Category Archives: rootkit

A peek inside the ‘Zerokit/0kit/ring0 bundle’ bootkit

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By Dancho Danchev

In a diversified underground marketplace, where multiple market players interact with one another on a daily basis, there are the “me too” developers, and the true “innovators” whose releases have the potential to cause widespread damage, ultimately resulting in huge financial losses internationally.

In this post, I’ll profile one such underground market release known as as “Zerokit, 0kit or the ring0 bundle” bootkit which was originally advertised at a popular invite-only/vetted cybercrime-friendly community back in 2011. I’ll emphasize on its core features, offer an inside peek into its administration panel, and discuss the novel “licensing” scheme used by its author, namely, to offer access to the bootkit in exchange for tens of thousands of malware-infected hosts on a monthly basis.

More details:

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Webroot’s Threat Blog Most Popular Posts for 2012

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By Dancho Danchev

It’s that time of the year! The moment when we look back, and reflect on Webroot’s Threat Blog most popular content for 2012.

Which are this year’s most popular posts? What distinguished them from the rest of the analyses published on a daily basis, throughout the entire year?

Let’s find out.

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Russian cybercriminals release new DIY DDoS malware loader

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By Dancho Danchev

On a daily basis, new market entrants into the cybercrime ecosystem attempt to monetize their coding skills by releasing and branding new DIY DDoS malware loaders. Largely dominated by “me too” features, these DIY malware loaders are purposely released with prices lower than the prices of competing bots, in an attempt by the cybercriminal behind them to gain market share – a necessary prerequisite for a successful long-term oriented business model.

In this post, I’ll profile a recently released Russian DDoS malware bot.

More details:

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Cybercriminals release ‘Sweet Orange’ – new web malware exploitation kit

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By Dancho Danchev

From DIY (do-it-yourself) exploit generating tools, to efficient platforms for exploitation of end and corporate users, today’s efficiency-oriented cybercriminals are constantly looking for ways to monetize hijacked web traffic. In order to do so, they periodically introduce new features in the exploit kits, initiate new partnerships with managed malware/script crypting services, and do their best to stay ahead of the security industry.

What are some of the latest developments in this field?

Meet Sweet Orange, one of the most recently released web malware exploitation kits, available for sale at selected invite-only cybercrime-friendly communities.

What’s so special about Sweet Orange? Does it come with customer support? What client-side exploits is it serving? How are the Russian cybercriminals behind it differentiating their underground market proposition in comparison with competing kits, such as the market leading Black Hole web malware exploitation kit?

Let’s find out.

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BlackHole exploit kits gets updated with new features

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By Dancho Danchev

According to independent sources, the author of the most popular web malware exploitation kit currently dominating the threat landscape, has recently issued yet another update to the latest version of the kit v1.2.2.

More details:

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A peek inside the Elite Malware Loader

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By Dancho Danchev

Just like today’s modern economy, in the cybercrime ecosystem supply, too, meets demand on a regular basis.

With malware coding for hire propositions increasing thanks to the expanding pool of talented programmers looking for ways to enter the cybercrime ecosystem, it shouldn’t be surprising that  cybercriminals are constantly releasing new malware loaders, cryptors, remote access trojans, or issuing updates to web malware exploitation kits on a periodic basis, using the outsourcing market model.

Continuing the “Peek inside…” series, in this post I’ll profile the Elite Malware Loader. In the wild since 2009,  the malware loader is still under active development according to a recently spotted advertisement within the cybercrime ecosystem.

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Researchers spot Citadel, a ZeuS crimeware variant

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By Dancho Danchev

Security researchers from “Tracking Cyber Crime” have spotted a new ZeuS crimeware variant, that’s based on the leaked ZeuS source code from last year.

Dubbed Citadel, the crimeware is positioned as a universal spyware system, whose modular nature allows cybercriminals to offer flexibly priced value-added services such as managed malware crypting, and managed web injects as a service.

