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This Linux-Targeting Malware is Becoming Even More Potent


A trojan software has been added to the capabilities of a cryptomining malware campaign that targets Linux-based devices and cloud computing instances, potentially making attacks more severe. 

This cryptomining campaign, as described by cybersecurity experts at Trend Micro, uses Linux computers' processing power, in order to sneakily compromise Linux servers and mine for Monero. 

Cryptomining attacks are frequently distributed by utilizing common cybersecurity flaws or by being concealed inside cracked software downloads. 

One compromised system is unlikely to generate much profit from cryptomining malware, but attackers infect a vast network of compromised servers and computers to produce as much cryptocurrency as possible, with the related energy bill being unknowingly carried by the victim. 

Because the affected user is unlikely to notice the decrease in system performance unless the machine is pushed to its limit, the attacks usually go unnoticed. Large networks of infected systems can thus generate a consistent income for threat actors, which is why this method has become a prevalent form of malware. 

Remote Access Trojan (RAT) 

Cryptojacking campaign comprises a remote access trojan (RAT) in its attacks – the reason why it stands out from other cyberthreat campaigns. Chaos RAT, a trojan malware is free and open source, and allows threat actors to take charge of any operating system. 

The RAT is downloaded with XMRig miner, which is utilized by threat actors in order to mine cryptocurrency, comprising of a shell script which is used to eliminate competing miners that could have previously been set up on the system. 

Chaos RAT has a variety of potent functions, like the ability to download, upload and delete files, take screenshots, access file explorer, as well as open URLs. 

In a blog post, written by Trend Micro researchers David Fisher and Oliveira, stated, “On the surface, the incorporation of a RAT into the infection routine of a cryptocurrency mining malware might seem relatively minor […] However, given the tool's array of functions and the fact that this evolution shows that cloud-based threat actors are still evolving their campaigns, it is important that both organizations and individuals stay extra vigilant when it comes to security.” 

In order to secure networks and cloud services against cryptomining malware and numerous other cyberattacks, organizations are advised to employ generic best cybersecurity measures, such as timely patching and updating of software and applications, in order to mitigate the risks of vulnerability being exploited in the outdated versions.  

Attackers Exploit Telerik Vulnerabilities to Deploy Cobalt Strike

 

A hacker called ‘Blue Mockingbird’ is exploiting Telerik UI flaws to breach servers, install Cobalt Strike beacons, and deploy cryptomining malware. 

The vulnerability tracked as CVE-2019-18935 with a critical severity score (CVSS v3.1: 9.8), impacts the Telerik UI library for ASP.NET AJAX and is a high-risk deserialization security bug that can lead to remote code execution. 

Blue Mockingbird was also identified in May 2020 targeting susceptible Microsoft IIS servers that employed Telerik UI, even though it had been a year after the vendor had published security patches. Earlier this week, Sophos researchers revealed that Blue Mockingbird is leveraging the same flaw to launch new cyberattacks. 

To exploit CVE-2019-18935, the hackers must secure the encryption keys that guard Telerik UI’s serialization on the target. This may be done by using CVE-2017-11317 and CVE-2017-11357 or abusing another vulnerability in the target web app. 

Since multiple web apps were used as projects that embedded the Telerik UI framework version at the time of development and later were discontinued, they are still legitimate targets accessible for exploitation. Once the keys are acquired, the hackers can compile a malicious DLL containing the code to be executed during deserialization and launch it in the context of the ‘w3wp.exe’ process. 

According to the researchers, in recent assaults, Blue Mockingbird employed a readily available proof-of-concept (PoC) vulnerability to manage the encryption logic and automate the DLL compilation. The payload used in the recent assaults is a Cobalt Strike beacon, a stealthy, legitimate penetration testing tool hacker exploits for executing encoded PowerShell commands. 

Persistence is achieved by Active Directory Group Policy Objects (GPOs), which manufacture scheduled tasks in a new registry entry that contains base64-encoded PowerShell. To mitigate Windows Defender detection, the script employs typical AMSI-bypassing methodologies to download and load a Cobalt Strike DLL into memory. 

The second-stage program (‘crby26td.exe’) is an XMRig Miner, a common open-source cryptocurrency miner for Monero, one of the least detected cryptocurrencies. Notably, this was the primary goal of the threat actor’s 2020 campaign; therefore, the attack chain, methodologies, and goals haven’t altered significantly. 

