Credential theft was the main goal in 25% of incidents last quarter, and new ransomware variants made their appearance - read more about the top trends, TTPs, and security weaknesses that facilitated adversary actions.

Thursday, October 24, 2024 06:00

Threat actors are increasingly conducting identity-based attacks across a range of operations that are proving highly effective, with credential theft being the main goal in a quarter of incident response engagements.

These attacks were primarily facilitated by living-off-the-land binaries (LoLBins), open-source applications, command line utilities, and common infostealers, highlighting the relative ease at which these operations can be carried out. In addition to outright credential harvesting, we also saw password spraying and brute force attacks, adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) operations, and insider threats, underscoring the variety of ways in which actors are compromising users' identities.  

Identity-based attacks are concerning because they often involve actors launching internal attacks from a compromised, valid account--making such activity difficult to detect. Moreover, once account compromise is achieved, an actor can carry out any number of malicious activities, including account creation, escalating privileges to gain access to more sensitive information, and launching social engineering attacks, like business email compromise (BEC), against other users on the network. 

Watch the team discuss some of the major takeaways of the report, and recommendations for defenders

**Threats against identity **

This quarter, Cisco Talos Incident Response (Talos IR) has responded to a growing number of engagements in which adversaries have leveraged password-spraying campaigns to obtain valid usernames and passwords to facilitate initial access. This quarter, 25 percent of incidents involved password spraying and/or brute force attempts to steal valid credentials. This method involves an adversary using a password, or a small list of commonly used passwords, against many different accounts on a network, a strategy that helps avoid account lockouts that would typically occur when brute-forcing a single account with many passwords. Although adversaries have been using password-spraying attacks for credential access for years, the activity illustrates that organizations should continue to stress the importance of multi-factor authentication (MFA) and strong password policies to limit unauthorized attempts.  

Talos IR observed AitM phishing attacks play out in a number of ways this quarter, where adversaries attempted to trick users into entering their credentials into fake login pages. In one engagement, Talos IR investigated a phishing case where, after clicking a malicious link in a phishing email, the victim was redirected to a site prompting them to enter their credentials, and subsequently approved an MFA request. In another engagement, an initial phishing email redirected a user to a page that simulates a Microsoft O365 login and MFA portal, capturing the user's credentials and subsequently logging in on their behalf. The first login by the adversary was seen 20 minutes after the initial phishing email, highlighting the speed, ease, and effectiveness of these operations. 

**Ransomware **

Ransomware, pre-ransomware, and data theft extortion – in which cybercriminals steal and threaten to release victims’ files or other data without using any encryption mechanisms — accounted for nearly 40 percent of engagements this quarter. Talos IR observed RansomHub, RCRU64, and DragonForce ransomware variants for the first time this quarter, while also responding to previously seen ransomware variants, such as BlackByte, Cerber, and BlackSuit. 

  
A third of these engagements involved exploitation of known vulnerabilities that are consistently leveraged by ransomware operators/affiliates to deploy ransomware, according to public reporting. For example, in one BlackByte ransomware engagement, we observed an admin account created and added to an “ESX Admin” group as part of exploitation of the ESXi hypervisor vulnerability, CVE-2024-37085. This vulnerability, which has reportedly been exploited by other ransomware operators, involves a domain group whose members are granted full administrative access to the ESXi hypervisor by default without proper validation. 

As part of a years-long trend in greater democratization of ransomware adversaries, we continue to see new variants and ransomware operations emerging. In an incident involving the RCRU64 ransomware –a malware family that has received limited public reporting – the adversary used stolen credentials on an accidentally exposed remote desktop protocol (RDP) account to gain initial access. The threat actor then performed a dump of all domain credentials using publicly available tools, such as fgdump and pwdump, to steal Windows hashes. The threat actor also deployed custom tools, including “saxcvz.exe” and “close.exe”, to kill processes and close SQL servers running on the host, respectively. Open-source tools such as Mimikatz, Advanced Port Scanner, and IObit Unlocker were also used to facilitate the compromise. Of note, Talos has not previously seen IObit Unlocker used in a ransomware incident, though the tool has been used in Play ransomware attacks, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). 

**Looking forward:** While there are constantly new ransomware groups entering the threat landscape, some established operations still pose a risk and should not be ignored. We saw this most recently last quarter with RansomHub, where Talos IR not only observed RansomHub actors in two separate incidents, but also using two different extortion models: double-extortion and data theft extortion. For example, we observed RansomHub affiliates conduct data theft extortion, where affiliates steal and threaten to release data without deploying ransomware or using any encryption mechanisms, as well as leverage a double-extortion model by deploying ransomware and encrypting systems and exfiltrating data to extort victims, respectively. In late August, this activity coincided with a CISA advisory on the RansomHub ransomware group, which disseminated indicators of compromise (IOCs) and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) identified as recently as August. While RansomHub was first discovered in February 2024, the recent Talos IR incidents and CISA advisory warrants that this continues to be a ransomware threat to monitor. 

****Targeting** **

Organizations in the education, manufacturing, and financial services verticals were most affected this quarter, where combined, these sectors accounted for more than 30 percent of compromises. This finding is in line with targeting trends from Q1 2024 (January - March), where the education and manufacturing companies were the most targeted. 

**  
**Initial access** **

For the fourth consecutive time in over a year, the most observed means of gaining initial access was the use of valid accounts, accounting for 66 percent of engagements when initial access could be determined. This is a _slight_ increase compared to the previous quarter (60 percent). Additionally, 20 percent of engagements featured adversaries exploiting or leveraging vulnerable and public-facing applications for initial access. 

  
**Looking forward:** Talos IR identified a sophisticated actor targeting a critical infrastructure entity leveraging several known vulnerabilities in internet-facing web servers and two F5 BIG-IP network appliances, consistent with Talos’ reporting on state-sponsored and other sophisticated adversaries’ increased interest in targeting network devices. We assess that networking equipment will remain an attractive target due to the large attack surface it presents and potential access to victim networks it can offer, highlighting the dichotomy of high value and weak security in these devices that makes them a prime target for exploitation. This activity is another reminder of the importance of patching systems, especially network-facing devices. 

****Security weaknesses** **

We continue to see a significant number of compromises that could have been prevented with the presence of certain security fundamentals, like MFA and proper configuration of endpoint detection products. In nearly 40 percent of engagements, misconfigured MFA, lack of MFA, and MFA bypass accounted for the top observed security weaknesses this quarter. Additionally, in 100 percent of the engagements that involved threat actors sending phishing emails to victims, MFA was bypassed or not fully enabled, while over 20 percent of incidents where ransomware was deployed did not have MFA enabled on VPNs. 

  
Other security weaknesses, which we commonly see every quarter, involved improper endpoint detection and response (EDR) or security solution misconfigurations. For example, lack of EDR on all systems and/or poorly configured EDR solutions accounted for nearly 30 percent of incidents this quarter. Additionally, nearly 20 percent of engagements this quarter had misconfigured or not fully enabled network security solutions. 

In an incident involving SocGholish, a drive-by malware framework, Talos IR recommended configuring Cisco Umbrella properly to block unwanted content, which could have helped to prevent this attack. Blocking "uncategorized" websites in Cisco Umbrella’s "Web Content Categories" will help proactively mitigate suspicious or malicious activity. 

****Top-observed MITRE ATT&CK techniques** **

The table below represents the MITRE ATT&CK techniques observed in this quarter’s Talos IR engagement. Given that some techniques can fall under multiple tactics, we grouped them under the most relevant tactic in which they were leveraged. Please note, this is not an exhaustive list. 

