The worm's first order of business is to contact the site hosting the malicious content. This particular variant of this threat phoned home to http:// 513389.cn/kk.txt. Once there it downloads 34 executable files, the last of which being okok.exe. Once okok.exe is saved to the infected machine as C:\Windows\System32\Microsoft\svchost.exe it sends out an ARP broadcast to map the network.


Svchost.exe (okok.exe) sends out an ARP broadcast across the network.

After that it's only a matter of time until more and more computers on the network start displaying similar network activity. We detect this threat as OkOk.

Upon firing up the "program" (which is actually a batch file, giving some hint as to the actual nature of the payload), the user sees this:

Seems to good to be true, doesn't it? Sure enough, a few seconds later and...

At this point, the end-user silly enough to run this file is probably thinking their PC is going to go up in flames - however, nothing actually happens and your PC will continue to function as normal. Has someone created this to deter wannabe hackers from jumping on the "steal everything" bandwagon? Or is this just a gag by hackers at the expense of noobish newcomers?

(Additional Research: Deepak Setty, FSL Senior Threat Research Engineer)

Subject: UN Diplomatic Passport & Swiss Private Bank Accounts

Through our long time reliable and trusted contacts at governmental level, we are finally able to offer a genuine United Nations Diplomatic appointment and passport from a respected UN member country. Also you can take apart in our Passport Programs for your Second Passport (even with New Identity).

I certainly was. Find out what happened after the jump...

As you do.

Something tells me this isn't Janet inviting me to sing with her at the next Superbowl...

....whoops. I doubt this is the start of an endless barrage of ringtone spam and free iPods, but it'll be interesting to see if I get anything else like this. Have spammers worked out a way to game Wayn? Have I just been lucky so far? Or have they only just started targeting the site? No idea. I'm still up for singing at the Superbowl though...

Clicking the "Sign In" button opens up a smaller popup - asking you to fill in your .NET Passport details. Of course, filling in your details will result in a fake "Service could not be found message". Once you leave the PC, the attacker happily wanders over, browses to the C Directory and steals your login details.

These programs seem to be flavour of the month at the moment...

Compare the fake application on the left with the real thing on the right, and note the differences:

Immediately, we can see that the real thing has a rounded curve at the top - the fake is blocky, and looks like a regular Windows application box. There's an "Inbox" link at the top when you start up the fake application - there isn't a link like that when firing up Google Talk for the first time. The Username / Password box is much lower down on the fake application, and (again) the real "Sign In" button is curved on the real application. Finally, you'll see "Forgot your account / Don't have an account" on the genuine Google Talk program - not so on the fake.

How does this work?

Well, the program doesn't connect to the Internet - for this attack to be successful, the hacker needs physical access to a PC that lots of people use. Could be a workplace PC, could be in a school, library, Net Cafe - anywhere where it's possible to run an executable file then retreat to a safe distance while the potential victim sits down and thinks "Just need to check something on IM..."

Assuming the victim enters their login details into the fake application, they will immediately see a fake error message, and probably think no more of it:

Once they've finished whatever they were doing and left the PC, the attacker only has to sit down and browse to the C Drive where they'll see this:

As you probably guessed, any all login details typed into the fake application will be stored in this text file:

We detect this application as Fake Googletalk.

Research Summary Write-Up: Chris Boyd, Director of Malware Research
Additional Research: Chris Mannon, FSL Senior Threat Researcher

*cough*

Anyway, the fresh deluge of Viagra spam in my mailbox tells me the comments are now 100% up and running once more. I'm now going to sit in the corner and cross my fingers...

Well, read on to see an example of a DDoS tool riddled with memes just so it'll gain acceptance from the target audience (complete with built in radio and chat functionality, just to keep the "Partyvan" mentality going a little longer) after the jump. By the way, there's no getting around this - many Internet memes are (by their very nature) cruel, vile and offensive. This makes the nature of explaining some of these memes slightly tricky, and (as this is a safe for work blog) kind of makes it difficult to link to source material without making you go blind. As such, anything that might cause you boss to yell at you has been labeled not safe for work. And with that out of the way....

