In December, 2012, we intercepted a professional-looking email that was impersonating Facebook Inc. in an attempt to trick its users into thinking that they’ve received an “Account Cancellation Request“. In reality, once users clicked on the links, their hosts were automatically exploited through outdated and already patched client-side vulnerabilities, which dropped malware on the affected PCs.

Over the past 24 hours, cybercriminals have resumed spamvertising tens of thousands of legitimate-looking Facebook themed emails, once again using the same social engineering theme.

More details:

Sample screenshot of the spamvertised email:

Fake_Facebook_Account_Cancellation_Request_Email_Spam_Exploits_Malware

Malicious client-side exploitation URL chain: hxxp://mailstatic.twilightparadox.com -> hxxp://kidstoytowers.com/log/forums/index.php?showtopic=852510 -> hxxp://kidstoytowers.com/log/forums/rhin.jar -> hxxp://kidstoytowers.com/log/forums/Goo.jar -> hxxp://kidstoytowers.com/log/forums/lib.php -> hxxp://kidstoytowers.com/log/forums/load.php?showforum=lib

Sample client-side exploits served: CVE-2010-0188; CVE-2011-3544; CVE-2010-0840

Malicious domain name reconnaissance:
kidstoytowers.com – 62.75.181.220 – responding to the same IP is also the following domain – dailyfrontiernews.com

Upon successful client-side exploitation, the campaign drops MD5: 9356fcd388b4bae53cad7aea4127d966 – detected by 3 out of 46 antivirus scanners as W32/Injector.YMS!tr.

Once executed, the sample sets the following Registry Keys to 1:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet SettingsZoneMap\ProxyBypass
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet SettingsZoneMap\IntranetName
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet SettingsZoneMap\UNCAsIntranet
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerMountPoints2{a20cd692-8e41-11e1-9999-806d6172696f}\BaseClass
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShellNoRoamMUICache(null)C:WINDOWSsystem32ipconfig.exe

It also (successfully) creates the following process:
C:d97f042474a0b1814fd681dca3ec2c5edf7054acff979f585a044478bc7c5cbd

If you catch a Facebook impersonating email in the wild, please forward it to phish@fb.com to notify Facebook of the attack. Webroot SecureAnywhere users are proactively protected from this threat.

You can find more about Dancho Danchev at his LinkedIn Profile. You can also follow him on  Twitter.

Blog Staff

About the Author

Blog Staff

The Webroot blog offers expert insights and analysis into the latest cybersecurity trends. Whether you’re a home or business user, we’re dedicated to giving you the awareness and knowledge needed to stay ahead of today’s cyber threats.

Share This