Some of Citadel’s core features include:

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Researchers intercept a client-side exploits serving malware campaign

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By Dancho Danchev

Security researchers from Webroot have intercepted a currently active, client-side exploits-serving malicious campaign that has already managed to infect 18,544 computers across the globe, through the BlackHole web malware exploitation kit.

More details:

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How malware authors evade antivirus detection

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By Dancho Danchev

Aiming to ensure that their malware doesn’t end up in the hands of vendors and researchers, cybercriminals are actively experimenting with different quality assurance processes whose objective is to increase the probability of their campaigns successfully propagating in the wild without detection.

Some of these techniques include multiple offline antivirus scanning interfaces offering the cybercriminal a guarantee that their malicious program would remain undetected, before they launch their malicious campaign in the wild.

In the wild since 2006, Kim’s Multiple Antivirus Scanner is still actively used among cybercriminals wanting to ensure that their malicious software is pre-scanned against the signature-based scanning techniques offered by multile antivirus vendors.

Let’s review Kim’s Multiple Antivirus Scanner, and discuss when it’s an important tool in the arsenal of the malicious cybercriminal spreading malware for profit.

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Outdated Operating System? This BlackHole Exploit Kit has you in its sights

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By Mike Johnson

Several weeks back, I was presented with a group of snapshots from an active BlackHole Exploit Kit 1.2 Control Panel.

As with other toolkits I’ve seen in the wild, this one has all the makings of some real bad medicine. The authors have yet again gone to the trouble of making this toolkit incredibly easy to use and widely available for a price. Just a little unsavory web hosting in a country with few or no diplomatic relations and off to the races they go.

It appears this toolkit is configurable in both Russian and English, making one wonder its true origins.

I’ve slowly tracked URLs accompanying this toolkit and watched it dish out some very widely undetected malware, such as:

Information Stealing/Banking Trojans:
SpyEye
Zeus
Carberp
Mebroot Rootkit

Another more popular rootkit we’re seeing very widely on the Webroot realtime watch is: vSirefef.B/Zero-Access.

BlackHole toolkit preys on only two items in a user’s machine:

1) Unpatched operating system exploits

2) Internet browsers, add-in and plugin exploits such as Adobe and Java Software

Here are some of the known exploits the kit can execute on a victim’s machines.

Windows Operating Systems:
CVE-2010-1885 HCP (Microsoft Windows Help and Support Center in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/MS10-042

CVE-2006-0003 IE MDAC

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms06-014

Adobe Software:
CVE-2008-2992 Adobe Reader util.printf
CVE-2009-0927 Adobe Reader Collab GetIcon
CVE-2007-5659 Adobe Reader CollectEmailInfo

Java Software:
CVE-2009-1671 Java buffer overflows in the Deployment Toolkit ActiveX control in deploytk.dll
CVE-2010-0840 Java trusted Methods Chaining Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
CVE-2010-0842 Java JRE MixerSequencer Invalid Array Index Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
CVE-2010-0886 Java Unspecified vulnerability in the Java Deployment Toolkit component in Oracle Java SE
CVE-2010-1423 Java argument injection vulnerability in the URI handler in Java NPAPI plugin

The basic view the bot controller has is of the statistics page, which should indicate why I listed some of the expoits this toolkit is using. Not surprisingly, for as young as the kit is, you can see that both the Java and Adobe softwares are exploited far more than any others.

I’m sure some think they are safe using a browser other than Internet Explorer but it appears from this image there isn’t alot of difference in how this toolkit has  behaved between the three browsers it’s touched.

As the authors have made this toolkit easy to use, they have also made it easy to maintain a low detection rate on the binaries by using an antivirus scanning service which does not share any binaries collected with the AV industry.

The easy-to-read statistics page make it simple for the controller to view and monitor how well or poor the current bot is doing – how many operating systems it’s infected, what type of operating systems were infected, and in which countries they’re located.

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