Key findings from the MITRE ATT&CK appendix include:  

*   In terms of identity-based attacks, we consistently saw adversaries leveraging reconnaissance tactics to identify/gather credentials and then use those valid accounts to gain initial access. This also contributes to the growing trend this quarter in which adversaries are leveraging password spraying to obtain credentials. 
*   Nearly 20 percent of engagements this quarter featured proxy usage for command and control (C2). This activity included tools such as the Fast Reverse Proxy (FRPC) to establish a connection, or the Neo-reGoerg proxy tool to set up a SOCKS proxy. 
*   In a significant shift compared to previous quarters, we saw a decrease in adversary usage of remote access software, such as AnyDesk. Remote access software was used in less than 5 percent of engagements this quarter, compared to 35 percent last quarter (Q2 2024), where these tools provide the attacker an ability to control a target computer remotely. 

Tactic

Technique

Example

Initial Access (TA0001)

T1078 Valid Accounts

Adversary leveraged stolen or compromised credentials

Reconnaissance (TA0043)

T1592 Gather Victim Host Information

Text file contains details about host

Persistence (TA0003)

T1136 Create Account

Created a user to add to the local administrator’s group

Execution (TA0002)

T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell

Executes PowerShell code to retrieve information about the client's Active Directory environment

Discovery (TA0007)

T1046 Network Service Discovery

Use a network or port scanner utility

Credential Access (TA0006)

T1003 OS Credential Dumping

Deploy Mimikatz and publicly available password lookup utilities

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)

T1484 Domain Policy Modification

Modify GPOs to execute malicious files

Lateral Movement (TA0008)

T1021.002 Remote Services: SMB / Windows Admin Shares

Adversaries may abuse valid accounts using SMB to move laterally in a target environment.

Defense Evasion (TA0005)

T1562.001 Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools

Adversaries may disable or uninstall security tools to evade detection

Command and Control (TA0011)

T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

Adversaries may transfer tools from an external system to a compromised system

Impact (TA0040)

T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact

Deploy Hive ransomware and encrypt critical systems

Exfiltration (TA0010)

T1048.003 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol: Exfiltration Over Unencrypted Non-C2 Protocol

Use WinSCP for potential exfiltration of system information

Collection (TA0009)

T1074 Data Staged

Adversary collected data in a central location prior to exfiltration

Software/Tool

S0357 Impacket

An open-source collection of modules written in Python for programmatically constructing and manipulating network protocols

Talos IR trends Q3 2024: Identity-based operations loom large

WarmCookie is a malware family that emerged in April 2024 and has been distributed via regularly conducted malspam and malvertising campaigns.

Wednesday, October 23, 2024 06:02

*   WarmCookie is a malware family that emerged in April 2024 and has been distributed via regularly conducted malspam and malvertising campaigns. 
*   WarmCookie, observed being used for initial access and persistence, offers a means for continuous long-term access to compromised environments and is used to facilitate delivery of additional malware such as CSharp-Streamer-RAT and Cobalt Strike. 
*   Post-compromise intrusion activity associated with WarmCookie overlaps with previously observed activity we attribute to TA866.  
*   We assess that WarmCookie was likely developed by the same threat actor(s) as Resident backdoor, a post-compromise implant previously deployed in intrusion activity that Cisco Talos attributes to TA866.  

**What is WarmCookie? **

WarmCookie, also known as BadSpace, is a malware family that has been distributed since at least April 2024. Throughout 2024, we have observed several distribution campaigns conducted using a variety of lure themes to entice victims to take actions that result in malware infection.  

These campaigns typically rely on malspam or malvertising to initiate the infection process that results in the delivery of WarmCookie. WarmCookie offers a variety of useful functionality for adversaries including payload deployment, file manipulation, command execution, screenshot collection and persistence, making it attractive to use on systems once initial access has been gained to facilitate longer-term, persistent access within compromised network environments.  

In previously analyzed intrusion activity involving WarmCookie, we have observed that it is used as an initial payload and that CSharp-Streamer-RAT and Cobalt Strike were delivered following the initial WarmCookie infection.  

While analyzing the campaigns, intrusion activity, and infrastructure associated with WarmCookie over the course of 2024, we also identified multiple overlaps with activity conducted by TA866 in 2023. 

**Typical infection chains **

As previously mentioned, we have observed WarmCookie campaigns being conducted since at least April 2024. These campaigns rely on malspam or malvertising to facilitate the delivery of malicious content.  

In the case of malspam, we have observed consistent use of invoice-related and job agency themes that entice victims to access hyperlinks present in either the email body, or within attached documents, such as PDFs.  

Examples of common message subjects observed in campaigns conducted between April and August 2024 are listed below. 

*   United Rentals Inc: Invoice# [0-9]{9}\-[0-9]{3} 
*   Invoice and Remittance

In a recent campaign conducted in August, the messages contained PDF attachments. The attachment filenames were randomized but typically use the following format. 

*   Attachment_[0-9]{3}\-[0-9]{3}\.pdf

While there have been variations over time, below is a representative example of one of these emails and the associated PDF attachment. 

__WarmCookie emails and attachments.__

The PDFs contain hyperlinks that direct victims to web servers hosting malicious JavaScript files that continue the infection process. 

We have also observed WarmCookie campaigns leveraging infrastructure associated with traffic distribution and malware delivery systems. In one early campaign, we observed the use of the LandUpdates808 cluster of infrastructure described here. In observed cases, malicious JavaScript downloaders were being hosted at the following paths on servers associated with the LandUpdates808 cluster of web servers. 

/wp-content/upgrade/update\[.\]php

Regardless of whether the delivery stage of the attack was conducted via malspam or malvertising, an obfuscated JavaScript downloader is delivered that is responsible for continuing the infection process. We have observed the use of ZIP archives to compress the JavaScript file and the delivery of the JavaScript file directly from the distribution infrastructure.  

When executed, it deobfuscates and executes a PowerShell command that uses Bitsadmin to retrieve and execute the WarmCookie DLL using syntax, like that shown below. 

__PowerShell execution.__

We have observed a relatively small number of distribution servers hosting WarmCookie DLLs compared to the infrastructure used in earlier stages of the infection chain.  

**WarmCookie **

The main WarmCookie payload has been extensively analyzed in prior reporting here and here. While performing this research, newly observed WarmCookie samples were reported on social media during September 2024. We observed significant additions and changes in this latest version that demonstrate the threat actor is continuing to improve their tooling.  

We observed changes to the way the malware is executed and how persistence is achieved on infected systems. As described in prior reporting, the malware is typically delivered and executed as a PE DLL or a PE EXE. If the payload is in the DLL format, it is typically executed with specific command-line parameters that determine whether persistence should be achieved.  

In previous WarmCookie samples the execution was consistent with the following: 

rundll32.exe <DLL\_Filename>,Start /p

In the latest samples analyzed, this command-line syntax has been modified as follows: 

rundll32.exe <DLL\_Filename>,Start /u

Additionally, the user agent used during C2 communications in previous WarmCookie samples featured extraneous spaces not consistent with normal user agent strings seen in the wild. This allowed for easy detection of WarmCookie C2 activity via network traffic inspection. In the latest WarmCookie samples, this mistake has been corrected. Below is a comparison between the old and new user agent strings used during C2 communications. 

Old User Agent: 

Mozilla / 4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1;.NET CLR 1.0.3705)

New User Agent: 

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

We also observed the inclusion of a new self-updating mechanism that would enable an attacker to dynamically deliver updates to WarmCookie via the C2 server, however, this functionality did not appear to be fully implemented in the analyzed sample at the time. 

In the latest sample, changes were made to the sandbox detection mechanism present in the malware where some checks present in previous versions have been removed. 