On the other hand, Cobalt Strike allows for simple lateral movement within an exploited network, data exfiltration, account takeover, and the deployment of more powerful payloads like ransomware. It remains unclear whether Blue Mockingbird is interested in investigating these possibilities; for the time being, or they’re only focused on Monero mining.

Mac Coinminer Employs a Novel Approach to Mask Its Traffic

 

A Mac coinminer has been discovered exploiting customizable open-source software to enhance its malicious activity. This sample incorporates a variety of altered open-source elements which the malicious actor customized to fulfill the agenda. The sample was indeed discovered concealing its network traffic with i2pd (called I2P Daemon). The Invisible Internet Protocol, or I2P client, is constructed in C++ by I2pd. I2P is a worldwide anonymous network layer which enables anonymous end-to-end encrypted communication without revealing the participants' real IP addresses. 

Coinminer is the major malware sample which has been found. MacOS. MALXMR.H is a Mach-O file which was also identified by numerous vendors because it includes XMRig-related strings as sourcing tools like Yara. Its accessibility makes, XMRig to be often utilized by other viruses to execute crypto mining. 

The primary Mach-O sample was discovered to be ad hoc-signed. This indicates the Mach-O binary is difficult to run on Mac systems, and Gatekeeper, a built-in security mechanism for macOS which enforces code signing, may prohibit it. 

The Mach-O sample is suspected to have arrived in a DMG (an Apple image format for compressing installations) of Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 v20.0.6. Apparently, the parent file could not be located. The piece of code was identified in one of its discarded files, which led to the conclusion. The sample attempts to create a non-existent file in the /Volumes path in this code. It's worth noting when double-tapping DMG files on macOS, they get automatically mounted in the /Volumes directory. 

Several embedded Mach-O files were discovered in the core Mach-O sample (detected as Coinminer.MacOS.MALXMR.H). It uses the API to elevate rights by enabling the user for authentication when it is performed. The following files have been deposited into the system by the sample:
  •  /tmp/lauth /usr/local/bin/com.adobe.acc.localhost
  •  /usr/local/bin/com.adobe.acc.network
  •  /usr/local/bin/com.adobe.acc.installer.v1 

As per Trend Micro, the sample used the auth file for persistence. The Mach-O file is in charge of creating the persistence files for the malware:
LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.acc.installer.v1.plist. 

"The file is an XMRig command-line app which has been modified. When launching the app, enter help or version in the variables to see what it's about. The help argument displays a list and overview of the parameters which can be utilized, whereas the version parameter reveals the version of the XMRig binary," according to the experts.

It is suggested to update the products and keep up with the latest patterns. Users should avoid downloading apps from shady websites and exercise excellent digital hygiene.

Attackers Use Cryptomining Malware to Target Organizations

 

Earlier this year in June, a security researcher from security firm Sonatype uncovered six malicious payloads in the official Python programming language’s PyPI repository that were laced with cryptomining malware. 

The attackers used typo-squatted names for the malicious payloads that were downloaded more than 5000 times. All the packages were posted on PyPI by the author “nedog123,” some as early as April of this year. Attackers used typosquats to trick people into thinking they were normal programs and hide their main purpose of hijacking developer systems for cryptomining. 

The PyPI event is complex because it combines three different kinds of attacks: logic bombs, cryptojacking, and software supply chain attacks. The risk posed by these kinds of attacks requires immediate action from organizations if they want to shield their database. 

Logic Bomb Attacks 

A logic bomb also known as 'code bomb', cyber bomb, or slag code is a malicious piece of code that gets executed under specific conditions, usually with a malicious purpose. One challenge with logic bomb attacks is that they are sneaky in nature and can go undetected for long periods of time. 

All the logic bomb attacks vary in form and function from one another which help malicious actors to install logic bombs that victim can’t easily detect. The logic bomb attacks are used for various purposes like stealing data, deleting or corrupting data, locking systems, or launching cryptomining processes.

Cryptojacking 

Cryptojacking, the illicit hijacking of computers, smartphones, or even servers to mine cryptocurrency. Attackers can steal huge bandwidth and compute energy, and, in the end, financial resources as it works to solve the equations needed for mining currency. In fact, the high resource demand — the high cost of cryptomining — is exactly why attackers are stealing it with cryptomining malware. Threat actors use crypto-malware because its behavior is hard to predict. In addition, it’s a foot in the door for other kinds of payloads and breaches. 

Software supply chain attack

Software supply chain attack, the most common method to target organizations by adding malicious code in third-party software with the aim of compromising applications that use that software. According to the State of the Software Supply Chain report, supply chain attacks have increased by a staggering 650% year-on-year, versus a figure of 430% last year. 

