Loads and loads of Locky today. We are seeing multiple subjects, emails and attachments. We are seeing XLS files and the typical .wsf files inside zips

They use email addresses and subjects that will entice a user to read the email and open the attachment. A very high proportion are being targeted at small and medium size businesses, with the hope of getting a better response than they do from consumers.

The first of the  emails looks like:

From: mpsmobile GmbH <info2353@mpsmobile.de>

Date: Mon 03/10/2016 09:38

Subject: Rechnung 2979-9073

Attachment: 7745_Rechnung_2979-9073_20161003.xls

Body content:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, anbei erhalten Sie das Dokument ‘Rechnung 2979-9073′ im XLS-Format. Um es betrachten und ausdrucken zu können, ist der Microsoft Excel erforderlich. Diesen können Sie sich kostenlos in der aktuellen Version aus dem Internet installieren. Mit freundlichen Grüssen mpsmobile Team ___________________________________ Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, please find attached document ”Rechnung 2979-9073’ im XLS-Format. To view and print these forms, you need the Microsoft Excel, which can be downloaded on the Internet free of charge. Best regards mpsmobile GmbH

mpsmobile GmbH Brühlstrasse 42 88416 Ochsenhausen Tel: +49 7352 923 23 0 Fax: +49 7352 923 23-29 Email: info@mpsmobile.de

Handelsregister Amstgericht ULM HRB 727290 Sitz der Gesellschaft: Ochsenhausen UStIDNr: DE 281079008

Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Adressat sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser Mail ist nicht gestattet.

The next email looks like:

From: KIETH WOOLDRIDGE <kieth.wooldridge.61@kimiabiosciences.com> ( random senders)

Date: Mon 03/10/2016 08:45

Subject: [Scan] 2016-1003 12:14:45

Attachment: 2016-1003 12-14-45.xls

Body content:

—

Sent with Genius Scan for iOS.

The 3rd version is:

From: Anita Ramsey <Ramsey.663@equestrianarts.org>  ( random senders)

Date: Mon 03/10/2016 09:51

Subject: please sign

Attachment: paperwork_scan_35886e2.zip  extracts to paperwork scan ~D45D50C5.wsf

Body content:

Hi [redacted], 

I have made the paperwork you asked me to prepare two days ago.

Please check the attachment. It just needs your signature. 

Best Wishes,

Anita Ramsey

Head of Corporate Relations

Update: A second big malspam run this afternoon UK time. Still using XLS attachments that are delivering the same Locky version as earlier today, from the same set of download locations .

From: invoices@icominstallation.com   ( invoices @ random companies)

Date: Mon 03/10/2016 15:03

Subject: Invoice-340086-77750895-106-C6493035

Attachment: 20161003_77750895_Invoice.xls

Body content:

Dear Customer, 

Please find attached Invoice 77750895 for your attention.

Should you have any Invoice related queries please do not hesitate to contact either your designated Credit Controller or the Main Credit Dept. on 01635 279370. 

For Pricing or other general enquiries please contact your local Sales Team.

Yours Faithfully, 

Credit Dept’ 

### This mail has been sent from an un-monitored mailbox ### 

 

MALWR [1] [2] [3]  | VirusTotal  [1][2][3]  downloads from http://mmm2.aaomg.com/jhg45s and   http://crossroadspd.com/jhg45s   which will be converted to siluans.dll  ( virustotal) or from ossiatzki.com/dyke9  which is converted to MMCnbLicrHhc.dll  ( virusTotal) |  Payload Security

Other sites so far discovered ( thanks to @_operations6_ ) in the siluans.dll version include:

monkeysdragon.net/jhg45s
gcandcbuilderssite.aaomg.com/jhg45s
hostmyimage.biz/jhg45s
inmopromo.com/jhg45s

http://maxleather.aaomg.com/jhg45s

These malicious attachments normally have a password stealing component, with the aim of stealing your bank, PayPal or other financial details along with your email or FTP ( web space) log in credentials. Many of them are also designed to specifically steal your Facebook and other social network log in details. A very high proportion are Ransomware versions that encrypt your files and demand money ( about £350/$400) to recover the files.

  All the alleged senders, amounts, reference numbers, Bank codes, companies, names of employees, employee positions, email addresses and phone numbers mentioned in the emails are all random. Some of these companies will exist and some won’t.  Don’t try to respond by phone or email, all you will do is end up with an innocent person or company who have had their details spoofed and picked at random from a long list that the bad guys have previously found. The bad guys choose companies, Government departments and organisations  with subjects that are designed to entice you or alarm you into blindly opening the attachment or clicking the link in the email to see what is happening.  

Please read our How to protect yourselves page for simple, sensible advice on how to avoid being infected by this sort of socially engineered malware.

 

Previous campaigns over the last few weeks have delivered numerous different download sites and malware versions. There are frequently 5 or 6 and even up to 150  download locations on some days, sometimes delivering the exactly same malware from all locations and sometimes slightly different malware versions. Dridex /Locky does update at frequent intervals during the day, sometimes as quickly as every hour, so you might get a different version of these nasty Ransomware or  Banking password stealer Trojans.

This is another one of the  files that unless you have “show known file extensions enabled“, can easily be mistaken for  a genuine  DOC / PDF / JPG or other common file instead of the .EXE / .JS file it really is, so making it much more likely for you to accidentally open it and be infected.

 Be very careful with email attachments. All of these emails use Social engineering tricks to persuade you to open the attachments that come with the email. Whether it is a message saying “look at this picture of me I took last night” and it appears to come from a friend or is more targeted at somebody who regularly is likely to receive PDF attachments or Word .doc attachments or any other common file that you use every day.

The basic rule is NEVER open any attachment to an email, unless you are expecting it. Now that is very easy to say but quite hard to put into practice, because we all get emails with files attached to them. Our friends and family  love to send us pictures of them doing silly things, or even cute pictures of the children or pets.

Never just blindly click on the file in your email program. Always save the file to your downloads folder, so you can check it first. Many malicious files that are attached to emails will have a faked extension. That is the 3 letters at the end of the file name. Unfortunately windows by default hides the file extensions so you need to Set your folder options to “show known file types. Then when you unzip the zip file that is supposed to contain the pictures of “Sally’s dog catching a ball” or a report in word document format that work has supposedly sent you to finish working on at the weekend, or an invoice or order confirmation from some company,  you can easily see if it is a picture or document & not a malicious program.

If you see .JS or .EXE or .COM or .PIF or .SCR or .HTA .vbs, .wsf , .jse  .jar at the end of the file name DO NOT click on it or try to open it, it will infect you.

While the malicious program is inside the zip file, it cannot harm you or automatically run. When it is just sitting unzipped in your downloads folder it won’t infect you, provided you don’t click it to run it. Just delete the zip and any extracted file and everything will be OK. You can always run a scan with your antivirus to be sure. There are some zip files that can be configured by the bad guys to automatically run the malware file when you double click the zip to extract the file. If you right click any suspicious zip file received, and select extract here or extract to folder ( after saving the zip to a folder on the computer) that risk is virtually eliminated. Never attempt to open a zip directly from your email, that is a guaranteed way to get infected. The best way is to just delete the unexpected zip and not risk any infection.

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