__WarmCookie sandbox detection.__

Several changes to the C2 commands supported by the malware have also been made in the latest WarmCookie samples analyzed. The command to remove persistence and the malware itself has been deleted. New commands have been added as follows: 

*   **Command 0x8:** Supports the creation of a DLL file received from the C2 server that is assigned a temporary filename and then executed by WarmCookie.   
*   **Command 0xA**: Appears to be a prepared update command, it is like Command 0x8, but adds hardcoded parameters to the DLL:    
    C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe <tmpfilename.dll> Start /update
*   **Command 0xB**: Supports moving the malware to a temporary file name and location and deletes the previously scheduled task. It prepends the string ‘dat’ to the temporary filename. It also exits the C2 loop, leading to termination of the malware process. 

During the malware’s initialization and startup phase, the /update parameter of the Command 0xA is checked to determine if the parameter was set. Regardless of the result of this check, the same function is executed, as shown below. 

WarmCookie update parameter. 

Analysis suggests that the malware will continue to evolve moving forward as the threat actor continues to improve on it and adds additional functionality as needed. 

**Links to past intrusion activity **

While analyzing the distribution campaigns, infrastructure used, and post-compromise intrusion activity associated with WarmCookie, we identified multiple overlaps with previously observed malicious activity.  

In earlier WarmCookie distribution campaigns, threat actors relied on lures that appear as if they were associated with talent/job search agencies. As mentioned here, the lure documents and landing pages associated with this campaign are like those used by distributors of Ursnif in past campaigns.  

While analyzing intrusion activity associated with WarmCookie, we observed the deployment of CSharp-Streamer-RAT as a follow-on payload following the initial system compromise. CSharp-Streamer-RAT is a full-featured remote access trojan that offers robust functionality as described here.  

In this case, the sample reached out to a C2 server that was configured to use an SSL certificate that appeared to have been programmatically generated with several fields randomly populated. Using Regular Expressions to identify other servers with similar SSL characteristics, we identified three additional C2 servers, all previously associated with CSharp-Streamer-RAT samples. One of these C2 servers was observed being used by a CSharp-Streamer-RAT sample we identified in a previous intrusion that we assess with high confidence was conducted by TA866.  

The screenshot below shows the relevant fields present within the SSL certificate associated with the CSharp-Streamer-RAT C2 server observed in previous intrusion activity we attribute to TA866.  

__Previous CSharp-Streamer-RAT C2 SSL certificate.__

Below is an example of one of the SSL certificates associated with the CSharp-Streamer-RAT C2 server observed in recent WarmCookie intrusion activity. 

__Recent CSharp-Streamer-RAT C2 SSL certificate.__

Based on analysis of the system involved in this prior intrusion activity, we assess with high confidence that TA866/Asylum Ambuscade deployed CSharp-Streamer-RAT while directly operating on the system leading up to, during, and after its deployment. In the recent WarmCookie case, we also assess with high confidence that the attacker who deployed WarmCookie also deployed CSharp-Streamer-RAT following the initial compromise.

**WarmCookie vs. Resident backdoor **

As referenced here, and in prior reporting, TA866/Asylum Ambuscade has been observed delivering a post-compromise implant called Resident backdoor in prior intrusion activity. Prior reporting on WarmCookie has alluded to observed links between Resident backdoor and WarmCookie.

We performed a code and function level analysis of Resident backdoor samples from previous intrusion activity and WarmCookie samples from September 2024 and observed several notable similarities in the way core functionality has been implemented across both malware families. WarmCookie appears to contain much of the same functionality as Resident backdoor but has been significantly extended to support additional functionality.  

We assess that both were likely developed by the same entity based on the following analysis findings: 

*   The RC4 implementation is consistent across both malware families. 
*   The RC4 string decryption function implementation is consistent across both malware families. 
*   Mutex management is performed consistently across both malware families. 
*   Both malware families use GUID-like strings for the mutex. 
*   The way in which various functions were constructed and the coding conventions used is consistent. 
*   The definition of scheduled tasks to achieve persistence is consistent. 
*   Both malware families wait one minute before executing the scheduled task. 
*   The directory, file schema and parameters are similar in both malware families.  
*   The initial startup logic and command line parameter implementation are similar. 

**Code similarity analysis **

We conducted a similarity analysis of the code execution flow between both Resident backdoor and a recent WarmCookie sample that was shared on social media. We observed consistent implementation of core functionality across both as well as consistent use of coding conventions across both malware families. 

**Task Scheduler implementation **

If the malware is initially executed without supplying any parameters, both Resident and WarmCookie first determine if the initially launched application was a PE DLL or an PE EXE. Depending on the result, they either create a filename with the extension “.dll" or “.exe". Also based on the results of this test, they both create a scheduled task via the Windows Task Scheduler, which spawns a copy of the malware after waiting for 60 seconds. In the case that the initially launched application was a PE DLL, rundll32.exe is used to launch the malware. In the case of a PE EXE file, it is executed directly.  

They both attempt this in the %ALLUSERSPROFILE% directory, if that fails, they try it again in %ALLDATA% directory. 

__WarmCookie startup parameters.__

__WarmCookie persistence mechanism.__

__Resident backdoor startup parameters.__

__Resident backdoor persistence mechanism.__

__Resident backdoor persistence mechanism (cont’d).__

The overall startup logic is also the same in both Resident backdoor and WarmCookie. At the beginning of the startup process both check to determine if the malware was executed with a command line switch. In the case of the Resident backdoor, it is ‘/p’; in the case of WarmCookie it is ‘/u’. This parameter tells the application whether it is the first instance of itself or if the running version is the former copied version, which was previously made persistent via the Task Scheduler. This prevents multiple scheduled tasks from being created once the malware has achieved persistence.  

__WarmCooke startup logic.__

__Resident backdoor startup logic.__

One slight difference is that Resident uses the hardcoded string ‘RtlUpd’ to generate the filename for the scheduled task, whereas WarmCookie uses a hardcoded list of company names and randomly selects one, as shown below: 

__WarmCookie filename list.__

Based on our analysis of Resident backdoor and WarmCookie, we assess that they were likely developed by the same entity. While there are significant overlaps in the code and functionality implementations across Resident backdoor and WarmCookie, WarmCookie contains significantly more robust functionality and command support compared to Resident backdoor. Additionally, while WarmCookie has typically been deployed as an initial access payload in intrusion activity we have analyzed, Resident backdoor was deployed post-compromise following the deployment of several other components such as WasabiSeed, Screenshotter and AHK Bot.  

Given the differences in functionality and where each is encountered in the attack lifecycle, we classify Resident and WarmCookie as separate malware families that have been developed by the same threat actor. 

**Coverage **

Ways our customers can detect and block this threat are listed below. 

 Cisco Secure Endpoint (formerly AMP for Endpoints) is ideally suited to prevent the execution of the malware detailed in this post. Try Secure Endpoint for free here. 

Cisco Secure Web Appliance web scanning prevents access to malicious websites and detects malware used in these attacks. 

Cisco Secure Email (formerly Cisco Email Security) can block malicious emails sent by threat actors as part of their campaign. You can try Secure Email for free here. 

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Next-Generation Firewall and Firepower NGFW) appliances such as Threat Defense Virtual, Adaptive Security Appliance and Meraki MX can detect malicious activity associated with this threat. 

Cisco Secure Malware Analytics (Threat Grid) identifies malicious binaries and builds protection into all Cisco Secure products. 

Umbrella, Cisco's secure internet gateway (SIG), blocks users from connecting to malicious domains, IPs and URLs, whether users are on or off the corporate network. Sign up for a free trial of Umbrella here. 

Cisco Secure Web Appliance (formerly Web Security Appliance) automatically blocks potentially dangerous sites and tests suspicious sites before users access them. 

Additional protection with context to your specific environment and threat data are available from the Firewall Management Center. 

Cisco Duo provides multi-factor authentication for users to ensure only those authorized are accessing your network. 

Open-source Snort Subscriber Rule Set customers can stay up to date by downloading the latest rule pack available for purchase on Snort.org. 

The following Snort rule(s) have been developed to detect activity associated with this malicious activity.  

