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Trojan:Win32/Kovter is a well-known click-fraud malware which is challenging to detect and remove because of its file-less persistence on infected PCs. In this blog, we will share some technical details about the latest changes we have seen in Kovter’s persistence method and some updates on their latest malvertising campaigns. New persistence method Since June 2016,…
Read MoreRecently, we blogged about the basic functionality and features of the DUBNIUM advanced persistent threat (APT) activity group Stage 1 binary and Adobe Flash exploit used during the December 2015 incident (Part 1, Part 2). In this blog, we will go through the overall infection chain structure and the Stage 2 executable details. Stage 2 executables…
Read MoreAs part of our ongoing effort to provide better malware protection, the July 2016 release of the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) includes detection for Win32/Cerber, a prevalent ransomware family. The inclusion in MSRT complements our Cerber-specific family detections in Windows Defender, and our ransomware-dedicated cloud protection features. We started seeing Cerber in February…
Read MoreWe at the MMPC are constantly tracking new and emerging ransomware threats so we can be one step ahead of active campaigns and help protect our users. As part of these efforts, we recently came across a new variant of the Win32/Troldesh ransomware family. Ransomware, like most malware, is constantly trying to change itself in…
Read MoreRecently, we’ve seen reports of malicious files that misuse the legitimate Office object linking and embedding (OLE) capability to trick users into enabling and downloading malicious content. Previously, we’ve seen macros used in a similar matter, and this use of OLE might indicate a shift in behavior as administrators and enterprises are mitigating against this…
Read MoreWe are alerting Windows users of a new type of ransomware that exhibits worm-like behavior. This ransom leverages removable and network drives to propagate itself and affect more users. We detect this ransomware as Ransom:Win32/ZCryptor.A. Infection vector Ransom:Win32/ZCryptor.A is distributed through the spam email infection vector. It also gets installed in your machine through…
Read MoreWe recently came across a file (ORDER-549-6303896-2172940.docm, SHA1: 952d788f0759835553708dbe323fd08b5a33ec66) containing a VBA project that scripts a malicious macro (SHA1: 73c4c3869304a10ec598a50791b7de1e7da58f36). We added it under the detection TrojanDownloader:O97M/Donoff – a large family of Office-targeting macro-based malware that has been active for several years (see our blog category on macro-based malware for more blogs). However, there wasn’t…
Read MoreEarly this month, we saw a new ransomware family that launches a three-prong attempt to get you to hand over your hard-earned cash. Called “Cerber” (it replaces file extensions with .cerber), we like to think of this three-prong approach as a nod to the mythical multiple-headed hound, Cerberus. The attack starts with a text-to-speech (TTS) synthesized…
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