“Next-generation software supply chain attacks are far more sinister, because bad actors are no longer waiting for public vulnerability disclosures to pursue an exploit. Instead, they are taking the initiative and injecting new vulnerabilities into open source projects that feed the global supply chain, and then exploiting those vulnerabilities before they are discovered,” the report noted. 

How to mitigate the risks 

Organizations are advised to follow the steps mentioned below to protect their database: 

• Use trusted antivirus software 
• Perform regular OS updates 
• Avoid downloading apps from untrusted sources 
• Use red team tests to learn how supply chain attacks could play out within your organization and figure out how to best respond 
• Blacklist mining sites, pirate software sites, and other sites are likely to lead to shady downloads 
• Disable JavaScript, if feasible 
• Train employees on basic digital safety awareness and practices.

Attackers found abusing GitHub Infrastructure to Mine Cryptocurrency

 

Microsoft-owned GitHub is the new cyberattack victim, with reports of cybercriminals manipulating GitHub's cloud infrastructure to mine cryptocurrency. Code repository hosting service, Github has started an investigation into a series of attacks aimed at abusing its infrastructure to mine cryptocurrency illegally. 

GitHub Actions is a continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD ) solution that makes it easy to automate all the software workflows and setup periodic tasks. The particular attack adds malicious GitHub Actions code to repositories forked from legitimate ones and further creates a Pull Request for the original repository maintainers to merge the code back, to alter the original code. 

“In a phone call, Dutch security engineer Justin Perdok told The Record that at least one threat actor is targeting GitHub repositories where Actions might be enabled. The attack involves forking a legitimate repository, adding malicious GitHub Actions to the original code, and then filing a Pull Request with the original repository in order to merge the code back into the original.” reported The Record. 

“But the attack doesn’t rely on the original project owner approving the malicious Pull Request. Just filing the Pull Request is enough for the attack, Perdok said.” This is particularly true for GitHub projects that have automated workflows setup to substantiate incoming Pull Requests via Actions. As soon as a Pull Request is created for the original project, GitHub's systems execute the attacker's code which instructs GitHub servers to retrieve and run a crypto miner. 

This isn't the first time an attack leveraging GitHub infrastructure has abused GitHub Actions. An identical attack had previously been identified by another programmer, Yann Esposito, in which an attacker had filed a malicious Pull Request against Esposito's GitHub project. 

Last year, BleepingComputer reported on GitHub being used to host a wormable botnet Gitpaste-12, which reappeared with over 30 exploits the following month. Unlike Gitpaste-12 or the Octopus Scanner malware, which targeted vulnerable projects and computers, this attack appears to be solely abusing on GitHub servers for crypto mining.

In an email, GitHub told The Record that they are “aware of this activity and are actively investigating”. For now, the attack does not appear to damage users’ projects in any way and seems to be solely focused on abusing GitHub infrastructure.

Apple's APSDaemon Vulnerability Abused by Malware Distributors



Attackers can maliciously redirect users on websites sharing counterfeit products, adult content or videos and dupe them into installing malware before they even land on the intended website, it's one of the most popular ways of generating revenue amongst hackers who acquire access to websites by exploiting the vulnerabilities in an installed plugin – it could be a security flaw or outdated software.

Typically, 'malicious redirects' are operated by hackers with the intent of generating advertising impressions, however other consequences of 'malvertising' can be relatively dangerous causing significant damage to unprotected machines. The campaign revolves around the idea of pushing malware and spam-laden advertisements onto the browsers. In 2019, attackers were seen launching such campaigns against popular web browsers namely Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Safari.

Recently, malware distributors have launched a new malware campaign that makes use of this 'web pages redirect' to exploit a DLL hijacking flaw in Apple's Push Notification service executable Windows to get a cryptocurrency miner installed on the targeted user's system.

What is DLL hijacking?


DLL (Dynamic Link Libraries) are extensions of various applications running on any operating system as most of the applications require storing code in different files, when a user uses an application, it may or not use certain codes – those codes are stored in a different file and are loaded into RAM only when there's a requirement, this reduces the file size while optimizing the usage of RAM and preventing the application from becoming too big to function smoothly.

As these DLLs are essential for running almost all applications on our systems, they are found in different files and folders on users' computers. Now, if an attacker succeeds in replacing the original DLL file with a counterfeit one carrying malicious code, it is termed as DLL Hijacking.

