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Mirai Botnet Exploits Ivanti Connect Secure Flaws for Malicious Payload Delivery

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Gftrace - A Command Line Windows API Tracing Tool For Golang Binaries

A command line Windows API tracing tool for Golang binaries.

Note: This tool is a PoC and a work-in-progress prototype so please treat it as such. Feedbacks are always welcome!

How it works?

Although Golang programs contains a lot of nuances regarding the way they are built and their behavior in runtime they still need to interact with the OS layer and that means at some point they do need to call functions from the Windows API.

The Go runtime package contains a function called asmstdcall and this function is a kind of "gateway" used to interact with the Windows API. Since it's expected this function to call the Windows API functions we can assume it needs to have access to information such as the address of the function and it's parameters, and this is where things start to get more interesting.

Asmstdcall receives a single parameter which is pointer to something similar to the following structure:

struct LIBCALL {
    DWORD_PTR Addr;
    DWORD Argc;
    DWORD_PTR Argv;
    DWORD_PTR ReturnValue;

    [...]
}

Some of these fields are filled after the API function is called, like the return value, others are received by asmstdcall, like the function address, the number of arguments and the list of arguments. Regardless when those are set it's clear that the asmstdcall function manipulates a lot of interesting information regarding the execution of programs compiled in Golang.

The gftrace leverages asmstdcall and the way it works to monitor specific fields of the mentioned struct and log it to the user. The tool is capable of log the function name, it's parameters and also the return value of each Windows function called by a Golang application. All of it with no need to hook a single API function or have a signature for it.

The tool also tries to ignore all the noise from the Go runtime initialization and only log functions called after it (i.e. functions from the main package).

If you want to know more about this project and research check the blogpost.

Installation

Download the latest release.

Usage

1. Make sure gftrace.exe, gftrace.dll and gftrace.cfg are in the same directory.
2. Specify which API functions you want to trace in the gftrace.cfg file (the tool does not work without API filters applied).
3. Run gftrace.exe passing the target Golang program path as a parameter.

gftrace.exe <filepath> <params>

Configuration

All you need to do is specify which functions you want to trace in the gftrace.cfg file, separating it by comma with no spaces:

CreateFileW,ReadFile,CreateProcessW

The exact Windows API functions a Golang method X of a package Y would call in a specific scenario can only be determined either by analysis of the method itself or trying to guess it. There's some interesting characteristics that can be used to determine it, for example, Golang applications seems to always prefer to call functions from the "Wide" and "Ex" set (e.g. CreateFileW, CreateProcessW, GetComputerNameExW, etc) so you can consider it during your analysis.

The default config file contains multiple functions in which I tested already (at least most part of them) and can say for sure they can be called by a Golang application at some point. I'll try to update it eventually.

Examples

Tracing CreateFileW() and ReadFile() in a simple Golang file that calls "os.ReadFile" twice:

- CreateFileW("C:\Users\user\Desktop\doc.txt", 0x80000000, 0x3, 0x0, 0x3, 0x1, 0x0) = 0x168 (360)
- ReadFile(0x168, 0xc000108000, 0x200, 0xc000075d64, 0x0) = 0x1 (1)
- CreateFileW("C:\Users\user\Desktop\doc2.txt", 0x80000000, 0x3, 0x0, 0x3, 0x1, 0x0) = 0x168 (360)
- ReadFile(0x168, 0xc000108200, 0x200, 0xc000075d64, 0x0) = 0x1 (1)

Tracing CreateProcessW() in the TunnelFish malware:

