Cybercriminals populate Scribd with bogus adult content, spread malware using Comodo Backup

Cybercriminals populate Scribd with bogus adult content, spread malware using Comodo Backup

by | Jun 14, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

On their way to convert legitimate traffic into malware-infected hosts using web malware exploitation kits, cybercriminals have been actively experimenting with multiple traffic acquisition techniques over the past couple of years. From malvertising (the process of displaying malicious ads), to compromised high-trafficked web sites, to blackhat SEO (search engine optimization), the tools in their arsenal have been systematically maturing to become today’s sophisticated traffic acquisition platforms delivering millions of unique visits from across the world, to the cybercriminals behind the campaigns.

What are some of the latest campaigns currently circulating in the wild? How are cybercriminals monetizing the hijacked traffic? Are they basically redirecting to the landing page of an affiliate network, earning revenue in the process, or are they serving malicious software to unsuspecting and gullible end and corporate users?

Let’s find out by profiling a currently active blackhat SEO (search engine optimization) campaign at the popular document sharing web site Scribd, currently using double monetization of the anticipated traffic, namely, redirecting users to a dating affiliate network, and serving malware in between.

More details:

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Seen Ad Pop-up’s in Your Mobile Browser Lately?

Seen Ad Pop-up’s in Your Mobile Browser Lately?

by | Jun 13, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

by Armando Orozco

Today, one of our Webroot SecureAnywhere for Android users reported seeing ad redirections while browsing on his Android device. As we began investigating, we noticed that there were a lot of other mobile users seeing the same thing – yes, on their iPhones as well! We were also able to reproduce the behavior on our devices.

This appears to be a clever Ad redirection using JavaScript. The pop-ups are survey offers for free electronics like iPads and iPhones. The users are asked to complete a survey, at the end of which their email address and phone number is also recorded. I know we’ve all seen these pop-ups before, but we’re not used to seeing them in our mobile world.

These pop-ups are not related to any apps you may have installed – they are a result of how the web page was written. Web developers use “alert()” function in JavaScript, which displays a message box requesting response from a user. The advertisers utilize this method to display their ads.

We are still investigating this issue and hope to track down the advertisers responsible. There does not appear to be anything malicious about these pop-ups for the time being, but we are sure malware authors will employ this tactic soon. With the rash of Rogue Applications and the recent discovery of a Rogue AV app (blog coming soon), we can see how this method could be exploited with malicious intent. Again, these are not platform or application-specific behaviors.

To remedy these pop-ups, you can disable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thanks to JohnDeth of our Webroot Community for bringing this to our attention.

Skype propagating Trojan targets Syrian activists

Skype propagating Trojan targets Syrian activists

by | Jun 6, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is reporting on a recently intercepted malicious documents distributed over Skype, apparently targeting Syrian activists.

Upon viewing the document, it drops additional files on the infected hosts, and opens a backdoor allowing the cyber spies behind the campaign access to the infected PC. 

Webroot has obtained a copy of the malware and analyzed its malicious payload.

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DDoS for hire services offering to ‘take down your competitor’s web sites’ going mainstream

DDoS for hire services offering to ‘take down your competitor’s web sites’ going mainstream

by | Jun 6, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Thanks to the increasing availability of custom coded DDoS modules within popular malware and crimeware releases, opportunistic cybercriminals are easily developing managed DDoS for hire, also known as “rent a botnet” services, next to orchestrating largely under-reported DDoS extortion campaigns against financial institutions and online gambling web sites.

In this post, I’ll profile a managed DDoS for hire service, offering to “take down your competitor’s web sites offline in a cost-effective manner”.

More details:

Screenshots of the DDoS for hire/Rent a botnet service:

The paid DDoS service is currently offering HTTP (GET, POST), Download, ICMP, UDP, and SYN flooding features, using what they’re pitching as private tools operated by expert staff members. Before a potential customer is interested in purchasing a DDoS attack for hire, the service if offering a 15 minute test to the customer in order to prove its effectiveness.

How much do these DDoS for Hire services cost?

  • The price for 1 hour or DDoS attack is $5
  • The price for 24 hours of DDoS attack is $40
  • The price for 1 week of persistent DDoS attack is $260
  • The price for 1 month of persistent DDoS attack is $900
The service is also offering 5%, 7%, 10% and 15% discounts to prospective customers, with a return policy based on the remaining time from the originally purchased package.
The service profiled in this post, is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the overall availability of DDoS for hire managed services within the cybercrime ecosystem. This fierce competition prompts for unique client acquisition tactics, such as offering complete anonymity throughout the purchasing and post-purchasing process in order to ensure that anyone can request any target, including high profile ones, to be attacked.
Moreover, although the service is undermining the OPSEC (operational security) of the proposition by advertising on public  forums, the business model of the competition is often driven by invite-only sales, where prospective customers are  trusted and verified as hardcore cybercriminals with a significant credibility within the cybercrime ecosystem. These competing services even offer the possibility to a target government or law enforcement web sites, despite the fact that their botnet’s activity will be easily spotted by security vendors and law enforcement agencies.
Instead of exposing their main botnets and potentially risking their exposure, the cybercriminals behind these campaigns have been developing the “aggregate-and-forget” botnet model for years. These botnets that never make the news, are specifically aggregated for every customer’s campaign in order to prevent the security community from properly attributing the source for the attack, taking into consideration the historical malicious activity performed by an already monitored botnet.

Webroot will continue monitoring the development of the DDoS for hire service profiled in this post.

You can find more about Dancho Danchev at his LinkedIn Profile. You can also follow him on  Twitter.

A peek inside a boutique cybercrime-friendly E-shop – part three

A peek inside a boutique cybercrime-friendly E-shop – part three

by | Jun 5, 2012 | Industry Intel, Threat Lab

Over the past few months, I’ve been witnessing an increase in underground market propositions advertised by what appears to be novice cybercriminals. The trend, largely driven by the increasing supply of cybercrime-as-a-service underground market propositions, results in an increasing number of newly launched cybercrime-friendly E-shops attempting to monetize fraudulently obtained accounting data.

In this post, I’ll profile yet another currently spamvertised cybercrime-friendly E-shop, offering access to accounts purchased using stolen credit cards as well as highlight the ways in which cybercriminals obtain the account info in the first place.

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