A program that became the latest victim of the aforementioned flaw is Apple's Push Notification service executable (APSDaemon.exe) that had been vulnerable to DLL hijacking. Since, it is responsible for loading AppleVersions.dll upon execution, if it fails to check whether the authentic AppleVersions.dll is being loaded, it could allow cybercriminals to replace the DLL file with a fake one containing malware.

Running in an authentic executable by Apple had allowed the malware to function with less to no risk of being detected by antivirus software, moreover, the threat actors have also employed a hashing algorithm to make the detection even difficult.

Thousands of Russians became victims of the Сryptominer


International antivirus company ESET reported that hundreds of thousands of users in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan became victims of the Miner Virus. Specialists could not find a special module for cryptocurrency mining for years.

According to the company ESET, the mining module is distributed by the Stantinko botnet. This is a complex threat, active at least since 2012. The botnet has self-defense mechanisms that allow operators to remain undetected.

Stantinko is most often distributed through torrents and can disguise itself as pirated software. Previously, it was used for advertising fraud schemes: security experts said that over the past five years, the botnet infected more than 500 thousand computers in Russia (46%) and Ukraine (33%).
According to ESET, the crypto mining module is CoinMiner. Stantinko is carefully compiled for the new victim, so it is difficult to detect on the device. It is also able to contact with the mining pool through a proxy, the IP addresses of which are in the description of the videos on YouTube.

It is almost impossible to detect the module on a computer without special security checks. CoinMiner.Stantinko constantly scans the processes running on the PC and shuts down when anti-virus activity is registered.

In the process of mining, a significant part of computer resources is spent. In order not to cause suspicion, the module analyzes the activity and pauses its work, for example, if the device is running on battery power.

The main goal of Stantinko is financial gain. Operators provide false clicks on advertising links: the virus installs two browser extensions (the Safe Surfing and Teddy Protection) for the unauthorized display of advertising, which brings income to operators.

Analysts note that Stantinko allows operators to not only simulate click-throughs on advertising but also to steal data from a computer, to hack control panels using password-guessing attacks for reselling, to create fake accounts, likes on pages and a photo, to fill up the list of friends on Facebook.

Cybersecurity Researchers Discovered Attack Which Uses WAV Audio Files to Hide Malicious Code


We are living in an age where user security being breached is one of the most familiar headlines we come across in the cybersecurity sphere, attackers have continued to discover unprecedented ways to compromise user data and have strengthened the older ones.

A widely used technique which allows hackers to break into computers and extract user data without getting noticed is resurfacing again, this time making the detention even more complex by embedding the malware inside audio files resembling the regular WAV format audio files on the computer, according to the cybersecurity researchers at Cylance, a California based software company that develops antivirus programs and other software to prevent malware.

Hackers employed a method known as ‘Steganography’ to hide and deliver malware, it involves hiding a file, video or message with the help of some other file. Researchers at Cylance discovered the malicious code embedded inside the WAV audio files with each file containing a ‘loader component’ which decodes and executes the malware. The threat actors carry out these malicious activities using a crypto mining application known as XMRig Monero CPU Miner.

Although, hackers have used viruses and spyware to infect files and break into computers previously, this is the first time ever where a file has been explicitly used to deliver a crypto mining software into a system. Cybercriminals are always looking to undo the measures taken by security officials. It is evident from how they are now employing even sophisticated strategies as earlier, the only way to deliver crypto mining malware was through malicious scripts on browsers, websites or software programs that came with malware.

Referencing from the statements given by Josh Lemos, VP of Research and Intelligence at BlackBerry Cylance, to Help Net Security.  “One WAV file contained music with no indication of distortion or corruption and the others contained white noise. One of the WAV files contained Meterpreter to establish a reverse-shell to have remote access into the infected machine. The other WAV files contain the XMRig Monero crypto-miner,”

“Attackers are creative in their approach to executing code, including the use of multiple files of different file formats. We discovered several loaders in the wild that extract and execute malicious code from WAV audio files. Analysis revealed that the malware authors used a combination of steganography and other encoding techniques to deobfuscate and execute code” the researchers at Cylance pointed out.

“The similarities between these methods and known threat actor TTPs may indicate an association or willingness to emulate adversary activity, perhaps to avoid direct attribution,” the researchers further remarked.

In order to stay guarded, users are advised to have proper anti-virus tools installed on their computers and stay alert while downloading any kind of file from the internet.

