Month: November 2018

This is an article from Microsoft that i thought was intresting..

Anyone may receive an unwanted phone call or experience a pop-up window on your device with a “warning” that your computer has a problem requiring immediate tech support. These messages are often very convincing and use scare tactics to entice consumers into contacting a fraudulent “tech support” call center. Call center operators typically encourage the victim to provide remote access to their device for “further diagnosis” before charging the victim a fee – typically between $150 – $499 – for unnecessary tech support services. In addition to losing money, victims leave their computer vulnerable to other attacks, such as malware, during a remote access session.

Tech support fraud operations typically involve multiple entities including those engaged in marketing, payment processing and call centers. Recent law enforcement successes in India build on a solid track record of global law enforcement taking action to combat the multiple layers of tech support fraud supported by referrals from Microsoft and other industry partners. For example, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and multiple partners announced 16 separate civil and criminal enforcement actions against tech support fraudsters in May 2017 as part of “Operation Tech Trap.”  And, in June 2017, the City of London Police announced the arrest of four individuals engaged in computer software services fraud.
Our work to partner with law enforcement agencies in addressing this problem is driven by a combination of technology and action taken by our customers. In 2014, Microsoft launched an online “report a scam” portal to enable victims to share their tech support fraud experiences directly with our Digital Crimes Unit team. The reports have been a critical starting point for our international investigations and referrals. Our data analytics and innovation team has added additional tools to proactively hunt and pull data from approximately 150,000 suspicious pop-ups daily targeting millions of people and use machine learning to identify those related to tech support fraud.
In addition to making referrals to law enforcement based on this data, we are building what we learn about cybercriminals’ behavior into improved products and services for consumers. Microsoft has built-in protection in Windows 10 which includes more security features, safer authentication and ongoing updates delivered for the supported lifetime of a device. Windows Defender delivers comprehensive, real-time protection against software threats across email, cloud and the web. The SmartScreen filter, built into Windows, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer, helps protect against malicious websites and downloads, including many of those frustrating pop-up windows. People who have experienced tech support scams should know they aren’t alone, but there are steps you can take to identify and help defend yourself against criminals looking to impersonate legitimate companies. According to our recently released 2018 global survey, three out of five consumers have experienced a tech support scam in the previous 12 months. Although this reflects movement in the right direction, and a 5-point reduction since 2016, these scams persist and successfully target people across all ages and geographies. The best thing you can do to help protect yourself from fraud is to educate yourself. If you receive a notification or call from someone claiming to be from a reputable software company, here are a few key tips to keep in mind:

• Be wary of any unsolicited phone call or pop-up message on your device.
• Microsoft will never proactively reach out to you to provide unsolicited PC or technical support. Any communication we have with you must be initiated by you.
• Do not call the phone number in a pop-up window on your device and be cautious about clicking on notifications asking you to scan your computer or download software. Many scammers try to fool you into thinking their notifications are legitimate.
• Never give control of your computer to a third party unless you can confirm that it is a legitimate representative of a computer support team with whom you are already a customer.
• If skeptical, take the person’s information down and immediately report it to your local authorities

Go here
for more information

National Cyber Awareness System:

Systems Affected

Microsoft Windows

Overview

This joint Technical Alert (TA) is the result of analytic efforts between
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI). DHS and FBI are releasing this TA to provide
information about a major online ad fraud operation—referred to by the U.S.
Government as “3ve”—involving the control of over 1.7 million
unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses globally, when sampled over a
10-day window.

Description

Online advertisers desire premium websites on which to publish their ads and
large numbers of visitors to view those ads. 3ve created fake versions of both
(websites and visitors), and funneled the advertising revenue to cyber
criminals. 3ve obtained control over 1.7 million unique IPs by
leveraging victim computers infected with Boaxxe/Miuref and Kovter malware, as
well as Border Gateway Patrol-hijacked IP addresses. 

Boaxxe/Miuref
Malware

Boaxxe malware is spread through email attachments and drive-by downloads.
The ad fraud scheme that utilizes the Boaxxe botnet is primarily located in a
data center. Hundreds of machines in this data center are browsing to
counterfeit websites. When these counterfeit webpages are loaded into a
browser, requests are made for ads to be placed on these pages. The machines in
the data center use the Boaxxe botnet as a proxy to make requests for these
ads. A command and control (C2) server sends instructions to the infected
botnet computers to make the ad requests in an effort to hide their true data
center IPs.

