Tag Archives: social enginnering

Don’t take the bait: Beware of web attack techniques

Mousetrap with cheese

When it comes to cybercrime, it’s always better to be in the know. Here are a few ways that web attacks can find their way onto your device. Don’t be fooled — most cybercrooks design attacks to  take place where you’d least expect it.

  1. Social engineering preys on human weakness

“A lot of attacks are still using social engineering techniques; phishing emails – ways of convincing the user to give up valuable information,” said Avast CEO Vince Steckler.

In a phishing or spearphishing attack, hackers use email messages to trick people into providing sensitive information, click on links, or download malware. The emails are seemingly sent from organizations or individuals the potential victims would normally get emails from, making them even more deceptive. Last July, Avast took a look at the Tinba Trojan, banking malware that used spearphishing to target its victims.

 usbank

An example of an injected form from Tinba Trojan targeting U.S. Bank customers.

Web attacks also take place through SMS Text Phishing, also known as SMSishing. This method has become one of the most popular ways in which malicious threats are transmitted on Android devices. These text messages include links that contain malware, and upon clicking them, the malicious program is downloaded to the user’s device. These programs often operate as SMS worms capable of sending messages, removing apps and files, and stealing confidential information from the user.

  1. Malicious apps attempt to fool you

Malicious programs can disguise themselves as real programs by hiding within popular apps or games. In February, we examined malicious apps posing as games on Google Play that infected millions of users with adware. In the case of malicious apps, cybercrooks tamper with the app’s code, inserting additional features and malicious programs that infect devices. As a result, the malware can attempt to use SMSishing in order to collect additional data.

Durak-game-GP

The Durak card game app was the most widespread of the malicious apps with 5 – 10 million installations according to Google Play.

  1. Ransomware uses scare tactics that really work

Another name that made headlines was a group of malware dubbed ransomware, such as CryptoLocker, and its variants CryptowallPrison LockerPowerLocker, and Zerolocker. The most widespread is Cryptolocker, which encrypts data on a computer and demands money from the victim in order to provide the decryption key. Avast detects and protects its users from CryptoLocker and GameoverZeus.  

Make sure you back up important files on a regular basis to avoid losing them to ransomware. Ransomware made its way from desktop to Android during the year, and Avast created a Ransomware Removal app to eliminate Android ransomware and unlocks encrypted files for free.

Count on Avast apps to keep mobile malware at bay

To keep your devices protected from other ransomware, make sure to also install Avast Free Mobile Security & Antivirus from the Google Play store. It can detect and remove the malware before it is deployed.

Install Avast Ransomware Removal to find out if your Android devices are infected and to get rid of an infection. Avast Ransomware Removal will tell you if your phone has ransomware on it. If you are infected, it will eliminate the malware. Android users who are clean can use the free app to prevent an infection from happening.Once installed, you can easily launch the app to scan the device, remove the virus, and then decrypt your hijacked files.

Pony stealer spread vicious malware using email campaign

Most people want to stay on top of their bills, and not pay them late. But recently, unexpected emails claiming an overdue invoice have been showing up in people’s inboxes, causing anxiety and ultimately a malware attack. Read this report from the Avast Virus Lab, so as a consumer you’ll know what to look for, and as a systems administrator for an SMB or other website, you will know how cybercrooks can use your site for this type of social engineering scam.

Recently we saw an email campaign which attempted to convince people to pay an overdue invoice, as you can see on the following image. The user is asked to download an invoice from the attached link.

mail1

The downloaded file pretends to be a regular PDF file, however the filename “Total outstanding invoice pdf.com” is very suspicious.

When the user executes the malicious file, after a few unpacking procedures, it downloads the final vicious payload. The Avast Virus Lab has identified this payload as Pony Stealer, a well-known data-stealing Trojan which is responsible for stealing $220,000, as you can read here.

We followed the payload URL and discovered that it was downloaded from a hacked website. The interesting part is that we found a backdoor on that site allowing the attacker to take control of  the entire website. As you can see, the attacker could create a new file and write any data to that file on the hacked website, for example, a malicious php script.

backdoor

Because that website was unsecured, cybercrooks used it to place several Pony Stealer administration panels on it, including the original installation package, and some other malware samples as well.  You can see an example of Pony Stealer panel’s help page written in the Russian language on the following picture.

panel

Avast Virus Lab advises:

For Consumers: Use extreme caution if you see an email trying to convince you to pay money for non-ordered services. This use of “social engineering” is most likely fraudulent. Do not respond to these emails.

For SMBs: If you are a server administrator, please secure your server and follow the general security recommendations. As you learned from this article,  you can be hacked and a backdoor can be put in your website allowing anyone to upload whatever he wants to your website. Protect yourself and your visitors!

SHA’s and detections:

4C893CA9FB2A6CB8555176B6F2D6FCF984832964CCBDD6E0765EA6167803461D

5C6B3F65C174B388110C6A32AAE5A4CE87BF6C06966411B2DB88D1E8A1EF056B

Avast detections: Win32:Agent-AUKT, Win32:VB-AIUM

Acknowledgement:

I would like to thank Jan Zíka for discovering this campaign.

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