- CreateProcessW("C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe", "powershell /c "Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.SnapIn; Get-Recipient | Select Name -ExpandProperty EmailAddresses -first 1 | Select SmtpAddress |  ft -hidetableheaders"", 0x0, 0x0, 0x1, 0x80400, "=C:=C:\Users\user\Desktop", 0x0, 0xc0000ace98, 0xc0000acd68) = 0x1 (1)
- CreateProcessW("C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe", "powershell /c "Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.SnapIn; Get-Recipient | Select Name -ExpandProperty EmailAddresses -first 1 | Select SmtpAddress |  ft -hidetableheaders"", 0x0, 0x0, 0x1, 0x80400, "=C:=C:\Users\user\Desktop", 0x0, 0xc0000c4ec8, 0xc0000c4d98) = 0x1 (1)
- CreateProcessW("C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe", "powershell /c "Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.SnapIn; Get-Recipient | Select Name -ExpandProperty EmailAddresses -first 1 | Select SmtpAddres   s |  ft -hidetableheaders"", 0x0, 0x0, 0x1, 0x80400, "=C:=C:\Users\user\Desktop", 0x0, 0xc00005eec8, 0xc00005ed98) = 0x1 (1)
- CreateProcessW("C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe", "powershell /c "Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.SnapIn; Get-Recipient | Select Name -ExpandProperty EmailAddresses -first 1 | Select SmtpAddress |  ft -hidetableheaders"", 0x0, 0x0, 0x1, 0x80400, "=C:=C:\Users\user\Desktop", 0x0, 0xc0000bce98, 0xc0000bcd68) = 0x1 (1)
- CreateProcessW("C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe", "cmd /c "wmic computersystem get domain"", 0x0, 0x0, 0x1, 0x80400, "=C:=C:\Users\user\Desktop", 0x0, 0xc0000c4ef0, 0xc0000c4dc0) = 0x1 (1)
- CreateProcessW("C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe", "cmd /c "wmic computersystem get domain"", 0x0, 0x0, 0x1, 0x80400, "=C:=C:\Users\user\Desktop", 0x0, 0xc0000acec0, 0xc0000acd90) = 0x1 (1)
- CreateProcessW("C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe", "cmd /c "wmic computersystem get domain"", 0x0, 0x0, 0x1, 0x80400,    "=C:=C:\Users\user\Desktop", 0x0, 0xc0000bcec0, 0xc0000bcd90) = 0x1 (1)

[...]

Tracing multiple functions in the Sunshuttle malware:

- CreateFileW("config.dat.tmp", 0x80000000, 0x3, 0x0, 0x3, 0x1, 0x0) = 0xffffffffffffffff (-1)
- CreateFileW("config.dat.tmp", 0xc0000000, 0x3, 0x0, 0x2, 0x80, 0x0) = 0x198 (408)
- CreateFileW("config.dat.tmp", 0xc0000000, 0x3, 0x0, 0x3, 0x80, 0x0) = 0x1a4 (420)
- WriteFile(0x1a4, 0xc000112780, 0xeb, 0xc0000c79d4, 0x0) = 0x1 (1)
- GetAddrInfoW("reyweb.com", 0x0, 0xc000031f18, 0xc000031e88) = 0x0 (0)
- WSASocketW(0x2, 0x1, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x81) = 0x1f0 (496)
- WSASend(0x1f0, 0xc00004f038, 0x1, 0xc00004f020, 0x0, 0xc00004eff0, 0x0) = 0x0 (0)
- WSARecv(0x1f0, 0xc00004ef60, 0x1, 0xc00004ef48, 0xc00004efd0, 0xc00004ef18, 0x0) = 0xffffffff (-1)
- GetAddrInfoW("reyweb.com", 0x0, 0xc000031f18, 0xc000031e88) = 0x0 (0)
- WSASocketW(0x2, 0x1, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x81) = 0x200 (512)
- WSASend(0x200, 0xc00004f2b8, 0x1, 0xc00004f2a0, 0x0, 0xc00004f270, 0x0) = 0x0 (0)
- WSARecv(0x200, 0xc00004f1e0, 0x1, 0xc00004f1c8, 0xc00004f250, 0xc00004f198, 0x0)    = 0xffffffff (-1)

[...]

