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Threat Actors Exploit Adobe Acrobat Sign to Propagate Redline Info-Stealing Malware

 

Cybercriminals are exploiting Adobe Acrobat Sign, an online document signing service, to trick users into downloading malware that steals their personal information. 

In order to get around security measures and dupe users into believing the email they got is legitimate, the service is being misused to send malicious emails that appear to come from the software business. 

The practice of misusing legal services is not new. Abuse of Google Documents comments, PayPal invoicing, and other platforms are current examples of situations similar to this. Researchers at Avast alerted the public to this new cybercrime trend and cautioned against its efficiency in evading security measures and deceiving targets. 

Exploiting legal services 

Adobe Acrobat Sign is a cloud-based e-signature service that allows users to send, sign, track, and manage electronic signatures for free. Threat actors register with the service and use it to send messages to certain email addresses that contain a link to a document published on Adobe's servers ("eu1.documents.adobe.com/public/"). 

The documents include a link to a website that asks visitors to complete a CAPTCHA in order to add authenticity before serving them a ZIP archive containing a copy of the Redline information stealer. Redline is a dangerous spyware that can steal account credentials, cryptocurrency wallets, credit cards, and other data from a compromised device. 

Avast has also detected highly targeted attacks using this strategy, such as one in which the victim had a popular YouTube channel with a large number of subscribers. 

The victim was taken to a document claiming music copyright infringement after clicking on the link in the specially-crafted letter sent via Adobe Acrobat Sign, a popular and credible theme for YouTube channel owners. 

This time, the document was stored on dochub.com, a renowned website for online document signing. The document's link points to the same CAPTCHA-protected website where a download of Redline is made available. The ZIP file in this instance, however, also included a number of executables from the GTA V game that weren't harmful, probably in an effort to confuse antivirus software programmes. 

Additionally, according to Avast, the Redline payload in both instances was artificially inflated to 400MB, aiding in the prevention of anti-virus scans. Recent phishing attacks utilising the Emotet malware employed this same technique. Phishing actors are continually looking for genuine services that may be misused to advertise their malicious emails, as these services enhance their mailbox delivery and phishing success rates. 

Adobe and Dochub.com have been given full access to Avast's findings, and it is hoped that these two services will discover a means to deter malware operators from abusing their services.

Hacker's Spread ModernLoader, XMRig Miner Malware

 


During March and June 2022, Cisco Talos researchers discovered three distinct but connected campaigns that were spreading various malware to victims, including the ModernLoader bot, RedLine info-stealer, and cryptocurrency miners.

The hackers spread over a targeted network via PowerShell,.NET assemblies, HTA, and VBS files before releasing further malware, like the SystemBC trojan and DCRat, to enable different stages of its exploits, according to a report by Cisco Talos researcher Vanja Svajcer.

Cisco Talos further said that the infections were caused by a previously unidentified but Russian-speaking spyware, that used commercial software. Users in Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, and Russia were among the potential targets. 

The first stage payload is an HTML Application (HTA) file that executes a PowerShell script stored on the command-and-control (C2) server to start the deployment of interim payloads that eventually use a method known as process hollowing to inject the malware.

ModernLoader (also known as Avatar bot), a straightforward.NET remote access trojan, has the ability to download and run files from the C2 server, run arbitrary instructions, acquire system information, and alter modules in real-time. 

Additionally, the actors dispersed across a targeted network using PowerShell,.NET assemblies, HTA, and VBS files before releasing additional malware, such as the SystemBC trojan, and DCRAT, to carry out various operations related to their activities.

It is challenging to identify a specific adversary behind this behavior because the attackers used various commercially available tools, according to Cisco Talos.

Despite the lack of clarity surrounding attribution, the business reported that threat actors used ModernLoader as the final payload in all three campaigns. This payload then functioned as a remote access trojan (RAT) by gathering system data and delivering further modules.

In addition, two older attacks from March 2022 were discovered by Cisco's analysis. These campaigns use ModerLoader as its principal malware C2 communication tool and also spread other malware, such as XMRig, RedLine Stealer, SystemBC, DCRat, and a Discord token stealer, among others. 

Days prior to the publication of the piece, the corporation hosted a webinar in which it reaffirmed its cybersecurity support for Ukraine in honor of the nation's Independence Day.

