Datasets:

bnsapa

/

cybersecurity-ner

like 2

[ "It", "then", "calls", "a", "routine", "that", "adds", "a", "code", "section", "to", "a", "target", "module", "." ]

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[ "This", "section", "will", "contain", "a", "fake", "export", "table", "mimicking", "the", "same", "export", "table", "of", "the", "original", "system", "DLL", "chosen", "." ]

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[ "At", "the", "time", "of", "writing", ",", "the", "dropper", "supports", "aepic.dll", ",", "sspisrv.dll", ",", "ftllib.dll", ",", "and", "userenv.dll", "to", "host", "the", "malicious", "FinFisher", "payload", "." ]

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[ "Finally", ",", "a", "new", "Windows", "service", "is", "created", "with", "the", "service", "path", "pointing", "to", "the", "candidate", ".exe", "located", "in", "this", "new", "directory", "together", "with", "the", "freshly", "created", ",", "benign-looking", "DLL", "." ]

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[ "In", "this", "way", ",", "when", "the", "service", "runs", "during", "boot", ",", "the", "original", "Windows", "executable", "is", "executed", "from", "a", "different", "location", "and", "it", "will", "automatically", "load", "and", "map", "the", "malicious", "DLL", "inside", "its", "address", "space", ",", "instead", "of", "using", "the", "genuine", "system", "library", "." ]

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[ "This", "routine", "is", "a", "form", "of", "generic", "and", "variable", "generator", "of", "DLL", "side-loading", "combinations", "." ]

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[ "Figure", "10", "." ]

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[ "Windows", "Defender", "ATP", "timeline", "can", "pinpoint", "the", "service", "DLL", "side-loading", "trick", "(", "in", "this", "example", ",", "using", "fltlib.dll", ")", "." ]

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[ "In", "the", "past", ",", "we", "have", "seen", "other", "activity", "groups", "like", "LEAD", "employ", "a", "similar", "attacker", "technique", "named", "“", "proxy-library", "”", "to", "achieve", "persistence", ",", "but", "not", "with", "this", "professionalism", "." ]

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[ "The", "said", "technique", "brings", "the", "advantage", "of", "avoiding", "auto-start", "extensibility", "points", "(", "ASEP", ")", "scanners", "and", "programs", "that", "checks", "for", "binaries", "installed", "as", "service", "(", "for", "the", "latter", ",", "the", "service", "chosen", "by", "FinFisher", "will", "show", "up", "as", "a", "clean", "Windows", "signed", "binary", ")", "." ]

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[ "The", "malware", "cleans", "the", "system", "event", "logs", "using", "OpenEventLog/ClearEventLog", "APIs", ",", "and", "then", "terminates", "the", "setup", "procedure", "with", "a", "call", "to", "StartService", "to", "run", "the", "stage", "4", "malware", "." ]

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[ "Figure", "11", "." ]

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[ "It", "allocates", "and", "fills", "four", "chunks", "of", "memory", "inside", "the", "service", "process", "." ]

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[ "One", "chunk", "contains", "the", "entire", "malware", "DLL", "code", "(", "without", "PE", "headers", ")", "." ]

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[ "Another", "chunk", "is", "used", "to", "copy", "a", "basic", "Ntdll", "and", "Kernel32", "import", "address", "table", "." ]

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[ "Two", "chunks", "are", "filled", "with", "an", "asynchronous", "procedure", "call", "(", "APC", ")", "routine", "code", "and", "a", "stub", "." ]

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[ "It", "opens", "the", "service", "thread", "of", "the", "service", "process", "and", "uses", "the", "ZwQueueApcThread", "native", "API", "to", "inject", "an", "APC", "." ]

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[ "The", "APC", "routine", "creates", "a", "thread", "in", "the", "context", "of", "the", "svchost.exe", "process", "that", "will", "map", "and", "execute", "the", "stage", "5", "malware", "into", "the", "winlogon.exe", "process", "." ]