*   Snort 2 SIDs: 64139, 64140, 64141, 64142, 64143, 64144, 64145, 64146, 64147, 64148, 64149, 64150, 64151, 64152, 64153, 64154, 64155, 64156, 64157, 64158, 64159, 64160, 64161, 64162. 
*   Snort 3 SIDs: 64153, 64154, 64155, 64156, 64157, 64158, 64159, 64160, 64161, 64162, 301044, 301045, 301046, 301047, 301048, 301049, 301050.  

The following ClamAV signatures have been developed to detect activity associated with this malicious activity.  

*   Js.Downloader.Agent-10022279-0  
*   Vbs.Downloader.Agent-10022291-0  
*   Win.Trojan.WasabiSeed-10022304-0  
*   Js.Trojan.Screenshotter-10022306-0  
*   Js.Trojan.Agent-10022307-0  
*   Win.Trojan.Lazy-10022308-0  
*   Win.Trojan.Screenshotter-10022309-0  
*   PUA.Win.Tool.NetPing-10022493-0  
*   Win.Malware.CobaltStrike-10022494-0  
*   PUA.Win.Tool.AutoHotKey-10022305-1  
*   PUA.Win.Tool.RemoteUtilities-9869515-0  
*   PUA.Win.Tool.AdFind-9962378-0   
*   Txt.Downloader.AHKBot-10024463-0  
*   Ps1.Malware.CobaltStrike-10024466-0  
*   Win.Infostealer.Rhadamanthys-10024467-0  
*   Txt.Infostealer.Rhadamanthys-10024468-0  
*   Win.Backdoor.Agent-10025011-0  
*   Vbs.Trojan.Screenshotter-10025015-0  
*   Win.Malware.Warmcookie-10036688-0 
*   Win.Malware.CSsharpStreamer-10036641-0 

**Indicators of Compromise **

Indicators of compromise associated with WarmCookie/BadSpace activity can be found in our GitHub repository here.

Threat Spotlight: WarmCookie/BadSpace

TA866 (also known as Asylum Ambuscade) is a threat actor that has been conducting intrusion operations since at least 2020.

Highlighting TA866/Asylum Ambuscade Activity Since 2021

Cisco Talos recently discovered a phishing campaign using an open-source phishing toolkit called Gophish by an unknown threat actor.

*   Cisco Talos recently discovered a phishing campaign using an open-source phishing toolkit called Gophish by an unknown threat actor.  
*   The campaign involves modular infection chains that are either Maldoc or HTML-based infections and require the victim’s intervention to trigger the infection chain.  
*   Talos discovered an undocumented PowerShell RAT we’re calling PowerRAT,  as one of the payloads and another infamous Remote Access Tool (RAT) DCRAT. 
*   We found a few placeholders for base64 encoded PowerShell scripts in the PowerRAT, indicating that the threat actor is actively developing their tools.  

**Victimology **

Talos assesses with high confidence that the threat actor is targeting Russian-speaking users based on the language used in the Phishing emails, luring contents of Malicious documents, a masqueraded HTML webpage of Vkontake (VK), a popular social media application amongst Russian speakers, especially in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan.  

 

 

**Actor uses Gophish to send phishing emails **

Our analysis of the malicious hyperlinks embedded in the phishing emails disclosed to us the attacker-controlled hosting domains disk-yanbex\[.\]ru delivered the Malicious Microsoft Word document, and an HTML file embedded with the malicious JavaScript.   

The domain disk-yanbex\[.\]ru resolves to the IP address 34\[.\]236\[.\]234\[.\]165, an AWS EC2 instance with the fully qualified domain name ec2-34-236-234-165\[.\]compute-1\[.\]amazonaws\[.\]com, during our analysis. We also observed that the same server 34\[.\]236\[.\]234\[.\]165 was reverse resolving to another domain e-connection\[.\]ru, which also delivered malicious JavaScript-embedded HTML files. Our further analysis of the server 34\[.\]236\[.\]234\[.\]165 disclosed to us that the actor hosted the Gophish toolkit on the server running at port number 3333. Gophish is an Open-Source easy-to-deploy phishing toolkit that is developed to conduct security awareness training according to the tool’s developer.  

Attacker hosting Gophish.

Talos analysis of the phishing email sample’s header showed us that the email was first delivered from server 34\[.\]236\[.\]234\[.\]165, indicating that the threat actor is misusing the Gophish framework in this campaign to deliver phishing emails to their targets.   

Sample Phishing email header. 

**Multi-modular Campaign delivers PowerRAT and DCRAT  **

The campaign has two initial attack vectors, one based on malicious Word documents and another based on HTML files containing malicious JavaScript. Upon activation, these would lead to the download and activation of PowerRAT or DCRAT depending on the initial vector. Both the attack chains require user intervention to trigger the infections on the compromised machines. 

**Maldoc-based infection delivers PowerRAT **

When a victim opens the Microsoft Word document and enables the view contents button displayed in the document banner, the malicious VB macro program executes.  

The macro program initially executes a function that decodes or translates specific encoded symbols in the lure contents of the Word document into their corresponding characters from another alphabet in Cyrillic, transforming the lure contents into readable form. 

We spotted a base64 encoded data blob on the third page of the Word document and the actor used the text color the same as that of the document's default background color, hiding them from the victim’s view.  

To identify the hidden encoded data, the macro executes a function that searches for specific strings such as “DigitalRSASignature:” and “CHECKSUM” in the content section of the Word document, and when found, it copies the data following the search strings to an array.  

To decode the base64 encoded data blob, the actor uses a custom function called CheckContent() in the macro. It removes any “=” characters which are the padding characters in the encoded data blob and decodes them into two parts in a byte array. The first part is the contents of a malicious HTML application (HTA) file and the second is a PowerShell loader.  

The macro drops the decoded contents of the malicious HTA file to “UserCache.ini.hta” and the PowerShell loader into “UserCache.ini” in the victim machine's current user profile folder.   

The actor has abused the Windows NT current version autorun registry key called “LOAD”. The registry key “HKEY\_CURRENT\_USER\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\LOAD” is used by Windows to automatically launch applications or processes when a user logs into their account. Specifically, this key stores information about programs that are set to load upon user login. It works similarly to other startup mechanisms in Windows (such as the Startup folder or the Run registry keys), but this specific key is less commonly used. The macro after dropping the malicious HTA and the PowerShell loader script in the victim machine user profile folder, it configures the registry key “HKEY\_CURRENT\_USER\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\LOAD” with the value “C:\\Users\\<Username>\\UserCache.ini.hta”. 

Finally, the macro checks if there are any headers in the Word documents and deletes the contents of the headers from all sections of the Word document.  

The malicious HTA “UserCache.ini.hta” is executed through the LOAD registry key when a victim logs into the machine. It drops a JavaScript called “UserCacheHelper.lnk.js” in the victim machine user profile folder and writes a single line code embedding with a PowerShell command to execute the dropped PowerShell Loader masquerading as “UserCache.ini” file. The HTA file executes the JavaScript “UserCacheHelper.lnk.js” using the LOLbin “cscript.exe”. 

Sample of malicious HTA file.

The dropped JavaScript “UserCacheHelper.lnk.js” loads the contents of the “UserCache.ini” and executes it using the Invoke-Expression PowerShell command. The PowerShell Loader script masquerading as the INI file contains base64 encoded data blob of the payload PowerRAT, which decodes and executes in the victim’s machine memory.   

Sample PowerShell Loader script embedded with PowerRAT.

**PowerRAT expands the attack vector for further infections  **

Talos discovered a new PowerShell remote access tool as one of the payloads in this campaign we are calling PowerRAT that executes in the victim’s machine memory. It has the functionality of executing other PowerShell scripts or commands as directed by the C2 server, enabling the attack vector for further infections on the victim machine.   

