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:
- NSA Publishes Advisory Addressing Encrypted Traffic Inspection TLCRisks
November 19, 2019
The National Security Agency (NSA) published an advisory that addresses the risks behind Transport Layer Security Inspection (TLSI) and provides mitigation measures for weakened security in organizations that use TLSI products. TLSI (aka TLS break and inspect) is the process through which enterprises can inspect encrypted traffic with the help of a dedicated product such as a proxy ...
- Is agriculture at risk from cyber crime?
November 18, 2019
Most media coverage about cyber-crime shares horrendous examples of how individuals or families’ lives have been ruined by ruthless scams. This is no different in the agriculture sector. Cyber crime has become a major industry – and the cyber security industry has grown rapidly to tackle the scale of the problem. The Office of National Statistics estimates ...
- New WhatsApp Bug Could Have Let Hackers Secretly Install Spyware On Your Devices
November 16, 2019
The vulnerability affects both consumers as well as enterprise apps of WhatsApp for all major platforms, including Google Android, Apple iOS, and Microsoft Windows. According to an advisory published by Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, the list of affected app versions are as follows: Android versions before 2.19.274 iOS versions before 2.19.100 Enterprise Client versions before 2.25.3 Windows Phone versions before and ...
- Stealthy Malware Flies Under AV Radar with Advanced Obfuscation
November 15, 2019
Researchers warn hackers are putting a new spin on old injection techniques and successfully end-running endpoint protection. They are tracking a campaign, that kicked off in January, that is still going strong exploiting weaknesses in web browsers. The objective is to hide in the background of infected systems in order to steal user passwords, track ...
- APT33 Mounts Focused, Highly Targeted Botnet Attacks Against U.S. Victims
November 14, 2019
The Iran-linked, espionage-focused advanced threat group known as APT33 has been spotted using more than a dozen obfuscated botnets to carry out narrowly targeted attacks against government and academic targets in the Middle East, the U.S. and Asia. Each botnet, linked to its own command-and-control (C2) server, comprises a small group of up to a dozen ...
- DDoS Attacks That Employ TCP Amplification Cause Network Congestion, Secondary Outages
November 14, 2019
Over the past month, threat actors have been using a relatively non-conventional approach to mount a flurry of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks: through TCP amplification. Security company Radware shared its observations on multiple campaigns involving Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) reflection attacks, specifically SYN-ACK reflection attacks, against companies across the world. The scope of the impact was ...