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[ "The", "injection", "method", "used", "for", "winlogon.exe", "is", "also", "interesting", "and", "quite", "unusual", "." ]

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[ "We", "believe", "that", "this", "method", "is", "engineered", "to", "avoid", "trivial", "detection", "of", "process", "injection", "using", "the", "well-detected", "CreateRemoteThread", "or", "ZwQueueApcThread", "API", "." ]

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[ "The", "malware", "takes", "these", "steps", ":", "Check", "if", "the", "system", "master", "boot", "record", "(", "MBR", ")", "contains", "an", "infection", "marker", "(", "0xD289C989C089", "8-bytes", "value", "at", "offset", "0x2C", ")", ",", "and", ",", "if", "so", ",", "terminate", "itself", "Check", "again", "if", "the", "process", "is", "attached", "to", "a", "debugger", "(", "using", "the", "techniques", "described", "previously", ")", "Read", ",", "decrypt", ",", "and", "map", "the", "stage", "5", "malware", "(", "written", "in", "the", "previous", "stage", "in", "msvcr90.dll", ")", "Open", "winlogon.exe", "process", "Load", "user32.dll", "system", "library", "and", "read", "the", "KernelCallbackTable", "pointer", "from", "its", "own", "process", "environment", "block", "(", "PEB", ")", "(", "Note", ":", "The", "KernelCallbackTable", "points", "to", "an", "array", "of", "graphic", "functions", "used", "by", "Win32", "kernel", "subsystem", "module", "win32k.sys", "as", "call-back", "into", "user-mode", "." ]

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[ ")", "Calculate", "the", "difference", "between", "this", "pointer", "and", "the", "User32", "base", "address", "." ]

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[ "Copy", "the", "stage", "5", "DLL", "into", "winlogon.exe", "Allocate", "a", "chunk", "of", "memory", "in", "winlogon.exe", "process", "and", "copy", "the", "same", "APC", "routine", "seen", "previously", "Read", "and", "save", "the", "original", "pointer", "of", "the", "__fnDWORD", "internal", "User32", "routine", "(", "located", "at", "offset", "+0x10", "of", "the", "KernelCallbackTable", ")", "and", "replace", "this", "pointer", "with", "the", "address", "of", "the", "APC", "stub", "routine", "After", "this", "function", "pointer", "hijacking", ",", "when", "winlogon.exe", "makes", "any", "graphical", "call", "(", "GDI", ")", ",", "the", "malicious", "code", "can", "execute", "without", "using", "CreateRemoteThread", "or", "similar", "triggers", "that", "are", "easily", "detectable", "." ]

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[ "After", "execution", "it", "takes", "care", "of", "restoring", "the", "original", "KernelCallbackTable", "." ]

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[ "Stage", "5", ":", "The", "final", "loader", "takes", "control", "The", "stage", "5", "malware", "is", "needed", "only", "to", "provide", "one", "more", "layer", "of", "obfuscation", ",", "through", "the", "VM", ",", "of", "the", "final", "malware", "payload", "and", "to", "set", "up", "a", "special", "Structured", "Exception", "Hander", "routine", ",", "which", "is", "inserted", "as", "Wow64PrepareForException", "in", "Ntdll", "." ]

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[ "This", "special", "exception", "handler", "is", "needed", "to", "manage", "some", "memory", "buffers", "protection", "and", "special", "exceptions", "that", "are", "used", "to", "provide", "more", "stealthy", "execution", "." ]

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[ "After", "the", "VM", "code", "has", "checked", "again", "the", "user", "environment", ",", "it", "proceeds", "to", "extract", "and", "execute", "the", "final", "un-obfuscated", "payload", "sample", "directly", "into", "winlogon.exe", "(", "alternatively", ",", "into", "explorer.exe", ")", "process", "." ]

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[ "After", "the", "payload", "is", "extracted", ",", "decrypted", ",", "and", "mapped", "in", "the", "process", "memory", ",", "the", "malware", "calls", "the", "new", "DLL", "entry", "point", ",", "and", "then", "the", "RunDll", "exported", "function", "." ]

