
- First Active Attack Exploiting CVE-2019-2215 Found on Google Play, Linked to SideWinder APT Group
January 6, 2020
Trend Micro found three malicious apps in the Google Play Store that work together to compromise a victim’s device and collect user information. One of these apps, called Camero, exploits CVE-2019-2215, a vulnerability that exists in Binder (the main Inter-Process Communication system in Android). This is the first known active attack in the wild that ...