Kovter Malware

Kovter malware is also spread through email attachments and drive-by
downloads. The ad fraud scheme that utilizes the Kovter botnet runs a hidden
Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) browser on the infected machine that the user
cannot see. A C2 server tells the infected machine to visit counterfeit
websites. When the counterfeit webpage is loaded in the hidden browser,
requests are made for ads to be placed on these counterfeit pages. The infected
machine receives the ads and loads them into the hidden browser.

Impact

For the indicators of
compromise (IOCs) below, keep in mind that any one indicator on its own may not
necessarily mean that a machine is infected. Some IOCs may be present for legitimate
applications and network traffic as well, but are included here for
completeness.

Boaxxe/Miuref
Malware

Boaxxe malware leaves several executables on the infected machine. They may
be found in one or more of the following locations:

• %UserProfile%AppDataLocalVirtualStorelsass.aaa
• %UserProfile%AppDataLocalTemp lt;RANDOM>.exe
• %UserProfile%AppDataLocal lt;Random eight-character folder
name> lt;original file name>.exe

The HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU) “Run” key is set to the path to one of the
executables created above.

• HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun lt;Above path
to executable>

Kovter Malware

Kovter malware is found mostly in the registry, but the following files may
be found on the infected machine:

• %UserProfileAppDataLocalTemp lt;RANDOM> .exe/.bat
• %UserProfile%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet
FilesContent.IE5 lt;RANDOM> lt;RANDOM FILENAME>.exe
• %UserProfile%AppDataLocal lt;RANDOM> lt;RANDOM>.lnk
• %UserProfile%AppDataLocal lt;RANDOM> lt;RANDOM>.bat

Kovter is known to hide in the registry under:

• HKCUSOFTWARE lt;RANDOM> lt;RANDOM>

The customized CEF browser is dropped to:

• %UserProfile%AppDataLocal lt;RANDOM>

The keys will look like random values and contain scripts. In some values, a
User-Agent string can be clearly identified. An additional key containing a
link to a batch script on the hard drive may be placed within registry key:

• HKCUSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun

There are several patterns in the network requests that are made by Kovter
malware when visiting the counterfeit websites. The following are regex rules
for these URL patterns:

• /?ptrackp=d{5,8}
• /feedrsd/click?feed_id=d{1,5}&sub_id=d{1,5}&cid=[a-f0-9-]*&spoof_domain=[w.d-_]*&land_ip=d{1,3}.d{1,3}.d{1,3}.d{1,3}
• /feedrsd/vast_track?a=impression&feed_id=d{5}&sub_id=d{1,5}&sub2_id=d{1,5}&cid=[a-fd-]

The following is a YARA rule for detecting Kovter:

Solution

If you believe you may be a victim of 3ve and its associated malware or
hijacked IPs, and have information that may be useful to investigators, submit
your complaint to www.ic3.gov and use the
hashtag 3ve (#3ve) in the body of your complaint.

DHS and FBI advise users to take the following actions to remediate malware
infections associated with Boaxxe/Miuref or Kovter:

• Use
  and maintain antivirus software. Antivirus software recognizes and protects your
  computer against most known viruses. Security companies are continuously
  updating their software to counter these advanced threats. Therefore, it
  is important to keep your antivirus software up-to-date. If you suspect
  you may be a victim of malware, update your antivirus software definitions
  and run a full-system scan. (See Understanding Anti-Virus
  Software for more information.)
• Avoid
  clicking links in email. Attackers have become very skilled at making phishing
  emails look legitimate. Users should ensure the link is legitimate by
  typing the link into a new browser. (See Avoiding Social
  Engineering and Phishing Attacks.)
• Change
  your passwords. Your
  original passwords may have been compromised during the infection, so you
  should change them. (See Choosing and Protecting
  Passwords.)
• Keep
  your operating system and application software up-to-date. Install software patches
  so that attackers cannot take advantage of known problems or
  vulnerabilities. You should enable automatic updates of the operating
  system if this option is available. (See Understanding Patches and
  Software Updates for more information.)
• Use
  anti-malware tools. Using a legitimate program that identifies and removes
  malware can help eliminate an infection. Users can consider employing a
  remediation tool. A non-exhaustive list of examples is provided below. The
  U.S. Government does not endorse or support any particular product or
  vendor.
• ESET Online Scanner
• F-Secure
• Malwarebytes
• McAfee
• Microsoft
  Safety Scanner
• Norton Power Eraser
• Trend Micro HouseCall

References

• DOJ
  Press Release
• ewhitehats
  White Paper on Kovter Malware
• ewhitehats: THE
  HUNT FOR 3VE
• Google
  Security Blog: Industry collaboration leads to takedown of the “3ve” ad
  fraud operation

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