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[ "The", "latter", "implements", "the", "entire", "spyware", "program", "." ]

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[ "Stage", "6", ":", "The", "payload", "is", "a", "modular", "spyware", "framework", "for", "further", "analysis", "Our", "journey", "to", "deobfuscating", "FinFisher", "has", "allowed", "us", "to", "uncover", "the", "complex", "anti-analysis", "techniques", "used", "by", "this", "malware", ",", "as", "well", "as", "to", "use", "this", "intel", "to", "protect", "our", "customers", ",", "which", "is", "our", "top", "priority", "." ]

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[ "Analysis", "of", "the", "additional", "spyware", "modules", "is", "future", "work", "." ]

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[ "It", "is", "evident", "that", "the", "ultimate", "goal", "of", "this", "program", "is", "to", "steal", "information", "." ]

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[ "The", "malware", "architecture", "is", "modular", ",", "which", "means", "that", "it", "can", "execute", "plugins", "." ]

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[ "The", "plugins", "are", "stored", "in", "its", "resource", "section", "and", "can", "be", "protected", "by", "the", "same", "VM", "." ]

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[ "The", "sample", "we", "analyzed", "in", "October", ",", "for", "example", ",", "contains", "a", "plugin", "that", "is", "able", "to", "spy", "on", "internet", "connections", ",", "and", "can", "even", "divert", "some", "SSL", "connections", "and", "steal", "data", "from", "encrypted", "traffic", "." ]

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[ "Some", "FinFisher", "variants", "incorporate", "an", "MBR", "rootkit", ",", "the", "exact", "purpose", "of", "which", "is", "not", "clear", "." ]

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[ "Quite", "possibly", ",", "this", "routine", "targets", "older", "platforms", "like", "Windows", "7", "and", "machines", "not", "taking", "advantage", "of", "hardware", "protections", "like", "UEFI", "and", "SecureBoot", ",", "available", "on", "Windows", "10", "." ]

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[ "Describing", "this", "additional", "piece", "of", "code", "in", "detail", "is", "outside", "the", "scope", "of", "this", "analysis", "and", "may", "require", "a", "new", "dedicated", "blog", "post", "." ]

[ 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 3, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 ]

[ "Defense", "against", "FinFisher", "Exposing", "as", "much", "of", "FinFisher", "’", "s", "riddles", "as", "possible", "during", "this", "painstaking", "analysis", "has", "allowed", "us", "to", "ensure", "our", "customers", "are", "protected", "against", "this", "advanced", "piece", "of", "malware", "." ]

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[ "Windows", "10", "S", "devices", "are", "naturally", "protected", "against", "FinFisher", "and", "other", "threats", "thanks", "to", "the", "strong", "code", "integrity", "policies", "that", "don", "’", "t", "allow", "unknown", "unsigned", "binaries", "to", "run", "(", "thus", "stopping", "FinFisher", "’", "s", "PE", "installer", ")", "or", "loaded", "(", "blocking", "FinFisher", "’", "s", "DLL", "persistence", ")", "." ]

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[ "On", "Windows", "10", ",", "similar", "code", "integrity", "policies", "can", "be", "configured", "using", "Windows", "Defender", "Application", "Control", "." ]

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[ "Office", "365", "Advanced", "Threat", "Protection", "secures", "mailboxes", "from", "email", "campaigns", "that", "use", "zero-day", "exploits", "to", "deliver", "threats", "like", "FinFisher", "." ]

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[ "Office", "365", "ATP", "blocks", "unsafe", "attachments", ",", "malicious", "links", ",", "and", "linked-to", "files", "using", "time-of-click", "protection", "." ]

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[ "Using", "intel", "from", "this", "research", ",", "we", "have", "made", "Office", "365", "ATP", "more", "resistant", "to", "FinFisher", "’", "s", "anti-sandbox", "checks", "." ]

