Tag Archives: security

New version of DIY Google Dorks based mass website hacking tool spotted in the wild

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By Dancho Danchev

Need a compelling reason to perform search engine reconnaissance on your website, for the purpose of securing it against eventual compromise? We’re about to give you a good one.

A new version of a well known mass website hacking tool has been recently released, empowering virtually anyone who buys it with the capability to efficiently build “hit lists” of remotely exploitable websites for the purpose of abusing them in a malicious or fraudulent fashion. Relying on Google Dorks for performing search engine reconnaissance, the tool has built-in SQL injecting options, the ability to add custom exploits, a proxy aggregation function so that no CAPTCHA challenge is ever displayed to the attacker, and other related features currently under development.

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New IRC/HTTP based DDoS bot wipes out competing malware

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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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A peek inside a CVE-2013-0422 exploiting DIY malicious Java applet generating tool

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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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FedWire ‘Your Wire Transfer’ themed emails lead to malware

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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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Managed ‘Russian ransomware’ as a service spotted in the wild

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By Dancho Danchev

In 2013, you no longer need to posses sophisticated programming skills to manage a ransomware botnet, potentially tricking tens of thousands of gullible users, per day, into initiating a micro-payment to pay the ransom for having their PC locked down. You’ve got managed ransomware services doing it for you.

In this post I’ll profile a recently spotted underground market proposition detailing the success story of a ransomware botnet master that’s been in business for over 4 years, claiming to be earning over five hundred thousands rubles per month.

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How fraudulent blackhat SEO monetizers apply Quality Assurance (QA) to their DIY doorway generators

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By Dancho Danchev

How are cybercriminals most commonly abusing legitimate Web traffic?

On the majority of occasions, some will either directly embed malicious iFrames on as many legitimate Web sites as possible, target server farms and the thousands of customers that they offer services to, or generate and upload invisible doorways on legitimate, high pagerank-ed Web properties, in an attempt to monetize the hijacked search traffic.

In this post I’ll profile a DIY blackhat SEO doorway generator, that surprisingly, has a built-in module allowing the cybercriminal using it to detect and remove 21 known Web backdoors (shells) from the legitimate Web site about to be abused, just in case a fellow cybercriminal has already managed to compromise the same site.

Are turf wars back in (the cybercrime) business? Let’s find out.

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Cybercriminals impersonate Bank of America (BofA), serve malware

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By Dancho Danchev

Relying on tens of thousands of fake “Your transaction is completed” emails, cybercriminals have just launched yet another malicious spam campaign attempting to socially engineer Bank of America’s (BofA) customers into executing a malicious attachment. Once unsuspecting users do so, their PCs automatically join the botnet operated by the cybercriminal/gang of cybercriminals operating it, leading to a successful compromise of their hosts.

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Fake ‘DHL Delivery Report’ themed emails lead to malware

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By Dancho Danchev

Over the past couple of days, cybercriminals have launched two consecutive malware campaigns impersonating DHL in an attempt to trick users into thinking that they’ve received a parcel delivery notification. The first campaign comes with a malicious attachment, whereas in the second, the actual malicious archive is located on a compromised domain.

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Historical OSINT – The ‘Boston Marathon explosion’ and ‘Fertilizer plant explosion in Texas’ themed malware campaigns

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By Dancho Danchev

Following the recent events, opportunistic cybercriminals have been spamvertising tens of thousands of malicious emails in an attempt to capitalize on on the latest breaking news.

We’re currently aware of two “Boston marathon explosion” themed campaigns that took place last week, one of which is impersonating CNN, and another is using the “fertilizer plant exposion in Texas” theme, both of which redirect to either the RedKit or the market leading Black Hole Exploit Kit.

Let’s profile the campaigns that took place last week, with the idea to assist in the ongoing attack attribution process.

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