The PowerRAT that executes in the victim machine memory initially checks if the JavaScript “UserCacheHelper.lnk.js” exists in the user profile folder and if not found, it will reinfect the victim machine by performing the actions of the PowerShell loader script described in the previous section. Then it hides the “UserCache.ini” by modifying the file attributes to “Hidden”. 

The PowerRAT performs reconnaissance on the victim’s machine by executing a function GetID() which collects the username, computer name, and the system driver letter through the PowerShell command Get-CimInstance. It also collects the drive serial number through the win32\_volume class of WMIobject.  The collected data is written to memory in the format <Computername\_Username\_drive serial number>. 

After performing the reconnaissance, the PowerRAT attempts to connect to the C2 server by sending the collected data of the victim’s machine using a hardcoded URL through the HTTP GET method.  The C2 servers identified in this campaign are 94\[.\]103\[.\]85\[.\]47 located in Russia with the ASN 48282 of Hosting Technology LTD and 5\[.\]252\[.\]176\[.\]55 also geographically located in Russia with the ASN 39798 of MivoCloud SRL.  

When there is no response from the C2 server, the PowerRAT has a placeholder function called offlineworker() that has the functionality to decode an embedded base64 encoded string of a PowerShell script and executes it using the Invoke-Expression command. The actor has built this functionality to keep the infection alive in the victim machine even if the victim's environment detects the malicious C2 traffic and blocks the connection. We didn’t see any embedded base64 encoded strings in the PowerRAT sample that we analyzed and is likely a placeholder, indicating that the actor is actively developing and updating their tools.  

The PowerRAT generates a random number between 7 - 23 and pauses its execution for (300 + random number) seconds and re-attempts to connect to the C2 server continuously waiting for a response. During our analysis, the C2 servers were not responding, and still, our further analysis of the PowerRAT showed us that the C2 server will likely respond with an XML configuration file having multiple modules with embedded base64 encoded PowerShell commands or scripts.   

The PowerRAT has the functionality to parse the received XML file and search for the sections called config.  It periodically executes the embedded encoded PowerShell commands or scripts, according to their defined intervals and run limits. The PowerRAT continues to run until all commands or scripts in the config sections are executed the required number of times.   

**HTML-based infection delivers DCRAT **

Talos discovered that the threat actor is also using HTML files embedded with malicious JavaScript in this campaign that are delivered to the victims through the malicious links in the phishing email, leading to the infection of the DCRAT payload.  

When a victim clicks on the malicious link in the phishing email, a remotely located HTML file containing the malicious JavaScript opens in the victim machine’s browser and simultaneously executes the JavaScript. The JavaScript has a base64 encoded data blob of a 7-ZIP archive of a malicious SFXRAR executable. It decodes the embedded base64 encoded data blob into binary data blob with the type “application/octet-stream” in the memory. A download URL for the binary data blob is created using the URL.createObjectURL() method and assigned to a variable in memory. It calls the click() method on the URL of the binary data blob which triggers the download of the binary data to a 7-Zip archive file. The malicious 7-Zip archive masquerades as the VK messenger application archive file in one of the malicious HTML files and another with a Russian name. The actor is using this technique in the JavaScript function to masquerade as the actual download activity of a file over the internet through a browser.  

A victim must inflate the 7-Zip archive manually to run the SFXRAR executable which is masquerading as the legitimate VK application executable which leads to DCRAT infection. The SFX RAR executable is packaged with the malicious loader or dropper executables, batch file, and a decoy document in some samples.  

When a victim runs the SFX executable, the SFX script drops the packaged files into a folder and executes the batch file which runs another password-protected SFXRAR with the hardcoded password “riverdD” and runs the DCRAT.   

In another sample, we observed that the SFXRAR drops the GOLoader and the decoy document Excel spreadsheet in the victim machine user profile applications temporary folder and runs the GOLoader along with opening the decoy document.   

Talos observed an overlap of the technique used by the threat actor in this campaign with an earlier SparkRAT attack reported by Hunt researchers in April 2024, indicating that SparkRAT is another payload in the threat actor’s arsenal. 

**GOLoader downloads and runs the DCRAT **

In DCRAT infection, the SFX script runs a malicious Loader executable and simultaneously opens a decoy document. The malicious loader executable we are calling “GOLoader” is compiled in Golang. It modifies the configuration settings for Microsoft Defender Antivirus, specifically by excluding the root directory “C:\\” and the folder “C:\\Users\\$user\\Desktop” in the victim machine by executing the PowerShell commands.  

powershell -Command Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath 'C:\\Users\\$user\\Desktop'

powershell -Command Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath 'C:\\'

After configuring the exclusion paths, the GOLoader downloads the DCRAT binary data stream from a remote location through a hardcoded URL and writes it into a dropped executable with the file name “file.exe” in the desktop folder on the victim’s machine. During our analysis, we found that the remote location URL hardcoded in the GOLoader was pointing to a GitHub repository, which was not accessible. However, we found that the hosted payload binary in the GitHub repository is the Dark Crystal RAT (DCRAT) binary based on open-source intelligence data.   

**Threat actor delivers DCRAT **

The payload Dark Crystal RAT (DCRAT) sample that we analyzed in this campaign is a modular RAT associated with plugins to perform the DLL injection and information stealing tasks.  

Key features of the DCRAT sample of this campaign include: 

*   Provides remote control access to the victim machine to the actor who can execute arbitrary commands, manage files, and monitor user activities.  
*   It has the capability of downloading and executing other files on the victim's machine. 
*   With its stealer plugin modules, the RAT can steal sensitive information including credentials, files, and financial information from the victim's machine.  
*   The RAT can take screenshots and capture the keystrokes on the victim's machine. 
*   We found that the RAT creates multiple copies of its binary masquerading as legitimate Windows executables including csrss.exe, dllhost.exe, taskhostw.exe, and winlogon.exe in the folders such as ProgramData, Pictures, Saved Games, and Windows start menu. It drops the embedded modules in the administrator user desktop folder using random file names and with the “.log” file extension.  

C:\\Users\\admin\\Desktop\\zaHrebVC.log

C:\\Users\\admin\\Desktop\\HQLYdHol.log

C:\\Users\\admin\\Desktop\\qJutJUJW.log

C:\\Users\\Default\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\taskhostw.exe

C:\\ProgramData\\dllhost.exe

C:\\Users\\Default\\Pictures\\csrss.exe

C:\\Users\\Default\\Saved Games\\winlogon.exe

*   It establishes persistence on the victim machine by creating several Windows tasks to run at different intervals or during the Windows login process. 

Task Scheduler Commands

schtasks.exe /create /tn "winlogonw" /sc MINUTE /mo 11 /tr "'C:\\Users\\Default\\Saved Games\\winlogon.exe'" /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "winlogon" /sc ONLOGON /tr "'C:\\Users\\Default\\Saved Games\\winlogon.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "winlogonw" /sc MINUTE /mo 5 /tr "'C:\\Users\\Default\\Saved Games\\winlogon.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "csrssc" /sc MINUTE /mo 12 /tr "'C:\\Users\\Default\\Pictures\\csrss.exe'" /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "csrss" /sc ONLOGON /tr "'C:\\Users\\Default\\Pictures\\csrss.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "csrssc" /sc MINUTE /mo 7 /tr "'C:\\Users\\Default\\Pictures\\csrss.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "dllhostd" /sc MINUTE /mo 11 /tr "'C:\\Users\\Public\\dllhost.exe'" /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "dllhost" /sc ONLOGON /tr "'C:\\Users\\Public\\dllhost.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "dllhostd" /sc MINUTE /mo 12 /tr "'C:\\Users\\Public\\dllhost.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "dllhostd" /sc MINUTE /mo 8 /tr "'C:\\Users\\All Users\\dllhost.exe'" /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "dllhost" /sc ONLOGON /tr "'C:\\Users\\All Users\\dllhost.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "dllhostd" /sc MINUTE /mo 11 /tr "'C:\\Users\\All Users\\dllhost.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "taskhostwt" /sc MINUTE /mo 6 /tr "'C:\\Users\\Default\\Start Menu\\taskhostw.exe'" /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "taskhostw" /sc ONLOGON /tr "'C:\\Users\\Default\\Start Menu\\taskhostw.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "taskhostwt" /sc MINUTE /mo 10 /tr "'C:\\Users\\Default\\Start Menu\\taskhostw.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "filef" /sc MINUTE /mo 13 /tr "'C:\\Users\\admin\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\file.exe'" /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "file" /sc ONLOGON /tr "'C:\\Users\\admin\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\file.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

schtasks.exe /create /tn "filef" /sc MINUTE /mo 9 /tr "'C:\\Users\\admin\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\file.exe'" /rl HIGHEST /f