Tracing multiple functions in the DeimosC2 framework agent:

- WSASocketW(0x2, 0x1, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x81) = 0x130 (304)
- setsockopt(0x130, 0xffff, 0x20, 0xc0000b7838, 0x4) = 0xffffffff (-1)
- socket(0x2, 0x1, 0x6) = 0x138 (312)
- WSAIoctl(0x138, 0xc8000006, 0xaf0870, 0x10, 0xb38730, 0x8, 0xc0000b746c, 0x0, 0x0) = 0x0 (0)
- GetModuleFileNameW(0x0, "C:\Users\user\Desktop\samples\deimos.exe", 0x400) = 0x2f (47)
- GetUserProfileDirectoryW(0x140, "C:\Users\user", 0xc0000b7a08) = 0x1 (1)
- LookupAccountSidw(0x0, 0xc00000e250, "user", 0xc0000b796c, "DESKTOP-TEST", 0xc0000b7970, 0xc0000b79f0) = 0x1 (1)
- NetUserGetInfo("DESKTOP-TEST", "user", 0xa, 0xc0000b7930) = 0x0 (0)
- GetComputerNameExW(0x5, "DESKTOP-TEST", 0xc0000b7b78) = 0x1 (1)
- GetAdaptersAddresses(0x0, 0x10, 0x0, 0xc000120000, 0xc0000b79d0) = 0x0 (0)
- CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(0x2, 0x0) = 0x1b8 (440)
- GetCurrentProcessId() = 0x2584 (9604)
- GetCurrentDirectoryW(0x12c, "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\retoolkit\bin") = 0x39 (57   )

[...]

Future features:

• [x] Support inspection of 32 bits files.
• [x] Add support to files calling functions via the "IAT jmp table" instead of the API call directly in asmstdcall.
• [x] Add support to cmdline parameters for the target process
• [ ] Send the tracing log output to a file by default to make it better to filter. Currently there's no separation between the target file and gftrace output. An alternative is redirect gftrace output to a file using the command line.

:warning: Warning

• The tool inspects the target binary dynamically and it means the file being traced is executed. If you're inspecting a malware or an unknown software please make sure you do it in a controlled environment.
• Golang programs can be very noisy depending the file and/or function being traced (e.g. VirtualAlloc is always called multiple times by the runtime package, CreateFileW is called multiple times before a call to CreateProcessW, etc). The tool ignores the Golang runtime initialization noise but after that it's up to the user to decide what functions are better to filter in each scenario.

License

The gftrace is published under the GPL v3 License. Please refer to the file named LICENSE for more information.

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The U.S. government on Thursday published a new cybersecurity advisory warning of North Korean threat actors' attempts to send emails in a manner that makes them appear like they are from legitimate and trusted parties. The joint bulletin was published by the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of State. "The

REvil Ransomware Scum Gets 14 Years, $16 Million Fine

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CrimsonEDR - Simulate The Behavior Of AV/EDR For Malware Development Training

CrimsonEDR is an open-source project engineered to identify specific malware patterns, offering a tool for honing skills in circumventing Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). By leveraging diverse detection methods, it empowers users to deepen their understanding of security evasion tactics.

Features

Detection	Description
Direct Syscall	Detects the usage of direct system calls, often employed by malware to bypass traditional API hooks.
NTDLL Unhooking	Identifies attempts to unhook functions within the NTDLL library, a common evasion technique.
AMSI Patch	Detects modifications to the Anti-Malware Scan Interface (AMSI) through byte-level analysis.
ETW Patch	Detects byte-level alterations to Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), commonly manipulated by malware to evade detection.
PE Stomping	Identifies instances of PE (Portable Executable) stomping.
Reflective PE Loading	Detects the reflective loading of PE files, a technique employed by malware to avoid static analysis.
Unbacked Thread Origin	Identifies threads originating from unbacked memory regions, often indicative of malicious activity.
Unbacked Thread Start Address	Detects threads with start addresses pointing to unbacked memory, a potential sign of code injection.
API hooking	Places a hook on the NtWriteVirtualMemory function to monitor memory modifications.
Custom Pattern Search	Allows users to search for specific patterns provided in a JSON file, facilitating the identification of known malware signatures.