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[ "Generic", "detections", ",", "advanced", "behavioral", "analytics", ",", "and", "machine", "learning", "technologies", "in", "Windows", "Defender", "Advanced", "Threat", "Protection", "detect", "FinFisher", "’", "s", "malicious", "behavior", "throughout", "the", "attack", "kill", "chain", "and", "alert", "SecOps", "personnel", "." ]

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[ "Windows", "Defender", "ATP", "also", "integrates", "with", "the", "Windows", "protection", "stack", "so", "that", "protections", "from", "Windows", "Defender", "AV", "and", "Windows", "Defender", "Exploit", "Guard", "are", "reported", "in", "Windows", "Defender", "ATP", "portal", ",", "enabling", "SecOps", "personnel", "to", "centrally", "manage", "security", ",", "and", "as", "well", "as", "promptly", "investigate", "and", "respond", "to", "hostile", "activity", "in", "the", "network", "." ]

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[ "We", "hope", "that", "this", "writeup", "of", "our", "journey", "through", "all", "the", "multiple", "layers", "of", "protection", ",", "obfuscation", ",", "and", "anti-analysis", "techniques", "of", "FinFisher", "will", "be", "useful", "to", "other", "researchers", "studying", "this", "malware", "." ]

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[ "We", "believe", "that", "an", "industry-wide", "collaboration", "and", "information-sharing", "is", "important", "in", "defending", "customers", "against", "this", "complex", "piece", "of", "malware", "." ]

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[ "TUESDAY", ",", "APRIL", "9", ",", "2019", "Gustuff", "banking", "botnet", "targets", "Australia", "EXECUTIVE", "SUMMARY", "Cisco", "Talos", "has", "uncovered", "a", "new", "Android-based", "campaign", "targeting", "Australian", "financial", "institutions", "." ]

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[ "As", "the", "investigation", "progressed", ",", "Talos", "came", "to", "understand", "that", "this", "campaign", "was", "associated", "with", "the", "\"", "ChristinaMorrow", "''", "text", "message", "spam", "scam", "previously", "spotted", "in", "Australia", "." ]

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[ "Although", "this", "malware", "'s", "credential-harvest", "mechanism", "is", "not", "particularly", "sophisticated", ",", "it", "does", "have", "an", "advanced", "self-preservation", "mechanism", "." ]

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[ "Even", "though", "this", "is", "not", "a", "traditional", "remote", "access", "tool", "(", "RAT", ")", ",", "this", "campaign", "seems", "to", "target", "mainly", "private", "users", "." ]

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[ "Aside", "from", "the", "credential", "stealing", ",", "this", "malware", "also", "includes", "features", "like", "the", "theft", "of", "users", "'", "contact", "list", ",", "collecting", "phone", "numbers", "associated", "names", ",", "and", "files", "and", "photos", "on", "the", "device", "." ]

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[ "But", "that", "does", "n't", "mean", "companies", "and", "organizations", "are", "out", "of", "the", "woods", "." ]

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[ "They", "should", "still", "be", "on", "the", "lookout", "for", "these", "kinds", "of", "trojans", ",", "as", "the", "attackers", "could", "target", "corporate", "accounts", "that", "contain", "large", "amounts", "of", "money", "." ]

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[ "The", "information", "collected", "by", "the", "malware", "and", "the", "control", "over", "the", "victim", "'s", "mobile", "device", "allows", "their", "operators", "to", "perform", "more", "complex", "social", "engineering", "attacks", "." ]

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[ "A", "motivated", "attacker", "can", "use", "this", "trojan", "to", "harvest", "usernames", "and", "passwords", "and", "then", "reuse", "them", "to", "login", "into", "the", "organization", "'s", "system", "where", "the", "victim", "works", "." ]

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[ "This", "is", "a", "good", "example", "where", "two-factor", "authentication", "based", "on", "SMS", "would", "fail", "since", "the", "attacker", "can", "read", "the", "SMS", "." ]

