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Windows
Backdoor Security Bug Shellcode Vulnerabilities and Exploits Windows

Rozena Backdoor Deployed by Abusing the Follina Vulnerability

 

A newly discovered phishing campaign is exploiting the Follina security vulnerability to deploy a private backdoor, named Rozena on the Windows systems. 

"Rozena is a backdoor malware that is capable of injecting a remote shell connection back to the attacker's machine," Cara Lin, a researcher at Fortinet FortiGuard Labs stated in a report published this week. 

Tracked as CVE-2022-30190, the security bug is related to the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) that impacts Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2022. The vulnerability came to light in late May 2022 but the root cause of the flaw has been known for at least a couple of years. 

The latest attack chain is a weaponized Office document that, when opened, links to a Discord CDN URL to retrieve an HTML file ("index.htm") that, in turn, triggers the diagnostic utility employing a PowerShell command to download next-stage payloads from the same CDN attachment space. 

This includes the Rozena implant ("Word.exe") and a batch file ("cd.bat") that's designed to terminate MSDT processes, establish the backdoor's persistence by means of Windows Registry modification, and download a harmless Word document as a decoy. 

The primary function of the Rozena backdoor is to inject a shellcode that launches a reverse shell to the hacker’s device (“microsofto.duckdns[.]org”), in this way the malicious actor can secure full control of the system. 

The exploitation of the Follina security bug is done by distributing the malware via malicious word documents. The word documents act as a dropper and are distributed through emails that contains a password-encrypted ZIP as an attachment, an HTML file, and a link to download, in the body of the email. Multiple malware such as Emotet, QBot, IcedID, and Bumblebee are then injected into the victim’s device. 

According to researchers, the assaults discovered in early April primarily featured Excel files with XLM macros. Microsoft's decision to block macros by default around the same time is said to have forced the hackers to shift to alternative techniques like HTML smuggling as well as .LNK and .ISO files. 

“CVE-2022-30190 is a high-severity vulnerability that lets a malicious actor deliver malware through an MS Word document. Microsoft already released a patch for it on June 14, 2022. In this blog, we showed how an attacker exploits Follina and included details of Rozena and the SGN ShellCode. Users should apply the patch immediately and also apply FortiGuard protection to avoid the threat,” the researcher concluded.
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SQL
Avast Backdoor Chinese Actors Cyber Security Linux Kernel Linux RootKit Shellcode SQL

 New Linux Malware Syslogk has a Clever Approach of Staying Undetected

 

Syslogk, a newfound clever form of Linux malware, installs a backdoor that remains hidden on the target device until its controller sends so-called 'magic packets' from anywhere on the internet. It is mostly based on Adore-Ng, a Chinese open-source kernel rootkit for Linux. 

Adore-Ng which has been around since 2004, is a free open-source rootkit, that gives an attacker complete control over an infected system. Syslogk can force-load its packages into the Linux kernel (versions 3. x are supported), hide folders or spoof files and network traffic, and ultimately load a backdoor named 'Rekoobe.' 

How does the malware work?

Syslogk was originally discovered in early 2022, with the sample constructed for a specific kernel version – meaning it could be loaded without being forced – and the payload named PgSD93ql, which disguised it as a PostgreSQL file. 

"Rekoobe is a piece of code that has been placed in genuine servers," according to Avast security researchers. "In this case, it's embedded in a phony SMTP server that, when given a specially designed command, spawns a shell." 

The rootkit was created to hide harmful files, malicious software, and its malicious payload from showing on the list of operating services, to deliver the malicious payload when it received a specially constructed TCP packet, and to halt the payload if the attacker directed it to. 

Rekoobe appears to be a harmless SMTP server, but it is built on an open-source project called Tiny SHell, so it contains a backdoor command for generating a shell that allows it to run arbitrary instructions for data mining. Despite the restricted support for Linux kernel versions, Avast claims that using Syslogk and Rebooke on a bogus SMTP server gives an attacker a strong toolkit. 

The Syslogk rootkit is yet one piece of highly evasive malware for Linux systems, joining the likes of Symbiote and BPFDoor, which both exploit the BPF system to monitor and dynamically change network traffic. Ransomware campaigns, crypto attacks, and other data theft illicit behavior are increasingly being launched against Linux systems and cloud infrastructure making it a vulnerable target. 
 
As in the case of Syslogk, the initiative is in its early stages of development, so it's unclear whether it'll become a wide-scale threat. However, given its secrecy, it will almost certainly continue to release new and improved versions.
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virus
Hive IP Address IPfuscation malware Ransomware Research Shellcode virus

Hive Ransomware Employs New 'IPfuscation' Tactic to Conceal Payload

 

Threat researchers have found a new obfuscation strategy employed by the Hive ransomware gang, which utilises IPv4 addresses and a series of conversions that leads to the download of a Cobalt Strike beacon. Threat actors use code obfuscation to conceal the malicious nature of their code from human reviewers or security software to avoid discovery. 

There are a variety of techniques to create obfuscation, each with its own set of benefits and drawbacks, but a new one identified during an incident response involving Hive ransomware reveals that adversaries are coming up with new, subtler ways to accomplish their objective. 

Analysts at Sentinel Labs describe a new obfuscation technique called "IPfuscation," which is another example of how effective basic but sophisticated tactics can be in real-world malware deployment. The new approach was discovered while examining 64-bit Windows executables, each of which contained a payload that delivered Cobalt Strike. 

The payload is disguised as an array of ASCII IPv4 addresses, giving it the appearance of a harmless list of IP addresses. The list could potentially be misconstrued for hard-coded C2 communication information in malware research. A blob of shellcode arises when the file is handed to a converting function (ip2string.h) that converts the string to binary.

Following this step, the virus executes the shellcode either directly through SYSCALLs or through a callback on the user interface language enumerator (winnls.h), resulting in a normal Cobalt Strike stager. 

The following is an example from the Sentinel Labs report: The first hardcoded IP-formatted string is the ASCII string “252.72.131.228”, which has a binary representation of 0xE48348FC (big-endian), and the next “IP” to be translated is “240.232.200.0”, which has a binary representation of 0xC8E8F0. 

Disassembling these “binary representations” indicates the start of shellcode generated by common penetration testing frameworks. The analysts have uncovered additional IPfuscation variants that instead of IPv4 addresses use IPv6, UUIDs, and MAC addresses, all operating in an almost identical manner as was described above.

The conclusion here is that relying simply on static signatures to detect malicious payloads is no longer sufficient. According to the researchers, behavioural detection, AI-assisted analysis, and holistic endpoint security that combines suspicious elements from various locations have a better probability of removing IPfuscation.
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