*   The RAT communicates to the C2 server through a URL hardcoded in the RAT configuration file as shown in the picture and exfiltrates the sensitive data collected from the victim machine. From other DCRAT samples identified in this campaign, we found another C2 URL “hxxp\[://\]cr87986\[.\]tw1\[.\]ru/L1nc0In\[.\]php”.  

Sample of DCRAT configuration file. 

****Coverage** **

Cisco Secure Endpoint (formerly AMP for Endpoints) is ideally suited to prevent the execution of the malware detailed in this post. Try Secure Endpoint for free here. 

Cisco Secure Web Appliance web scanning prevents access to malicious websites and detects malware used in these attacks. 

Cisco Secure Email (formerly Cisco Email Security) can block malicious emails sent by threat actors as part of their campaign. You can try Secure Email for free here. 

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Next-Generation Firewall and Firepower NGFW) appliances such as Threat Defense Virtual, Adaptive Security Appliance and Meraki MX can detect malicious activity associated with this threat. 

Cisco Secure Malware Analytics (Threat Grid) identifies malicious binaries and builds protection into all Cisco Secure products. 

Umbrella, Cisco's secure internet gateway (SIG), blocks users from connecting to malicious domains, IPs and URLs, whether users are on or off the corporate network. Sign up for a free trial of Umbrella here. 

Cisco Secure Web Appliance (formerly Web Security Appliance) automatically blocks potentially dangerous sites and tests suspicious sites before users access them. 

Additional protection with context to your specific environment and threat data are available from the Firewall Management Center. 

Cisco Duo provides multi-factor authentication for users to ensure only those authorized are accessing your network. 

Open-source Snort Subscriber Rule Set customers can stay up to date by downloading the latest rule pack available for purchase on Snort.org. Snort SIDs for this threat are 63963 – 63970, 63971 and 301004. 

ClamAV detections are also available for this threat: 

Win.Downloader.RustAgent-10036537-0 

Win.Downloader.RustAgent-10036538-0 

Win.Downloader.RustAgent-10036539-0 

Win.Downloader.GoAgent-10036540-0 

Win.Backdoor.PowershellRAT-10036541-0 

Win.Phishing.VbsAgent-10036542-0 

Win.Phishing.JsAgent-10036543-0 

Win.Loader.PowershellLoader-10036544-0 

Win.Loader.HtaAgent-10036545-0 

Win.Loader.DonutLoader-10036546-0

**IOCs **

IOCs for this research can be found in our GitHub repository here.

Threat actor abuses Gophish to deliver new PowerRAT and DCRAT

As the Akira ransomware group continues to evolve its operations, Talos has the latest research on the group's attack chain, targeted verticals, and potential future TTPs.

Akira ransomware continues to evolve

Plus, a zero-day vulnerability in Qualcomm chips, exposed health care devices, and the latest on the Salt Typhoon threat actor.

Thursday, October 17, 2024 14:00

When I first interviewed with Joel Esler for my position at Cisco Talos, I remember when the time came for me to ask questions, one thing stood out. I asked what resources were available to me to learn about cybersecurity, because I was totally new to the space.  

His answer: The people. When I asked that question, Joel told me that the entire office was a library for me. He told me to just ask as many questions as I could. 

Coming from journalism, where I was reporting on a range of topics from local government, finance and banking, art and culture, and sports, cybersecurity was totally new to me. Now almost seven years later, I’ve been able to host a podcast that went nearly 200 episodes, relaunch a cybersecurity newsletter, researched malicious Facebook groups trading stolen personal information, and I’ve even learned how to write a ClamAV signature. 

Unfortunately, this week is my last at Talos, but far from my last in cybersecurity. I’m off to a new adventure, but I wanted to take the space here to talk about what I’ve learned in my career at Talos.  

I think that this is a good lesson for anyone reading this: If you want to work in cybersecurity, you can, no matter what your background or education is. I’ve met colleagues across Talos who previously studied counterterrorism operations, German and Russian history, and political science. And I walked into my first day on the job knowing next to nothing about cybersecurity. I knew I could write, and I knew I could help Talos tell their story (and clean up the occasional passive voice in their blog posts). But I had never heard of a remote access trojan before.  

I hope these lessons resonate with you, your team, or the next person you think about hiring into the cybersecurity industry.  

1.  **You can’t do any of this without people.** This has become extraordinarily relevant this year with the advent of AI. I personally have beef with the term “AI” anyway because we’ve been using machine learning in cybersecurity for years now, which is essentially what we’re using the “AI” buzzword to mean now. But at the end of the day, people are what makes cybersecurity detection work in the first place. If you don’t have a team that’s ready to put in the work necessary to write, test and improve the intelligence that goes into security products (AI or not), you’re doomed. Any of these tools are only as good as the people who put the information into them. I’ve been beyond impressed with the experience, work ethic, and knowledge that everyone in Talos has. They are what makes the engine run, and none of this would work without them. 
2.  **You can carve out your own niche in cybersecurity.** That said, you don’t have to know how to code to work in cybersecurity if you don’t want to. Anyone can carve out their own niche in the space with their own skillset. I still barely know how to write Python, but I’ve been able to use the skills that I do have (research, writing, storytelling, audio editing, etc.) to carve out my space in cybersecurity. I can speak intelligently about security problems and solutions with my colleagues without needing to know how to reverse-engineer a piece of malware. And even on the technical side of things, everyone can carve out their own specialty. Talos has experts on email spam, and even specific types of email spam, that their colleagues may not know anything about. Others specialize in certain geographic areas because they can speak the language there and can peel back an additional layer that non-native speakers can’t.  
3.  **Be a sponge.** Going back to the opening of this week’s newsletter, I needed to ask hundreds of questions in my first few months at Talos. It took me a good amount of time to get over my fear of looking stupid, and that held me back early on from having more intelligent conversations with my teammates because I would keep questions inside or just assume that Google had the right answers. No matter how many years you’ve been in the security space, there is always something new to learn. Never assume you know everything there is to know on a given topic. If you are a sponge for information, you never know what new skills you can pick up along the way. When I graduated from college with a journalism degree, I never would have believed you if you told me at the time that I’d be needing to understand how atomic clocks keep power grids running. But here we are. 

The Threat Source newsletter will be off for a few weeks while it undergoes a revamp, and it’ll be back with a new look.  

I want to thank everyone who has enabled me to grow and shape this newsletter over the years, growing it to thousands of subscribers. And, of course, thanks to the readers who have engaged, read and shared over the years.  

**The one big thing **

Cisco Talos has observed a new wave of attacks active since at least late 2023, from a Russian-speaking group we track as “UAT-5647” against Ukrainian government entities and unknown Polish entities. The latest series of attacks deploys an updated version of the RomCom malware we track as “SingleCamper.” This version is loaded directly from the registry into memory and uses a loopback address to communicate with its loader. 

