Technical Deep Dive Into SolarWinds Breach

Many organizations have been compromised by the recent SolarWinds breach, which seems to be a targeted attack against both government and private agencies. The complete scale of this attack is still unknown, but what is known is that the hackers gained access to victims’ systems via malicious...

SUNBURST Additional Technical Details

FireEye has discovered additional details about the SUNBURST backdoor since our initial publication on Dec. 13, 2020. Before diving into the technical depth of this malware, we recommend readers familiarize themselves with our blog post about the SolarWinds supply chain compromise, which revealed...

New Kimsuky Module Makes North Korean Spyware More Powerful

A week after the US government issued an advisory about a "global intelligence gathering mission" operated by North Korean state-sponsored hackers, new findings have emerged about the threat group's spyware capabilities. The APT — dubbed "Kimsuky" aka Black Banshee or Thallium and believed to be...

APT Attack Injects Malware into Windows Error Reporting

A campaign that injects malware into the Windows Error Reporting WER service to evade detection is potentially the work of a Vietnamese APT group, researchers said. The attack, discovered on Sept. 17 by researchers at Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence Team, lures its victims with a phishing campai...

Egregor Ransomware Threatens 'Mass-Media' Release of Corporate Data

A freshly discovered family of ransomware called Egregor has been spotted in the wild, using a tactic of siphoning off corporate information and threatening a “mass-media” release of it before encrypting all files. Egregor is an occult term meant to signify the collective energy or force of a gro...

Bypassing MassLogger Anti-Analysis — a Man-in-the-Middle Approach

The FireEye Front Line Applied Research & Expertise FLARE Team attempts to always stay on top of the most current and emerging threats. As a member of the FLARE Reverse Engineer team, I recently received a request to analyze a fairly new credential stealer identified as MassLogger. Despite the la...

TAU Threat Discovery: Conti Ransomware

Conti is a new family of ransomware observed in the wild by the Carbon Black Threat Analysis Unit TAU. Unlike most ransomware, Conti contains unique features that separate it in terms of performance and focus on network-based targets. Conti uses a large number of independent threads to perform...

EvilQuest Mac Ransomware Has Keylogger, Crypto Wallet-Stealing Abilities

A rare new ransomware strain targeting macOS users has been discovered, called EvilQuest. Researchers say the ransomware is being distributed via various versions of pirated software. EvilQuest, first discovered by security researcher Dinesh Devadoss, goes beyond the normal encryption capabilitie...

Threat Source newsletter for May 14, 2020

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s Threat Source newsletter — the perfect place to get caught up on all things Talos from the past week. Our main focus this week is on Astaroth. This is a malware family that has been targeting Brazil with a variety of lures, including...

Astaroth’s New Evasion Tactics Make It 'Painful to Analyze'

The operators of the Astaroth infostealer have implemented several new tactics aimed at evading detection, which researchers say have made the malware “painful to analyze.” Astaroth first emerged in 2017, but has steadily been used over the years in increasingly sophisticated campaigns aimed at...

Thinking Outside the Bochs: Code Grafting to Unpack Malware in Emulation

This blog post continues the FLARE script series with a discussion of patching IDA Pro database files IDBs to interactively emulate code. While the fastest way to analyze or unpack malware is often to run it, malware won’t always successfully execute in a VM. I use IDA Pro’s Bochs integration in...

New TrickBot Variant Updates Anti-Analysis Tricks

Researchers uncovered a new variant of the TrickBot malware that relies on new anti-analysis techniques, an updated method for downloading its payload as well as adopting minor changes to the integration of its components. TrickBot is a module-based malware that, while first identified as a banki...

New TrickBot Variant Updates Anti-Analysis Tricks

Researchers uncovered a new variant of the TrickBot malware that relies on new anti-analysis techniques, an updated method for downloading its payload as well as adopting minor changes to the integration of its components. TrickBot is a module-based malware that, while first identified as a banki...

sLoad launches version 2.0, Starslord

sLoad, the PowerShell-based Trojan downloader notable for its almost exclusive use of the Background Intelligent Transfer Service BITS for malicious activities, has launched version 2.0. The new version comes on the heels of a comprehensive blog we published detailing the malware’s multi-stage...

Threat Analysis Unit (TAU) Threat Intelligence Notification: CrescentCore (macOS)

In June of 2019, researchers at Intego discovered a new Trojan for macOS systems which they named CrescentCore. Much like Shlayer and other common malware targeting macOS systems, CrescentCore is often delivered via a fake Adobe Flash Player installer or updater. This malware employs multiple...

‘Highly Competitive' Buer Loader Emerges in Underground Markets

A previously undocumented modular loader has emerged as a lucrative tool for cybercriminals in a variety of campaigns. Researchers say the “highly competitive” loader, dubbed Buer, is intended for use by actors seeking a turn-key, off-the-shelf solution. Researchers say they have spotted the load...

Threat Roundup for September 27 to October 4

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Sept. 27 and Oct. 4. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics...

CB TAU Threat Intelligence Notification: Qbot/Qakbot Attempts to Evade Detection By Overwriting Itself

Qbot, or Qakbot, is a banking trojan that has been seen in the wild for at least 10 years. Recent campaigns have been often delivered by exploit kits and weaponized documents delivered via context-aware phishing campaigns. Qbot has also been suspected of delivering MegaCortex ransomware. Many...

CARBANAK Week Part One: A Rare Occurrence

It is very unusual for FLARE to analyze a prolifically-used, privately-developed backdoor only to later have the source code and operator tools fall into our laps. Yet this is the extraordinary circumstance that sets the stage for CARBANAK Week, a four-part blog series that commences with this...

Malspam Campaigns Distribute HawkEye Keylogger, Post Ownership Change

The HawkEye malware kit and information-stealer has been spotted in a newfound slew of campaigns after a recent ownership change. While the keylogger has been in continuous development since 2013, in December a thread on a hacking site noted an ownership change, after which posts on hacking forum...