Installation

To get started with CrimsonEDR, follow these steps:

1. Install dependancy: bash sudo apt-get install gcc-mingw-w64-x86-64
2. Clone the repository: bash git clone https://github.com/Helixo32/CrimsonEDR
3. Compile the project: bash cd CrimsonEDR; chmod +x compile.sh; ./compile.sh

⚠️ Warning

Windows Defender and other antivirus programs may flag the DLL as malicious due to its content containing bytes used to verify if the AMSI has been patched. Please ensure to whitelist the DLL or disable your antivirus temporarily when using CrimsonEDR to avoid any interruptions.

Usage

To use CrimsonEDR, follow these steps:

1. Make sure the ioc.json file is placed in the current directory from which the executable being monitored is launched. For example, if you launch your executable to monitor from C:\Users\admin\, the DLL will look for ioc.json in C:\Users\admin\ioc.json. Currently, ioc.json contains patterns related to msfvenom. You can easily add your own in the following format:

{
  "IOC": [
    ["0x03", "0x4c", "0x24", "0x08", "0x45", "0x39", "0xd1", "0x75"],
    ["0xf1", "0x4c", "0x03", "0x4c", "0x24", "0x08", "0x45", "0x39"],
    ["0x58", "0x44", "0x8b", "0x40", "0x24", "0x49", "0x01", "0xd0"],
    ["0x66", "0x41", "0x8b", "0x0c", "0x48", "0x44", "0x8b", "0x40"],
    ["0x8b", "0x0c", "0x48", "0x44", "0x8b", "0x40", "0x1c", "0x49"],
    ["0x01", "0xc1", "0x38", "0xe0", "0x75", "0xf1", "0x4c", "0x03"],
    ["0x24", "0x49", "0x01", "0xd0", "0x66", "0x41", "0x8b", "0x0c"],
    ["0xe8", "0xcc", "0x00", "0x00", "0x00", "0x41", "0x51", "0x41"]
  ]
}

1. Execute CrimsonEDRPanel.exe with the following arguments:

   • -d <path_to_dll>: Specifies the path to the CrimsonEDR.dll file.

   • -p <process_id>: Specifies the Process ID (PID) of the target process where you want to inject the DLL.

For example:

.\CrimsonEDRPanel.exe -d C:\Temp\CrimsonEDR.dll -p 1234

Useful Links

Here are some useful resources that helped in the development of this project:

• Windows Processes, Nefarious Anomalies, and You
• MalDev Academy

Contact

For questions, feedback, or support, please reach out to me via:

• Discord : helixo32
• LinkedIn : Matthias Ossard

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A new ongoing malware campaign has been observed distributing three different stealers, such as CryptBot, LummaC2, and Rhadamanthys hosted on Content Delivery Network (CDN) cache domains since at least February 2024. Cisco Talos has attributed the activity with moderate confidence to a threat actor tracked as CoralRaider, a suspected Vietnamese-origin

Russia's APT28 Exploited Windows Print Spooler Flaw to Deploy 'GooseEgg' Malware

The Russia-linked nation-state threat actor tracked as APT28 weaponized a security flaw in the Microsoft Windows Print Spooler component to deliver a previously unknown custom malware called GooseEgg. The post-compromise tool, which is said to have been used since at least June 2020 and possibly as early as April 2019, leveraged a now-patched flaw that allowed for

Researchers Uncover Windows Flaws Granting Hackers Rootkit-Like Powers

New research has found that the DOS-to-NT path conversion process could be exploited by threat actors to achieve rootkit-like capabilities to conceal and impersonate files, directories, and processes. "When a user executes a function that has a path argument in Windows, the DOS path at which the file or folder exists is converted to an NT path," SafeBreach security researcher Or Yair said&

Microsoft Warns: North Korean Hackers Turn to AI-Fueled Cyber Espionage

Microsoft has revealed that North Korea-linked state-sponsored cyber actors have begun to use artificial intelligence (AI) to make their operations more effective and efficient. "They are learning to use tools powered by AI large language models (LLM) to make their operations more efficient and effective," the tech giant said in its latest report on East Asia hacking groups. The

New RedLine Stealer Variant Disguised as Game Cheats Using Lua Bytecode for Stealth