...uh. I had pegged this as a standard fake profile, but the addition of the personalised "Why, hello there" message wasn't something I'd seen before with one of these fake profile requests. A look at the profile, and...

.....strange - not the usual fake profile hurling adverts for ringtones, Adware and who-knows-what at me. It's a bit arty, a bit daring - certainly in your face, but for once, it's not adverts and scams in your face, and that's a refreshing change. Could it all go wrong with the "About Me" text though?

Apparently not. There's no mention of the latest Viagra pills or even a webcam. This is weird. It's almost too good to be true.

Almost.

Click anywhere on the page, and (courtesy of an invisible overlay)....

Doh! And we were doing so well for a while there...

Alternatively claiming to be a representative of Halifax Bank (or First Assist, an accident insurance company), they cold call their "target" and immediately start quizzing them for personal details, apparently without prompting.

There's three whole pages of puzzled individuals here, and another extremely interesting writeup about it here.

Note the selection of text files that accompany the program. We've seen a growing trend for hackers to leave copyright warnings on their programs, and messages of a similar nature elsewhere. Well, the all-out branding assault continues here:

....Belgium Power? Once they're done impressing you with the technical specs of the programs creation, they continue to hit you around the head with more information:

Once you fire up the Client, you can't help but be impressed by the clean, logical layout (very reminiscent of a spreadsheet, actually):

Even better, the desire for being properly credited for their work runs wild here:

According to that screenshot, they consider their Crew name to be a Trademark, and and program itself seems to be Copyrighted (All Rights Reserved). Creating the infection file is as simple as hitting the "Build It" button - when you see this, you're ready to start pushing your infection file to the masses.

Once the attacker has sent the infection file to the victim and convinced them to execute it on their PC, the attacker will be notified like so:

At that point, the attacker simply opens up the "spreadsheet" page and sees this:

The message says "Ready for action" - so very, very true. At this point, the attacker simply opens the "Passwords" tab, hits the "Get MSN Passwords" button and is presented with all the login details stored on the PC:

We detect this as PassHax.

Research Summary Write-Up: Chris Boyd, Director of Malware Research
Additional Research: Chris Mannon, FSL Senior Threat Researcher

As the title states, no need to panic - it's highly unlikely this is anything other than somebody harvesting accounts the old fashioned way then promoting an endless deluge of pill websites. Yes, Phishing sucks - but for now, it doesn't look like Pinont.com is the Herald of the End of Days or anything equally dramatic..

Well, a few months on and it looks like the BBC had a coder create an application (in three hours or less) that could swipe a whole pile of data on both you and your friends, before mailing it back home to base. I can't stress enough - when it comes to social networking sites, NEVER post anything you wouldn't feel comfortable posting on an otherwise open and accessible site such as your blog, personal website, whatever. I have pages on Myspace, Facebook, Orkut and a whole bunch of others - and there is NOTHING on them that you couldn't find elsewhere. There is no hidden treasure trove of data to mine, and so I don't care what happens to it because it's all out there in the public domain anyway. This is what I've been telling people for the longest time, and it works.

A few days ago, I talked about the oddly intrusive chat attack I experienced, and how FaceTime products can control / lock down / fire into orbit Facebook applications where necessary. To date, there haven't been any applications out there that have gone in and done all sorts of horrible and malicious things to end-users on Facebook. Personally, I've been more concerned about applications that allow people to post a seemingly endless and imaginative array of body parts in various comical situations. Nobody really wants that all over their desktop in a regular workplace environment, right? However, this seems to me to be a warning shot of sorts - a warning that we not only need to consider locking down applications that cause annoyance and embarrassment, but also to keep an ear to the ground as we await the inevitable arrival of the "I BREAK STUFF" application.

Coming soon to a Web 2.0 site near you...