**Why do I care? **

UAT-5647 has long been considered a multi-motivational threat actor performing ransomware and espionage-oriented attacks. However, in recent months, it has accelerated its attacks with a clear focus on establishing long–term access for exfiltrating data of strategic interest to it. UAT-5647 has also evolved its tooling to include four distinct malware families: two downloaders we track as RustClaw and MeltingClaw, a RUST-based backdoor we call DustyHammock, and a C++-based backdoor we call ShadyHammock. 

**So now what? **

Cisco Talos has released several Snort rules and ClamAV signatures to detect and defend against the several malware families that UAT-5647 uses.  

**Top security headlines of the week **

**Government and security officials are still unraveling what to make of recent revelations around multiple Chinese-state-sponsored actors infiltrating U.S. networks.** Most recently, Salt Typhoon was unveiled as a new actor that may have accessed foreign intelligence surveillance systems and electronic communications that some ISPs collect. like Verizon and AT&T collect based on U.S. court orders. The actor reportedly accessed highly sensitive intelligence and law enforcement data. This followed on reports earlier this year of other Chinese state-sponsored actors Volt Typhoon and Flax Typhoon, which targeted U.S. government networks and systems on military bases. One source told the Wall Street Journal that the latest discovery of Salt Typhoon could be “potentially catastrophic.” The actor allegedly gained access to Verizon, AT&T and Lumen Technologies by exploiting systems those companies use to comply with the U.S. CALEA act, which essentially legalizes wiretapping when required by law enforcement. (Axios, Tech Crunch) 

**Chip maker Qualcomm says adversaries exploited a zero-day vulnerability in dozens of its chipsets used in popular Android devices.** While few details are currently available regarding the vulnerability, CVE-2024-43047, researchers at Google and Amnesty International say they are working with Qualcomm to remediate and responsibly disclose more information. Qualcomm listed 64 different chipsets as being affected by the vulnerability, including the company’s Snapdragon 8 mobile platform, which is used many Android phones, including some made by Motorola, Samsung and ZTE. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also added the issue to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, indicating they can confirm it’s been actively exploited in the wild. Qualcomm said it issued a fix in September, and it is now on the device manufacturers to roll out patches to their customers for affected devices. (Android Police, Tech Crunch) 

**As many as 14,000 medical devices across the globe are online and vulnerable to a bevy of security vulnerabilities and exploits, according to a new study.** Security research firm Censys recently found the devices exposed, which “greatly raise the risk of unauthorized access and exploitation.” Forty-nine percent of the exposed devices are located in the U.S. America’s decentralized health care system is largely believed to affect the amount of vulnerable devices, because there is less coordinaton to isolate the devices or patch them when vulnerabilities are disclosed, unlike countries like the U.K., where the health care system is solely organized and managed by the government. The Censys study found that many of the networks belonging to smaller health care organizations used residential ISPs, making them inherently less secure. Others set up devices and connected them to the internet without changing the preconfigured credentials or leaving their connections unencrypted. Others had simply been misconfigured. Open DICOM and DICOM-enabled web interfaces that are intended to share and view medical images were responsible for 36 percent of the exposures, with 5,100 IPs hosting these systems. (CyberScoop, Censys) 

**Can’t get enough Talos? **

*   Attackers Delight: Why Does Healthcare See So Many Attacks? 
*   Ghidra data type archive for Windows driver functions 
*   Protecting major events: An incident response blueprint 

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos**

**MITRE ATT&CKcon 5.0** **(Oct. 22 - 23)** 

_McLean, Virginia and Virtual_

Nicole Hoffman and James Nutland will provide a brief history of Akira ransomware and an overview of the Linux ransomware landscape. Then, morph into action as they take a technical deep dive into the latest Linux variant using the ATT&CK framework to uncover its techniques, tactics and procedures.

**it-sa Expo & Congress** **(Oct. 22 - 24)** 

_Nuremberg, Germany_

**White Hat Desert Con** **(Nov. 14)** 

_Doha, Qatar_

**misecCON** **(Nov. 22)** 

_Lansing, Michigan_

Terryn Valikodath from Cisco Talos Incident Response will explore the core of DFIR, where digital forensics becomes detective work and incident response turns into firefighting.

**Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week **

_There is no new data to report this week. This section will be overhauled in the next edition of the Threat Source newsletter._

What I’ve learned in my first 7-ish years in cybersecurity

By Dmytro Korzhevin, Asheer Malhotra, Vanja Svajcer and Vitor Ventura. 


Cisco Talos has observed a new wave of attacks active since at least late 2023, from a Russian speaking group we track as “UAT-5647”, against Ukrainian government entities and unknown Polish entities. 
UAT-5647 is also known

UAT-5647 targets Ukrainian and Polish entities with RomCom malware variants

Go behind the scenes with Talos incident responders and learn from what we've seen in the field.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 08:51

Ensuring the cybersecurity of major events — whether it’s sports, professional conferences, expos, inter-government meetings or other gatherings — is a complex and time-intensive task.  

It requires a comprehensive approach and collaboration among various stakeholders, including vendors, hospitality teams, and service providers, to establish a consistent cybersecurity strategy across the entire event ecosystem. 

In our latest version of the “Protecting major events: An incident response blueprint” whitepaper, Cisco Talos Incident Response outlines the essential steps organizations should take to secure any major event. This paper highlights 13 critical focus areas that will guide organizing committees and participating businesses, offering key questions and actionable answers to help ensure robust event security.

Protecting major events: An incident response blueprint

Rather than setting a regular cadence for changing passwords, users only need to change their passwords if there is evidence of a breach.

Thursday, October 10, 2024 14:00

Say goodbye to the days of using the “@” symbol to mean “a” in your password or replacing an “S” with a “$.” 

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently announced new guidelines for the ways website and organizations should handle password creation and management that will do away with many of the “common sense” things we’ve thought about passwords for years now.  

Here is a tl;dr version of what these proposed guidelines say: 

*   Passwords need to be at least eight characters long, and sites should have an additional recommendation to make them at least 15 characters long. 
*   Credential service providers (CSPs) should allow users to make their passwords as long as 64 characters. 
*   CSPs should allow ASCII and Unicode characters to be included in passwords. 
*   Rather than setting a regular cadence for changing passwords, users only need to change their passwords if there is evidence of a breach. 
*   There should not be requirements to implement a certain number of numbers or special characters into passwords. (Ex., “Password12345!”) 
*   Do away with knowledge-based authentication or security questions when selecting passwords. (Think: “What was the name of your college roommate?”) 

Now, we should make a few things here clear. Just because NIST is proposing these doesn’t mean anyone \*has\* to abide by them, these are merely guidelines that some of the larger tech companies in the U.S. can choose to adopt. And these are proposed rules for the time being, meaning the public and tech companies have time to weigh in on the matter before they are codified in any way. 

While these proposals may seem counterintuitive, it should make traditional text-based login credentials more manageable for users and admins. Studies have shown that requiring a mixture of special characters and numbers has led users to create easier-to-guess passwords like “$ummer2024!” or “P@ssword”.  

And policies that require users to change their passwords often have led them to create passwords that are neigh-impossible to remember, so users end up storing these passwords in easy-to-locate places near their computers, like on a physical piece of paper or saved to a .txt file on their desktop.  

The hope from NIST is that enforcing longer passwords will make it harder for adversaries to guess and less intimidating for users to manage their passwords. 

Of course, using a third-party password manager is usually the most secure option for anyone. But what NIST is proposing is still a step in the right direction, and if nothing else will make those of us who are more security-minded have a better time when creating a new account.  

**The one big thing **

The largest Microsoft Patch Tuesday since July includes two vulnerabilities that have been exploited in the wild and three other critical issues across the company’s range of hardware and software offerings. October’s monthly security update from Microsoft includes fixes for 117 CVEs, the most in a month since July’s updates covered 142 vulnerabilities. The two vulnerabilities that Microsoft reports have been actively exploited in the wild and are publicly known are both rated as only being of “moderate” severity.   

