The malicious effects and consequences of malware
By Dancho Danchev
We have just intercepted yet another currently ongoing malicious spam campaign, enticing users into executing a fake Export License/Payment Invoice. Once gullible and socially engineering users do so, their PCs automatically join the botnet operated by the cybercriminals.
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By Dancho Danchev
Want to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)? You may want to skip the CVs/personally identifiable information soliciting campaign that I’m about to profile in this post, as you’d be involuntarily sharing your information with what looks like an intelligence gathering operation.
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By Dancho Danchev
The gang of cybercriminals behind the ‘Magic Malware‘ has launched yet another malicious spam campaign, attempting to trick U.K users into thinking they’ve received a notification for a “New MMS” message. In reality, once users execute the malicious attachment, it will download and drop additional malware on the affected hosts, giving the cybercriminals behind the campaign complete access to the affected host.
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By Dancho Danchev
Bitcoin, the digital peer-to-peer based currency, is an attractive target for cybercriminals, who persistently look for new monetization tactics to apply to their massive, but easily generated botnets. Not surprisingly, thanks to the buzz surrounding it, fraudulent Internet actors have begun to look for efficient ways to take advantage of the momentum. A logical question emerges – how are market oriented cybercriminals capitalizing on the digital currency?
Instead of having to personally infect tens of thousands of hosts, some take advantage of basic pricing schemes such subscription-based pricing, and have others do all the infecting, with them securing a decent revenue stream based on a monthly subscription model.
Let’s profile the international underground market proposition, detailing the commercial availability of a stealth Bitcoin miner, feature screenshots of the actual DIY miner generating tool, screenshots provided by happy customers, and perhaps most importantly, MD5s of known miner modifications ‘pushed’ since its first commercial release.
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By Dancho Danchev
Cybercriminals are currently spamvertising tens of thousands of bogus emails impersonating New York State’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in an attempt to trick users into thinking they’ve received an uniform traffic ticket, that they should open, print and send to their town’s court.
In reality, once users open and execute the malicious attachment, their PCs will automatically join the botnet operated by the cybercriminal/cybercriminals behind the campaign.
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By Dancho Danchev
Kindle users, watch what you click on!
Cybercriminals are currently mass mailing tens of thousands of fake Amazon “You Kindle E-Book Order” themed emails in an attempt to trick Kindle users into clicking on the malicious links found in these messages. Once they do so, they’ll be automatically exposed to the client-side exploits served by the Black Hole Exploit Kit, ultimately joining the botnet operated by the cybercriminal/cybercriminals that launched the campaign.
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By Dancho Danchev
Over the past 24 hours, we’ve intercepted yet another spam campaign impersonating Citibank in an attempt to socially engineer Citibank customers into thinking that they’ve received a Merchant Billing Statement. Once users execute the malicious attachment found in the fake emails, their PCs automatically join the botnet operated by the cybercriminal/cybercriminals.
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By Dancho Danchev
Everyday, new vendors offering malicious software enter the underground marketplace. And although many will fail to differentiate their underground market proposition in market crowded with reputable, trusted and verified sellers, others will quickly build their reputation on the basis of their “innovative” work, potentially stealing some market share and becoming rich by offering the tools necessary to facilitate cybercrime.
Publicly announced in late 2012, the IRC/HTTP based DDoS bot that I’ll profile in this post has been under constant development. From its initial IRC-based version, the bot has evolved into a HTTP-based one, supporting 10 different DDoS attack techniques as well as possessing a featuring allowing it to heuristically and proactively remove competing malware on the affected hosts, such as, for instance, ZeuS, Citadel or SpyEye.
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By Dancho Danchev
On a regular basis we profile various DIY (do it yourself) releases offered for sale on the underground marketplace with the idea to highlight the re-emergence of this concept which allows virtually anyone obtaining the leaked tools, or purchasing them, to launch targeted malware attacks.
Can DIY exploit generating tools be considered as a threat to the market domination of Web malware exploitation kits? What’s the driving force behind their popularity? Let’s find out by profiling a tool that’s successfully generating an exploit (CVE-2013-0422) embedded Web page, relying on malicious Java applets.
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By Dancho Danchev
Over the last day, cybercriminals have launched yet another massive email campaign to impersonate FedWire in an attempt to trick users into thinking that their wire transfer was processed incorrectly. Once they execute the malicious attachment, their PCs automatically become part of the botnet operated by the cybercriminal/gang of cybercriminals.
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