Users' Crypto Wallets are Stolen by Fake Binance NFT Mystery Box Bots

 

Researchers have discovered a new campaign to disperse the RedLine Stealer — a low-cost password seeker sold on underground forums — by mutating oneself with the data malware from GitHub repositories using a fake Binance NFT mystery box bots, an array of YouTube videos that take advantage of global interest in NFTs. 

The enticement is the promise of a bot that will automatically purchase Binance NFT Mystery Boxes as they become available. Binance mystery boxes are collections of non-fungible token (NFT) things for users to purchase in the hopes of receiving a one-of-a-kind or uncommon item at a discounted price. Some of the NFTs obtained in such boxes can be used in online blockchain games to add unusual cosmetics or identities. However, the bot is a hoax. According to Gustavo Palazolo, a malware analyst at Netskope Threat Labs, the video descriptions on the YouTube pages encourage victims to accidentally download RedLine Stealer from a GitHub link. 

In the NFT market, mystery boxes are popular because they provide individuals with the thrill of the unknown as well as the possibility of a large payout if they win a rare NFT. However, marketplaces such as Binance sell them in limited quantities, making some crates difficult to obtain before they sell out. 

"We found in this attempt that the attacker is also exploiting GitHub in the threat flow, to host the payloads," Palazolo said. "RedLine Stealer was already known for manipulating YouTube videos to proliferate through false themes," Palazolo said. The advertising was spotted by Netskope in April. "While RedLine Stealer is a low-cost malware, it has several capabilities that might do considerable harm to its victims, including the loss of sensitive data," Palazolo said. This is why prospective buyers frequently use "bots" to obtain them, and it is exactly this big trend that threat actors are attempting to exploit. 

The Ads were uploaded during March and April 2022, and each one includes a link to a GitHub repository that purports to host the bot but instead distributes RedLine. "BinanceNFT.bot v1.3.zip" is the name of the dropped file, which contains a program of a similar name, which is the cargo, a Visual C++ installation, and a README.txt file. Because RedLine is written in.NET, it demands the VC redistributable setup file to run, whereas the prose file contains the victim's installation instructions.

If the infected machine is found in any of the following countries, the virus does not run, according to Palazolo: Armenia, Azerbaijan,  Belarus,  Kazakhstan,  Kyrgyzstan,  Moldova,  Russia,  Tajikistan Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

The repository's GitHub account, "NFTSupp," began work in March 2022, according to Palazolo. The same source also contains 15 zipped files including five different RedLine Stealer loaders. "While each of the five loaders we looked at is slightly different, they all unzip and inject RedLine Stealer in the same fashion, as we discussed earlier in this report. The oldest sample we identified was most likely created on March 11, 2022, and the newest sample was most likely compiled on April 7, 2022," he said. These promotions, on the other hand, use rebrand.ly URLs that lead to MediaFire downloads. This operation is also spreading password-stealing trojans, according to VirusTotal. 

RedLine is now available for $100 per month on a subscription basis to independent operators, and it allows for the theft of login passwords and cookies from browsers, content from chat apps, VPN keys, and cryptocurrency wallets. Keep in mind that the validity of platforms like YouTube and GitHub doesn't really inherently imply content reliability, as these sites' upload checks and moderation systems are inadequate.

Malspam Campaign Spreads Novel META Info-stealer

 

The new META malware, a unique info-stealer malware that appears to be gaining popularity among hackers, has been discovered in a malspam campaign. 

META, along with Mars Stealer and BlackGuard, is one of the latest info-stealers whose administrators aim to profit from Raccoon Stealer's absence from the market, which has left many looking for a new platform.  META was initially reported on the Bleeping Computer last month when KELA experts cautioned of its quick entry into the TwoEasy botnet marketplace. The product is advertised as an upgraded version of RedLine and costs $125 per month for monthly users or $1,000 for unlimited lifetime use. 

META is currently being utilised in attacks, according to security researcher and ISC Handler Brad Duncan. It is being used to steal passwords stored in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, as well as cryptocurrency wallets. The infection chain in this campaign uses the "standard" approach of sending a macro-laced Excel spreadsheet as an email attachment to potential victims' inboxes. The communications make fictitious financial transfer promises that aren't very persuasive or well-crafted, yet they can nonetheless be effective against a considerable percentage of recipients. 

A DocuSign bait is included in the spreadsheet files, urging the target to "allow content" in order to launch the malicious VBS macro in the background. The malicious script will download a variety of payloads, including DLLs and executables, when it runs. To avoid detection by the security software, some of the downloaded files are base64 encoded or have their bytes reversed. 