A new information stealer has been found leveraging Lua bytecode for added stealth and sophistication, findings from McAfee Labs reveal. The cybersecurity firm has assessed it to be a variant of a known malware called RedLine Stealer owing to the fact that the command-and-control (C2) server IP address has been previously identified as associated with the malware. RedLine Stealer,&nbsp

BlackTech Targets Tech, Research, and Gov Sectors New 'Deuterbear' Tool

Technology, research, and government sectors in the Asia-Pacific region have been targeted by a threat actor called BlackTech as part of a recent cyber attack wave. The intrusions pave the way for an updated version of modular backdoor dubbed Waterbear as well as its enhanced successor referred to as Deuterbear. Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro is tracking the

Hackers Target Middle East Governments with Evasive "CR4T" Backdoor

Government entities in the Middle East have been targeted as part of a previously undocumented campaign to deliver a new backdoor dubbed CR4T. Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky said it discovered the activity in February 2024, with evidence suggesting that it may have been active since at least a year prior. The campaign has been codenamed 

Russia's Sandworm APT Linked To Attack On Texas Water Plant

OfflRouter Malware Evades Detection in Ukraine for Almost a Decade

Select Ukrainian government networks have remained infected with a malware called OfflRouter since 2015. Cisco Talos said its findings are based on an analysis of over 100 confidential documents that were infected with the VBA macro virus and uploaded to the VirusTotal malware scanning platform since 2018. More than 20 such documents have been uploaded since 2022. "The documents contained VBA

FIN7 Cybercrime Group Targeting U.S. Auto Industry with Carbanak Backdoor

The infamous cybercrime syndicate known as FIN7 has been linked to a spear-phishing campaign targeting the U.S. automotive industry to deliver a known backdoor called Carbanak (aka Anunak). "FIN7 identified employees at the company who worked in the IT department and had higher levels of administrative rights," the BlackBerry research and intelligence team said in a new write-up. "They

How to Conduct Advanced Static Analysis in a Malware Sandbox

Sandboxes are synonymous with dynamic malware analysis. They help to execute malicious files in a safe virtual environment and observe their behavior. However, they also offer plenty of value in terms of static analysis. See these five scenarios where a sandbox can prove to be a useful tool in your investigations. Detecting Threats in PDFs PDF files are frequently exploited by threat actors to

New Android Trojan 'SoumniBot' Evades Detection with Clever Tricks

A new Android trojan called SoumniBot has been detected in the wild targeting users in South Korea by leveraging weaknesses in the manifest extraction and parsing procedure. The malware is "notable for an unconventional approach to evading analysis and detection, namely obfuscation of the Android manifest," Kaspersky researcher Dmitry Kalinin said in a technical analysis.

Malicious Google Ads Pushing Fake IP Scanner Software with Hidden Backdoor

A new Google malvertising campaign is leveraging a cluster of domains mimicking a legitimate IP scanner software to deliver a previously unknown backdoor dubbed MadMxShell. "The threat actor registered multiple look-alike domains using a typosquatting technique and leveraged Google Ads to push these domains to the top of search engine results targeting specific search keywords, thereby

Recent OT And Espionage Attacks Linked To Russia's Sandworm, Now Named APT44

Russian APT Deploys New 'Kapeka' Backdoor in Eastern European Attacks

A previously undocumented "flexible" backdoor called Kapeka has been "sporadically" observed in cyber attacks targeting Eastern Europe, including Estonia and Ukraine, since at least mid-2022. The findings come from Finnish cybersecurity firm WithSecure, which attributed the malware to the Russia-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) group tracked as Sandworm (aka APT44 or

Cisco Warns of Global Surge in Brute-Force Attacks Targeting VPN and SSH Services

Cisco is warning about a global surge in brute-force attacks targeting various devices, including Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, web application authentication interfaces, and SSH services, since at least March 18, 2024. "These attacks all appear to be originating from TOR exit nodes and a range of other anonymizing tunnels and proxies," Cisco Talos said. Successful attacks could