The cybercriminal organization responsible for the infamous DNSpionage malware campaign has been discovered running a new, sophisticated operation that infects select victims with a new DNSpionage variant.
DNSpionage is a custom remote administrative tool that uses HTTP and DNS communication to communicate with the attacker-controlled command and control server. It was discovered for the first time in November of last year.
According to a new report by Cisco’s Talos threat research team, the group has adopted new tactics, techniques, and procedures to increase the effectiveness of its operations, making its cyber attacks more targeted, organized, and sophisticated.
In contrast to previous campaigns, attackers have begun conducting reconnaissance on their victims before infecting them with a new piece of malware dubbed Karkoff, allowing them to choose which targets to infect selectively to remain undetected.
The researchers state, “We identified infrastructure overlaps in the DNSpionage and Karkoff cases.”
During the Reconnaissance phase, attackers collect system information regarding the victim’s workstation environment, operating system, domain, and list of running processes.
“The malware searches for the Avira and Avast anti-virus programs. If one of these security products is identified as installed on the system during the reconnaissance phase, a specific flag will be set and certain configuration file options will be ignored “researchers state.
Developed in.NET, Karkoff enables remote code execution on compromised hosts from an attacker’s command and control server. Earlier this month, Cisco Talos identified Karpoff as undocumented malware.
What is interesting is that the Karkoff malware generates a log file containing a list of all commands it has executed along with a timestamp on the victim’s system.
The researchers explain, “This log file can be easily used to generate a timeline of command execution, which can be extremely useful when responding to this type of threat.”
“As a result, an organization infected with this malware would be able to review the log file and identify the commands executed against them.”
Similar to the previous DNSpionage campaign, the most recent attacks target the Middle East, including Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In addition to disabling macros and employing trustworthy antivirus software, you should remain vigilant and educate yourself about social engineering techniques to reduce the likelihood of falling victim to such attacks.
Due to several public reports of DNS hijacking attacks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an “emergency directive” earlier this year requiring all federal agencies’ IT staff to audit DNS records for their respective website domains or other agency-managed domains.