One of the samples Duncan collected, for example, has its bytes reversed in the original file. The full payload is eventually assembled on the machine under the name "qwveqwveqw.exe," which is most likely random, and a new registry entry for persistence is created. The EXE file generating activity to a command and control server at 193.106.191[.]162, even after the system reboots, is clear and persistent evidence of the infection, restarting the infection process on the affected machine. 

One thing to keep in mind is that META uses PowerShell to tell Windows Defender to exclude .exe files in order to protect its files from discovery.

RedLine Stealer Identified as Major Source of Stolen Credentials on Dark Web Markets

 

A significant proportion of stolen credentials being traded on two dark web underground marketplaces were gathered via the RedLine Stealer malware, according to Insikt Group, Recorded Future's cybersecurity research arm. 

The RedLine Stealer, first discovered in March 2020, is a part of the info stealer family, a form of malware that once infects a computer and its primary goal is to capture as much user data as possible and then deliver it to the attackers, who often sell it online. 

The RedLine Stealer has data gathering features such as the ability to extract login credentials from web browsers, FTP applications, email apps, instant messaging clients, and VPNs. RedLine can also harvest authentication cookies and card numbers from browsers, chat logs, local files, and cryptocurrency wallet databases. 

Since March 2020, the malware has been sold on many underground hacking sites by a coder called REDGlade. After good feedback in a hacking forum thread, unauthorized versions of the RedLine Stealer were distributed on hacker forums a few months later, in August of this year, facilitating it to proliferate to even more threat actors who did not have to pay for it. 

But, even before the cracked version was released, RedLine had gained a devoted following. According to a report published last week by Insikt Group, the majority of stolen credentials available for sale on two underground marketplaces originate from computers infected with the RedLine Stealer. 

Insikt researchers stated, “Both Amigos Market and Russian Market were identified by Insikt Group (June 2021) posting identical listings regularly that contained the same timestamps, infostealer variants used, geographical locations of affected machines, and ISPs.” 

The results of the Insikt team follow similar research by threat intelligence firm KELA from February 2020, which discovered that around 90% of stolen credentials sold on the Genesis Market originated from infections with the AZORult infostealer. 

According to the two reports, underground cybercrime marketplaces are fragmented and often operate with their own independent suppliers, just as legal markets have their own choices for particular business partners. 

By going after the producers and dealers of these infostealers, this fragmentation opens the path to impairing the supply of multiple underground markets. In February 2020, a Chrome upgrade (which modified how credentials were saved inside the browser) halted the flow of newly stolen credentials on Genesis Market for months until the AZORult stealer was modified to assist the new format.

RedLine Stealer: Masquerades as Telegram Installer

 

The .Net-based malware has recently been disguised as an installer of the popular secure messaging app, Telegram. 

Stealers are pieces of malicious code written with a hit-and-run mindset, intending to find something of value on an infected computer and return it to its owner. These sinister viruses usually infect through a second-stage payload or by masquerading as legitimate apps. One such stealer is Redline Stealer, which is often used by attackers to steal credentials from unsuspecting users.

According to Minerva, RedLine Stealer employs evasive techniques to bypass the security products, which begins with the unpacking process. The fake setup file is packed and highly obfuscated, like most of the .Net malware. No known packer is found using Detect-It-Easy, implying that the unpacking must be performed manually. 

Most of the variable and function names were scrambled after decompiling the malware, making it difficult to understand the code. The packer developer also decided to implement control flow flattening into the packer in order to make any reverse engineering effort truly miserable. Control flow flattening takes the normal program control flow and modifies it using numerous if/while statements. 

Packers typically use stenography or encryption in their arsenal, what appears to be malformed image files are actually the malicious payload, which is decoded and decrypted by a custom algorithm in the resources directory. 

The payload data is concealed inside the RGB values of image pixels. The first pixel contains the size of the meaningful data inside the image, while the others include the actual data. 

After decoding the image, the packer decodes the payload with the RC2 cipher, revealing and loading a file called "Lightning.dll" into memory. An object named "GameCore.Core" is instantiated from the in-memory DLL file, and inside it, a function named "Game" receives yet another image file from the binary's resources directory, along with a hardcoded key. 

The "Game" feature decrypts the final payload and then uses process injection to load the malware into another process's memory space. The payload is then identified, and it is fully un-obfuscated, which allowed seeing its C&C address in cleartext, Minerva reported.