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[ "Corporations", "can", "protect", "themselves", "from", "these", "side-channel", "attacks", "by", "deploying", "client-based", "two-factor", "authentication", ",", "such", "as", "Duo", "Security", "." ]

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[ "One", "of", "the", "most", "impressive", "features", "of", "this", "malware", "is", "its", "resilience", "." ]

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[ "If", "the", "command", "and", "control", "(", "C2", ")", "server", "is", "taken", "down", ",", "the", "malicious", "operator", "can", "still", "recover", "the", "malware", "control", "by", "sending", "SMS", "messages", "directly", "to", "the", "infected", "devices", "." ]

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[ "This", "makes", "the", "taking", "down", "and", "recovery", "of", "the", "network", "much", "harder", "and", "poses", "a", "considerable", "challenge", "for", "defenders", "." ]

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[ "THE", "CAMPAIGN", "The", "malware", "'s", "primary", "infection", "vector", "is", "SMS", "." ]

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[ "Just", "like", "the", "old-school", "mail", "worms", "that", "used", "the", "victim", "'s", "address", "book", "to", "select", "the", "next", "victims", ",", "this", "banking", "trojan", "'s", "activation", "cycle", "includes", "the", "exfiltration", "of", "the", "victim", "'s", "address", "book", "." ]

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[ "The", "trojan", "will", "receive", "instructions", "from", "the", "C2", "to", "spread", "." ]

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[ "Spread", "command", "from", "C2", "The", "victim", "receives", "the", "command", "sendSMSMass", "." ]

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[ "Usually", ",", "this", "message", "targets", "four", "or", "five", "people", "at", "a", "time", "." ]

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[ "The", "body", "contains", "a", "message", "and", "URL", "." ]

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[ "Again", ",", "the", "concept", "is", "that", "new", "victims", "are", "more", "likely", "to", "install", "the", "malware", "if", "the", "SMS", "comes", "from", "someone", "they", "know", "." ]

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[ "When", "a", "victim", "tries", "to", "access", "the", "URL", "in", "the", "SMS", "body", ",", "the", "C2", "will", "check", "if", "the", "mobile", "device", "meets", "the", "criteria", "to", "receive", "the", "malware", "(", "see", "infrastructure", "section", ")", "." ]

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[ "If", "the", "device", "does", "not", "meet", "the", "criteria", ",", "it", "wo", "n't", "receive", "any", "data", ",", "otherwise", ",", "it", "will", "be", "redirected", "to", "a", "second", "server", "to", "receive", "a", "copy", "of", "the", "malware", "to", "install", "on", "their", "device", "." ]

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[ "The", "domain", "on", "this", "campaign", "was", "registered", "on", "Jan.", "19", ",", "2019", "." ]

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[ "However", ",", "Talos", "has", "identified", "that", "was", "used", "at", "least", "since", "November", "2018", "." ]

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[ "During", "the", "investigation", ",", "Talos", "was", "also", "able", "to", "determine", "that", "the", "same", "infrastructure", "has", "been", "used", "to", "deploy", "similar", "campaigns", "using", "different", "versions", "of", "the", "malware", "." ]

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[ "Distribution", "of", "victims", "." ]

[ 10, 10, 10, 10 ]

[ "Talos", "assess", "with", "high", "confidence", "that", "this", "campaign", "is", "targeting", "Australian", "financial", "institutions", "based", "on", "several", "factors", "." ]

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[ "Our", "Umbrella", "telemetry", "shows", "that", "the", "majority", "of", "the", "request", "comes", "from", "Australia", "and", "the", "majority", "of", "the", "phone", "numbers", "infected", "have", "the", "international", "indicative", "for", "Australia", "." ]

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[ "Finally", ",", "the", "specific", "overlays", "are", "designed", "for", "Australian", "financial", "institutions", ",", "and", "Australia", "is", "one", "of", "the", "geographic", "regions", "that", "is", "accepted", "by", "the", "C2", "." ]

