Threat Lab

by Nathan Collier

Android.SMS.FakeInst is a Trojan that aims to do one thing — trick users into sending premium SMS messages by pretending to be an install for an app.  Here’s how the scam works: The user sends three premium SMS messages in exchange for an app, but there is no guarantee that it will actually install anything after they already have your money.  These malicious apps are getting harder and harder to discern as malicious as the look and feel of these apps get better through newer iterations.  One variant of these Trojan apps, which comes from a known malicious site, looks better with each update.  Let’s start with one of the first iterations of this variant.

The icon looks fairly convincing:

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What happens when a host gets infected with malware? On the majority of occasions, cybercriminals will use it as a launch platform for numerous malicious activities, such as spamming, launching DDoS attacks, harvesting for fresh emails, and account logins. But most interestingly, thanks to the support offered in multiple malware loaders, they will convert the malware-infected hosts into anonymization proxies used by cybercriminals to cover their Web activities.

In this post, I’ll profile a newly launched service, offering thousands of malware-infected hosts as Socks4 and Socks5 servers for anonymizing a cybercriminal’s Web activities.

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In our continued series of how Android malware authors continue adding functionality to their work we take a look at GoManag. First seen last year, targeting Chinese speakers, GoManag is a Trojan that installs as a service so it can run in the background, collects device information and downloads payloads.  Its odd name comes from part of a URL it attempts to contact to.

Malicious GoManag app running in the background as the name “Google Search (Enhanced)”

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According to independent sources, the author of the most popular web malware exploitation kit currently dominating the threat landscape, has recently issued yet another update to the latest version of the kit v1.2.2.

More details:

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Just like today’s modern economy, in the cybercrime ecosystem supply, too, meets demand on a regular basis.

With malware coding for hire propositions increasing thanks to the expanding pool of talented programmers looking for ways to enter the cybercrime ecosystem, it shouldn’t be surprising that  cybercriminals are constantly releasing new malware loaders, cryptors, remote access trojans, or issuing updates to web malware exploitation kits on a periodic basis, using the outsourcing market model.

Continuing the “Peek inside…” series, in this post I’ll profile the Elite Malware Loader. In the wild since 2009,  the malware loader is still under active development according to a recently spotted advertisement within the cybercrime ecosystem.

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The vibrant cybercrime underground ecosystem offers countless ways to monetize the malware-infected hosts at the disposal of the malicious attacker.

From converting them to anonymization proxies assisting cybercriminals in covering their Web activities, to launching DDoS attacks, and using them to disseminate spam and more malicious threats, cybercriminals have a vast arsenal of monetization tactics in their arsenal.

In this post we’ll profile a recently advertised service offering thousands of Facebook “Likes”, Twitter followers, and YouTube views, all for the modest price of a couple of hundred rubles, entirely relying on malware-infected hosts for supporting their infrastructure.

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Cybercriminals are currently spamvertising ‘Termination of your CPA license‘ emails, enticing users into clicking on a malicious link supposedly redirecting to the complaint.pdf file.

More details:

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The ever-adapting cybercrime ecosystem is constantly producing new underground releases in the form of malware loaders, remote access trojans (RATs), malware cryptors, Web, IRC and P2P based command and control interfaces, all with the clear objective  to undermine current security solutions.

Continuing the “A peek inside…” series, in this post I will profile a malware loader recently advertised within the cybercrime ecosystem , namely, the Ann Malware Loader.

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Security researchers from StopMalvertising.com have intercepted a malvertising campaign using Yahoo’s ad network, that ultimately leads to a malicious payload in the form of fake security software known as scareware.

More details:

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How is it possible that in an industry dominated by advanced performance metrics and benchmarking tests, cybercriminals still manage to release unique malware that remains undetected for weeks by major antivirus vendors?

It’s pretty simple. Cybercrime is innovating much faster than the security industry is.

It used to be that cybercriminals hacked from the fringe, often acting alone and for personal fame. Now, cybercrime is a profitable career. It’s among the top national defense issues; it’s leveraged as a form of political protest; and it’s a relatively easy field to break into.

You might be surprised to how easy it is for anyone to access black markets online, pay a small fee (or nothing at all), and gain access to malicious processes that wreak havoc on company websites, steal financial information, and much more. And their labors are producing countless malware samples each day.

Here’s an up-close look at some of the nasty tactics today’s hackers are using—and why security vendors can’t stop them with yesterday’s approach.

4 Ways Hackers are Winning

• Do-it-yourself (DIY) malware cryptors – Malware cryptors, as we cyber nerds call them, are designed to mask malware from being discovered by computer security programs. Cybercriminals can build malware cryptors on their own with relative ease. The idea is: once malware authors release their cryptors into the wild, they have the ability to keep changing it until their malware becomes unrecognizable to antivirus scans. That’s a big “one up” over traditional security.
• Managed malware crypting services – Think of malware as a key that is trying to find a door (someone’s device) to unlock. Instead of trying to make your own custom key, you could go to someone who already knows a specific key is going to work. That’s the idea behind malware crypting as a managed service. This process allows cybercriminals to obtain only the malicious executables (the things that make your computer go “boom”) that have the best chance of being effective—without having to build anything on their own.
• Server-side polymorphism (SSP) – Server-side polymorphism (say that two times fast!) is malware that is difficult to identify by a computer scan, no matter how many times you clean your system. What’s particularly important to highlight is how it renders traditional server antivirus software totally useless.
• Quality assurance processes within the cybercrime ecosystem – Cybercriminals aren’t sloppy about their work. Before a malware campaign is launched, cybercriminals will usually pre-scan their malicious executable against all popular antivirus engines in order to ensure that it will successfully bypass the signature-based malware scanning used by them. The process is highly automated and is often offered as a service at selected cybercrime-friendly online communities.

So what is the security industry’s big mistake?

Which is the most targeted mobile operating system?

According to the recently released 2011 Mobile Threats Report from our partners at Juniper Networks, that’s the Android OS.

Key summary points from the report:

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