it looks like the malware bad actors are starting to get fed up with spoofing FedEx, USPS and UPS failed to deliver messages as a method distributing Locky and Kovter Trojans. This morning we noticed the start of a campaign using\u00a0\u00a0New notice to Appear in Court as the email subject. The attachments are identical to the Typical .JS, .WSF, .lnk file inside a double zip.<\/p>\n
All the sites seen so far today are the same sites used in the USPS, FedEx, UPS current campaigns<\/a>. \u00a0I am sure that both campaigns will continue side by side. It is very likely that different \u201caffiliates\u201d are using the same distribution network, but each one prefers a different email lure to gain victims.<\/p>\n The attachments all start with a zip named along the lines of Notice_00790613.zip<\/strong>\u00a0which contain another zip Notice_00790613.doc.zip<\/strong>\u00a0which in turn contains Notice_00790613.doc.js<\/strong><\/p>\n This is another one of the files that unless you have \u201cshow known file extensions enabled<\/a>\u201c, 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.<\/p>\n Recipients always panic when receiving these fake court notices, although I don\u2019t know of any courts in UK, USA or any other country who do send email notices of a court appearance, many courts will send email reminders of the date and time, as an additional service to plaintiffs and defendants. The speed of changes in Government and other official related communications, catches us all out. In the UK, it is\u00a0 a Government desire to deal with everything possible electronically over the internet to cut costs.<\/p>\n They use email addresses and subjects that will entice or scare a user to read the email and open the attachment.<\/p>\n 5 February 2017:\u00a0 Notice_00790613.doc.js Current Virus total detections<\/a>:\u00a0 Payload Security<\/a>\u00a0 Today\u2019s eventual downloads\u00a0 Locky ( VirusTotal<\/a>)\u00a0 Kovter ( VirusTotal<\/a>)<\/p>\n The infection process is described very well by this Microsoft blog post, which unfortunately is slightly out of date, because of the use of WSF and JS files instead of just .lnk files.<\/p>\n To streamline and explain in as few words as possible. The .JS\/.WSF\/LNK file contain 2 hardcoded URLS in this example today they are \u201cjaysonandfrisby.com and tynorris.com\u201d. The script file contacts the first in the list to download a txt file to user temp folder, which is deleted as soon as it is used , so no trace remains on the victim\u2019s computer, which is heavily obfuscated, but contains 5 hardcoded URLS.<\/p>\n This example is \u201cromiecoston.com\u201d,\u201dtynorris.com\u201d,\u201denginesovernight.com\u201d,\u201dcorporationregistry-online-form.com\u201d,\u201dhalforcman.com\u201d the script takes the first of those\u00a0URLs and \u00a0adds \/counter\/?1 and then \/counter\/?2 to the URL and downloads the Locky and Kovter Trojans. If any site is unavailable or the Trojan file is missing, then it moves on to the next one in the list. It will do this twice. so that makes 10 attempts to get the malware before giving up.<\/p>\n However the original sites in the .JS file also contain the malware so those are also checked and used. The sting in the tail however is that each site frequently has a combination of different URLs hardcoded, sometimes overlapping and sometimes completely different list of sites. All of the sites are listed on THIS post<\/a> as soon as I can discover them.\u00a0 All the sites contain the same Malware downloads of Kovter and Locky.<\/p>\n They do get updated frequently during the day. Sometimes as often as hourly, sometimes only once daily. We have seen the same malware versions staying live for approx. 48 hours on odd occasions, but I tend to notice changes and new versions \u00a0about every 8-10 hours. The downloaded files pretend to be .png ( image) files but in reality are renamed .exe files<\/p>\n One of the emails looks like:<\/p>\n From<\/strong>: www-root@cs6222.domain.com<\/p>\n Date<\/strong>: Sun 05\/02\/2017 02:12<\/p>\n Subject<\/strong>: New notice to Appear in Court<\/p>\n Attachment<\/strong>: Notice_00790613.zip<\/p>\n Body content<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Dear Sir or Madam,<\/em><\/p>\n This is to inform you to appear in the Court on the February 09.<\/em><\/p>\n Please prepare all the documents relating to the case and bring them on the specified date.<\/em><\/p>\n We attached the Notice to this e-mail.<\/em><\/p>\n Best regards,,<\/em><\/p>\n Court Secretary.<\/em><\/p>\n Screenshot<\/strong>:<\/p>\n All these malicious\u00a0emails\u00a0are either designed to steal your Passwords, Bank, PayPal or other financial details along with your email or FTP ( web space) log in credentials.\u00a0\u00a0Or they are\u00a0Ransomware versions that encrypt your files and demand large sums of money\u00a0 to recover the files.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t. Don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Please read our How to protect yourselves page<\/a> for simple, sensible advice on how to avoid being infected by this sort of socially engineered malware.<\/p>\n There are frequently\u00a0dozens or even hundreds of\u00a0different download locations, sometimes delivering the exactly same malware from all locations and sometimes slightly different malware versions from each one. Dridex, Locky and many other malwares\u00a0do 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 to the version we list here.<\/p>\n