Skidmap, Linux Malware Mining Cryptocurrency in Disguise



A new strain of Linux malware has been discovered by security researchers, which is configured to carry out a multitude of malicious activities besides just illegally mining cryptocurrency; by using a "secret master password" it provides hackers the universal access to the system.

Skidmap, Linux malware demonstrates the increased convolutions in Cryptocurrency mining malware and prevalence of the corresponding threats.

In order to carry out its cryptocurrency mining in disguise, Skidmap forges CPU-related statistics and network traffic, according to TrendMicro's recent blog on the subject.

Highlighting the advanced methods used by Skidmap, researchers at TrendMicro said, "Skidmap uses fairly advanced methods to ensure that it and its components remain undetected. For instance, its use of LKM rootkits — given their capability to overwrite or modify parts of the kernel — makes it harder to clean compared to other malware."

“Cryptocurrency-mining threats don’t just affect a server or workstation’s performance — they could also translate to higher expenses and even disrupt businesses especially if they are used to run mission-critical operations,” reads the blog.

How the infection takes place?

It starts in 'crontab', which is a standard Linux process responsible for periodically scheduling timed tasks in Unix-like systems. After that, Skidmap installs various malicious binaries and then the security settings of the affected machine are being minimized to start the cryptocurrency mining smoothly.

As the cryptocurrency miners generate digital money for the hackers, they are being monitored by some additional binaries put into the system for the same.

To stay guarded against the aforementioned Cryptocurrency mining malware, admins are advised to update and patch their servers and machines ,and be alert to unverified repositories.

rTorrent flaw exploited in crypto-mining campaign

Researchers from F5 Networks Inc. have found that hackers are targeting a flaw in the popular rTorrent application to install crypto-mining software on computers running Unix-like operating systems. They have so far generated over $3,900.

This campaign exploits a previously undisclosed misconfiguration vulnerability and deploys a Monero (XMR) crypto-miner operation.

The attacks exploit XML-RPC, an rTorrent interface that uses XML and HTTP to access remote computers, and for which rTorrent doesn’t require any authentication. Shell commands can be executed directly on the OS rTorrent runs on.

The hackers identify the computers running RPC-enabled rTorrent apps on the internet and target them to install Monero, the digital coin mining software.

The malware downloaded doesn’t just run mining software but also scans for rival miners and removes them.

The vulnerabilities being exploited are in some respects similar to those reported through the Google Zero project in the BitTorrent client uTorrent. The difference lies in that the rTorrent flaw can be exploited without any user interaction rather than only by sites visited by the user.

The XML-RPC interface isn’t enabled by default and rTorrent recommends not using RPC over TCP sockets.

Below is an email rTorrent developer Jari Sundell wrote regarding the flaw:

There is no patch as the vulnerability is due to a lack of knowledge about what is exposed when enabling RPC functionality, rather than a fixable flaw in the code. It was always assumed, from my perspective, that the user would ensure they properly handled access restriction. No 'default behavior' for rpc is enabled by rtorrent, and using unix sockets for RPC is what I'm recommending. The failure in this case is perhaps that I've created a piece of software that is very flexible, yet not well enough documented that regular users understand all the pitfalls.

Currently, the hackers generate about $43 per day using this exploit and have already generated $3,900 combined.

Zero Day Telegram Vulnerability Exploited by Hackers for Cryptomining

Kaspersky Lab has revealed that in October 2017, they had discovered a flaw in Telegram Messenger’s Windows desktop client that was being exploited “in the wild”. According to Kaspersky, the flaw has allegedly been by Russian cybercriminals in a cryptomining campaign.

The Telegram vulnerability involves the use of an RLO (right-to-left override) attack when the user sends a file through the messenger.

RLO Unicode method is primarily used for coding languages that are written right-to-left, such as Hebrew or Arabic, but hackers can use it to trick users into downloading malicious files. When an app is vulnerable to attack, it will display a filename incompletely or in reverse.

Kaspersky has said that it seems that only Russian cybercriminals were aware of this flaw and were exploiting it — not to spread ransomware but cryptomining malware.

The attacks enabled cybercriminals to not just spread the cryptomining malware but also to install a backdoor to remotely control victims’ computers.

“We don’t have exact information about how long and which versions of the Telegram products were affected by the vulnerability. What we do know is that its exploitation in Windows clients began in March 2017,” read the report Kaspersky published on the flaw.

In the report, Alexey Firsh, cyberthreat researcher at Kaspersky, has outlined several scenarios that show cases of how the vulnerability was actually exploited.

He also wrote that Telegram was informed of this flaw and it no longer occurs in their products.