**Why do I care? **

CVE-2024-43572 is a remote code execution vulnerability in the Microsoft Management Console that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the targeted machine. Microsoft’s security update will prevent untrusted Microsoft Saved Console (MSC) files from being opened to protect users against adversaries trying to exploit this vulnerability. The other vulnerability that was exploited in the wild in this week’s security update is CVE-2024-43573, a platform spoofing vulnerability in Windows MSHTML. Platform spoofing vulnerabilities usually allow an adversary to gain unauthorized access to an environment by disguising themselves as a trusted source.   

**So now what? **

Talos is releasing a new Snort rule set that detects attempts to exploit some of them. Please note that additional rules may be released at a future date and current rules are subject to change pending additional information. Cisco Security Firewall customers should use the latest update to their ruleset by updating their SRU. Open-source Snort Subscriber Rule Set customers can stay up to date by downloading the latest rule pack available for purchase on Snort.org. The rules included in this release that protect against the exploitation of many of these vulnerabilities are 64083 - 64086, 64089, 64090, 64111 and 64112. There are also Snort 3 rules 301034 - 301036 and 301041. 

**Top security headlines of the week  **

**Chinese state-sponsored actors are suspected to have breached several U.S. telecommunications providers to spy on U.S. government phone calls.** AT&T, Verizon and Lumen may have all been victims of the alleged counter-spying operation from the newly named APT Salt Typhoon. The actor potentially accessed information from systems that the U.S. government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests, all in the name of trying to steal government secrets. Though it’s still unclear how long Salt Typhoon had access to these networks, it’s clear they at least spent a few months on these networks, commonly used to cooperate with lawful U.S. requests for communication data. The attackers may have also accessed large amounts of other generic internet traffic through this operation. A separate Chinese APT known as Volt Typhoon became a major topic of conversation earlier this year for allegedly trying to infiltrate networks at U.S. military bases and other critical infrastructure sites. (Wall Street Journal, Washington Post) 

**Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice announced they had deactivated more than 60 domains and other attacker infrastructure associated with the Russian state-sponsored ColdRiver group.** ColdRiver is believed to be connected to Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) and recently has targeted non-governmental organizations, think tanks, military officials and intelligence officials in Ukraine and NATO countries. "The Russian government ran this scheme to steal Americans' sensitive information, using seemingly legitimate email accounts to trick victims into revealing account credentials," U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco stated during the announcement of the disruption. ColdRiver (aka Callisto Group, Seaborgium and Star Blizzard) has been active since at least 2017. The U.S. State Department is now also offering up to a $10 million reward for any information that could help locate or identify any individual members of ColdRiver. (Security Magazine, Bleeping Computer) 

**With genetic testing company 23AndMe floundering, customers are left wondering what could happen to their personal information if the company goes bankrupt or goes out of business altogether.** 23AndMe, known for collecting DNA samples from customers and then providing them with a report about their ancestry, has lost millions of dollars in its valuation and stock price over the past few years.  However more than 15 million individuals have submitted their DNA to the company since it was founded in 2006, and privacy advocates are warning them to manually delete their data now before anything happens to the company. The company also has several data-sharing agreements with other private companies, which use 23AndMe data to conduct other studies and research. And because 23AndMe’s services do not fall under health care in the U.S., the company does not have to adhere to traditional HIPAA rules. Last year, the company was hit with a massive data breach that it said affected 6.9 million customer accounts, including 14,000 people who had their passwords stolen. U.S. law enforcement has also tried to access the company’s data in the past (requests that have been declined), and it is unclear if those requests would be allowed should the company no longer exist. (NPR, Business Insider) 

**Can’t get enough Talos? **

*   Cisco Talos: Advanced intelligence for global cyberthreats 
*   New MedusaLocker Ransomware Variant Deployed by Threat Actor 
*   MedusaLocker ransomware variant paired with ‘paid\_memes’ toolkit 
*   Vulnerability in popular PDF reader could lead to arbitrary code execution; Multiple issues in GNOME project 

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos**

**MITRE ATT&CKcon 5.0** **(Oct. 22 - 23)** 

_McLean, Virginia and Virtual_

Nicole Hoffman and James Nutland will provide a brief history of Akira ransomware and an overview of the Linux ransomware landscape. Then, morph into action as they take a technical deep dive into the latest Linux variant using the ATT&CK framework to uncover its techniques, tactics and procedures.

**it-sa Expo & Congress** **(Oct. 22 - 24)** 

_Nuremberg, Germany_

**White Hat Desert Con** **(Nov. 14)** 

_Doha, Qatar_

**misecCON** **(Nov. 22)** 

_Lansing, Michigan_

Terryn Valikodath from Cisco Talos Incident Response will explore the core of DFIR, where digital forensics becomes detective work and incident response turns into firefighting.

**Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week **

**SHA 256:** 47ecaab5cd6b26fe18d9759a9392bce81ba379817c53a3a468fe9060a076f8ca   
**MD5:** 71fea034b422e4a17ebb06022532fdde   
**Typical Filename:** VID001.exe   
**Claimed Product:** N/A   
**Detection Name:** RF.Talos.80 

**SHA 256:** 76491df69a26019139ac11117cd21bf5d0257a5ebd3d67837f558c8c9c3483d8   
**MD5:** b209df2951e29ab5eab4009579b10b8d  
**Typical Filename:** FileZilla\_3.67.1\_win64\_sponsored2-setup.exe   
**Claimed Product:** FileZilla   
**Detection Name:** W32.76491DF69A-95.SBX.TG

**SHA 256:** c20fbc33680d745ec5ff7022c282a6fe969c6e6c7d77b7cfac34e6c19367cf9a   
**MD5:** 3bc6d86fc4b3262137d8d33713ed6082   
**Typical Filename:** 8c556f0a.dll   
**Claimed Product:** N/A   
**Detection Name:** Gen:Variant.Lazy.605353 

**SHA 256:** f0d7a2bb0c5db162332418747ba4987027b8a746b24c919a24235ff3b70d25e3   
**MD5:** 0d849044612667362bc88780baa1c1b7   
**Typical Filename:** CryptX.dll   
**Claimed Product:** N/A    
**Detection Name:** Gen:Variant.Lazy.605353 

**SHA 256:** 331fdf5f1f5679a6f6bb0baee8518058aba8081ef8f96e57fa3b74291fcbb814   
**MD5:** f23b90fc9bc301baf3e399e189b6d2dc   
**Typical Filename:** B.dll   
**Claimed Product:** N/A     
**Detection Name:** Gen:Variant.Lazy.605353

What NIST’s latest password standards mean, and why the old ones weren’t working

Cisco Talos is releasing a GDT file on GitHub that contains various definitions for functions and data types.

Thursday, October 10, 2024 06:00

While reverse-engineering Windows drivers with Ghidra, it is common to encounter a function or data type that is not recognized during disassembly.  

This is because Ghidra does not natively include the majority of the definitions for data types and functions used by Windows drivers.  

Thankfully, these problems can usually be solved by importing Ghidra data type archive files (.gdt) that contain the relevant definitions.  

However, it is not uncommon that the definitions in question aren’t available in a preexisting .gdt file, meaning a new definition must be created manually. Additionally, in some cases, the function or data type may be undocumented by Microsoft, making the process of creating a new definition a more tedious process.  

To aid analysts in reverse engineering Windows drivers, Cisco Talos is releasing a GDT file on GitHub that contains various definitions for functions and data types that have been created as needed during our analysis of malicious drivers, as they were not present in the commonly used data type archives.  

It is important to note that this archive is not intended to contain all undocumented Windows functions or serve as a replacement for other available data type archives, but as a supplement to them. This is a long-term project that will continue to grow when new definitions are created by our analysts and added to the public release.  

The archive can be found here on our GitHub repository.

Source

TALOS