Moving Target Defense Blog

Ursnif/Gozi Introduction:

Morphisec has been tracking an uptick in the delivery of Ursnif/Gozi during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we have noticed a significant spike both in numbers and sophistication. The latest delivery methods will many times involve old-school Excel 4.0 macro functionality, which historically is a blind spot for AV detection as it has nothing to do with the VBA macro engine and is integrated as part of the workbook. INQUEST reported the use of similar techniques as part of a Zloader delivery campaign. Interestingly, in the latest campaign, it looks like the malware writers removed the image from the Excel document to avoid OCR heuristic detection following the INQUEST article.

In August of 2019, just a month after our publication on a targeted BitPaymer/IEncrypt campaign, Morphisec identified a new and alarming evasion technique that the same adversaries adopted while targeting yet another enterprise in the automotive industry.

This week, headlines blew up with warnings of a design flaw in the CTF subsystem (msctf) of the Windows Text Services Framework that affects all current Windows systems and those going back as far as twenty years.

Last week, a new strain of ransomware hit dozens of targets across Germany. The categorization as ransomware is really a misnomer as, while the attackers do demand a ransom, by that time the victim’s data has already been irreversibly wiped, even if the ransom is paid.

During the period of March to May 2019, Morphisec Labs observed a new, highly sophisticated variant of the ShellTea / PunchBuggy backdoor malware that attempted to infiltrate a number of machines within the network of a customer in the hotel-entertainment industry. It is believed that the malware was deployed as a result of several phishing attempts.

Over the past two weeks, Morphisec Labs has identified an increase in AVE_MARIA malware infecting victims through a variety of phishing methods. One of the downloader components and C2 metadata are similar to those we saw in the Orcus RAT attacks last month and we believe they are by the same threat actor.

Today Adobe disclosed a new Flash zero-day, releasing a patch for the critical vulnerability in an out-of-band update. Successful exploitation gives attackers the ability to execute arbitrary code on the targeted machine, and eventually assume full system control. Morphisec customers are already protected from attacks exploiting this vulnerability.

Note: This post was updated 11-30-18 with details of a new intercepted attack. See technical description below.

Over the past three days, Morphisec Labs researchers have discovered a widespread cyber campaign hitting multiple targets. Morphisec researchers dubbed the Pied Piper campaign as it delivers various Remote Access Trojan (RAT) payloads via phishing, across multiple countries.

This blog was co-authored by Alon Groisman.

It seems like the rumors of FIN7’s decline have been hasty. Just a few months after the well-publicized indictment of three high-ranking members in August, Morphisec has identified a new FIN7 campaign that appears to be targeting the restaurant industry.

Over the past year, Morphisec and several other endpoint protection companies have been tracking a resurgence in activity from the Cobalt Group. Cobalt is one of the most notorious cybercrime operations, with attacks against more than 100 banks across 40 countries