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[ "DNS", "queries", "distribution", "over", "time", "The", "campaign", "does", "n't", "seem", "to", "be", "growing", "at", "a", "fast", "pace", "." ]

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[ "Our", "data", "shows", ",", "on", "average", ",", "about", "three", "requests", "per", "hour", "to", "the", "drop", "host", "." ]

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[ "This", "request", "is", "only", "made", "upon", "installation", ",", "but", "there", "is", "no", "guarantee", "that", "it", "will", "be", "installed", "." ]

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[ "This", "data", ",", "when", "analyzed", "with", "the", "number", "of", "commands", "to", "send", "SMSs", "that", "Talos", "received", "during", "the", "investigation", ",", "lead", "us", "to", "conclude", "that", "the", "malicious", "operator", "is", "aggressively", "spreading", "the", "malware", ",", "but", "that", "does", "n't", "seem", "to", "result", "in", "the", "same", "number", "of", "new", "infections", "." ]

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[ "Examples", "of", "the", "overlays", "available", "to", "the", "malware", "Above", ",", "you", "can", "see", "examples", "of", "the", "injections", "that", "distributed", "to", "the", "malware", "as", "part", "of", "this", "specific", "campaign", "." ]

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[ "While", "doing", "our", "investigation", "we", "were", "able", "to", "identify", "other", "malware", "packages", "with", "different", "names", "." ]

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[ "Some", "of", "these", "might", "have", "been", "used", "on", "old", "campaigns", "or", "were", "already", "prepared", "for", "new", "campaigns", "." ]

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[ "MALWARE", "TECHNICAL", "DETAILS", "During", "our", "investigation", ",", "researchers", "uncovered", "a", "malware", "known", "as", "\"", "Gustuff.", "''", "." ]

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[ "Given", "the", "lack", "of", "indicators", "of", "compromise", ",", "we", "decided", "to", "check", "to", "see", "if", "this", "was", "the", "same", "malware", "we", "had", "been", "researching", "." ]

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[ "Our", "Threat", "Intelligence", "and", "Interdiction", "team", "found", "the", "Gustuff", "malware", "being", "advertised", "in", "the", "Exploit.in", "forum", "as", "a", "botnet", "for", "rent", "." ]

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[ "The", "seller", ",", "known", "as", "\"", "bestoffer", ",", "''", "was", ",", "at", "some", "point", ",", "expelled", "from", "the", "forum", "." ]

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[ "The", "screenshots", "provided", "by", "the", "author", "align", "with", "the", "advertised", "features", "and", "the", "features", "that", "we", "discovered", "while", "doing", "our", "analysis", "." ]

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[ "Admin", "panel", "The", "administration", "panel", "shows", "the", "application", "configuration", ",", "which", "matches", "the", "commands", "from", "the", "C2", "." ]

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[ "Country", "selection", "The", "administration", "console", "screenshots", "also", "show", "the", "ability", "to", "filter", "the", "results", "by", "country", "." ]

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[ "In", "this", "case", ",", "\"", "AU", "''", "is", "the", "code", "shown", ",", "which", "is", "Australia", "." ]

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[ "Based", "on", "this", "information", ",", "Talos", "assesses", "with", "high", "confidence", "that", "the", "malware", "is", "the", "same", "and", "this", "is", ",", "in", "fact", ",", "the", "Gustuff", "malware", "." ]

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[ "Design", "In", "the", "manifest", ",", "the", "malware", "requests", "a", "large", "number", "of", "permissions", "." ]

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[ "However", ",", "it", "does", "n't", "request", "permissions", "like", "BIND_ADMIN", "." ]

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[ "To", "perform", "some", "of", "its", "activities", ",", "the", "malware", "does", "not", "need", "high", "privileges", "inside", "the", "device", ",", "as", "we", "will", "explain", "ahead", "." ]

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[ "Permissions", "in", "the", "manifest", "This", "malware", "is", "designed", "to", "avoid", "detection", "and", "analysis", "." ]

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