In a previous article we have introduced malware ‘TSCookie’, which is assumedly used by an attacker group BlackTech. We have been observing continuous attack activities using the malware until now. In the investigation of an attack observed around August 2018, we have confirmed that there was an update in the malware. There are two points meriting attention in this update: Communication with CC server Decoding configuration information This article will...
List of “朝長 秀誠 (Shusei Tomonaga)”
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Some malware is designed to run on multiple platforms, and most commonly they are written in Java. For example, Adwind malware (introduced in a past article) is written in Java, and it runs on Windows and other OS. Golang is another programming language, and it is used for Mirai controller, which infects Linux systems. This article introduces the behaviour of WellMess malware based on our observation. It is a type...
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In a past article, we introduced TSCookie, malware which seems to be used by BlackTech[1]. It has been revealed that this actor also uses another type of malware “PLEAD”. (“PLEAD” is referred to both as a name of malware including TSCookie and its attack campaign [2]. In this article, we refer to “PLEAD” as a type malware apart from TSCookie.) PLEAD has two kinds – RAT (Remote Access Tool) and...
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Around 17 January 2018, there were some reports on the social media about malicious emails purporting to be from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan [1]. This email contains a URL leading to a malware called “TSCookie”. (Trend Micro calls it “PLEAD” malware [2]. Since PLEAD is also referred to as an attack campaign, we call this malware TSCookie in this article.) TSCookie has been observed...
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In the recent article, we introduced the concept and the use of "LogonTracer", a tool to support Windows event log analysis. This article presents how unauthorised logon attempts can be identified using this tool. Please refer to the Wiki for LogonTracer installation. Points for Investigation LogonTracer serves as a tool to support the log analysis rather than to detect unauthorised logon itself. For an effective investigation using this tool, we...
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In June 2017, JPCERT/CC released a report “Detecting Lateral Movement through Tracking Event Logs” on tools and commands that are likely used by attackers in lateral movement, and traces that are left on Windows OS as a result of such tool/command execution. After the release, we received a lot of feedback on the report, and until now we had been working on the revision based on the comments. Today, we...
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Hello again, this is Shusei Tomonaga from the Analysis Center. Event log analysis is a key element in security incident investigation. If a network is managed by Active Directory (hereafter, AD), can be identified by analysing AD event logs. For such investigation, it is quite difficult to conduct detailed analysis in AD event viewer; it is rather common to export the logs to text format or import them into SIEM/log...
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In a past article, we introduced “impfuzzy for Neo4j”, a tool to visualise results of malware clustering (developed by JPCERT/CC). In this article, we will show the result of clustering Emdivi using the tool. Emdivi had been seen until around 2015 in targeted attacks against Japanese organisations. For more information about Emdivi, please refer to JPCERT/CC’s report. Clustering Emdivi with impfuzzy for Neo4j Emdivi has two major variants - t17...
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JPCERT/CC has been seeing a number of APT intrusions where attackers compromise a host with malware then moving laterally inside network in order to steal confidential information. For lateral movement, attackers use tools downloaded on infected hosts and Windows commands. In incident investigation, traces of tool and command executions are examined through logs. For an effective incident investigation, a reference about logs recorded upon tool and command executions would be...
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Our previous blog entry introduced details of RedLeaves, a type of malware used for targeted attacks. Since then, we’ve seen reports including those from US-CERT that Management Service Providers (MSPs) have been targeted [1] [2]. In the US-CERT report, some instances have been identified where RedLeaves malware has only been found within memory with no on-disk evidence because of the behavior of self-elimination after the infection. To verify the infection...
