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Coinminer employing LOLBins and distributed with multiple unstained components

by Security News

SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Research team has observed a Coin Miner using multi-component approach.

 

Infection Cycle

Malware is delivered to victims as a self-extracting archive file which drops following two files:

    • nur.bat
    • wmine.exe (GNU wget tool)

nur.bat starts initially and makes provision for additional malware download and execution besides removing infection footprints. It uses wmine.exe to download OS specific additional malware file from remote location:

  • noloadXP.exe (Windows XP)
  • noloadnof.cab (OSes above XP)

noloadnof.cab contains a Base64 encoded executable file named “noloadn.crt” which is decrypted onto local storage as noloadn.exe, then executed.

 

Following command used to decrypt noloadn.exe :

  • certutil.exe -decode noloadn.crt noloadn.exe

Here noloadn.exe is an archive file packed using UPX 3.95. This noloadn.exe contains files such as, grim20.ime, grim40.ime, inst.bat, intl.bat, intlu.exe, mnzk12.dat, msletni.ime, nirco.exe, Resmin.exe, restr.exe, Ring, vget.exe.

 

Additional file information:

  • Resmin.exe and restr.exe are archive files, while grim20.ime, grim40.ime , msletni.ime are encoded cab files which later will be decoded by certutil tool and spawns executable out of it.
  • Vget.exe is a non-interactive network retriever Wget tool same as wmine.exe , malware author simply renamed Wget tool as wmine.exe and Vget.exe.
  • Nirco.exe is nothing but nircmd tool.
    By running NirCmd with simple command-line option, you can write and delete values and keys in the Registry, write values into INI file, dial to your internet account or connect to a VPN network, restart windows or shut down the computer, create shortcut to a file, change the created/modified date of a file, change your display settings, turn off your monitor, open the door of your CD-ROM drive, and more.
  • Ring is a .sys file which is later moved to system32 folder by renaming it as “WinRing0x64.sys”

 

 

                                            Fig1: commands present in nur.bat

 

 

                Fig2: Relationship between coin miner’s multiple components


System modifications

Following modifications are observed on the system after execution:

Files added:

 

Registries added:

 

SonicWall Capture Labs provides protection against this threat with the following signature:

  • GAV: Cheetah.MNR

 

Indicators of Compromise (IOC):  

  • MD5: 12154f30058cbdf167ed9d7eb1438ebe
  • SHA256: 4845254ed0e2d162d0e3bb95323ef106bd75bf24dc6d7b2371bab6704ae1c13c

Following are multiple components dropped by malware:

FileNameMd5
nur.bat8eefcaeed48be4eb4d6470330ccc24bf
wmine.exea9ff569c7cc92998180b0a5f9acac852
intelrp.exe11831c3dc5941b909a86d83211f0d591
renim.exe ( 32 bit )34611952dbbac503d1f1bdda5f5e5522
renim.exe ( 64 bit )4f0fca816bedb8f99ce764c1bff2e7df
grim20.ime5dcbf2fb0043e0e7432f916ecbdd11e0
grim40.ime425c2312cc45d22a187ee433a09f4179
inst.bat95e74880eb068314055507540b25a0a0
intl.bata322567b0553638fc9b9bd8d74e112c5
intlu.exef3ca8234f60eba24604b5a9390d2fed5
mnzk12.dat7829cb080d780f419ade0f031a66a985
msletni.imeb3bf512ffa11df457ed8c0c9b3c8133d
nirco.exeba07f81d94c84bfbae096b304a3a9206
Resmin.exee88cd2ecd091f6170e70eb73e90f8900
restr.exeb5cacef347a785d9cabbf0385a3c2717
Ring0c0195c48b6b8582fa6f6373032118da
vget.exe8eba146792a8a68c6e6992fee2071e23
dskdgnostbat.key4ac6e2af5db82b97717c4f1ab45bd1c5
dwdiag.cat6745b4829fa9f0195c730d849f6500ba
dwdiag32.catb9c240251c245f8e0ca7c1f54a6cdb5d
instll.batd3033eb75ff326cf03bcde41a75b3c7d
stp.bat79eb6c6f34ebc5c73fffea30cdcd7af2
subinacl.exe53cdbb093b0aee9fd6cf1cbd25a95077
zada4a.xml306d973bf0751c337e6239a58e35ff36
zada4a_descr.xmle0d29c37965bf8e40363113d02c3dd3d
hddsmart.bat31c029b19aa8b23223319e0f01a12545
hddsvc.exef3ca8234f60eba24604b5a9390d2fed5
ins.batded0a61a14b906b69fd9dc5fc46110a2
instsrv.exe7bc1928cd1d6ea2bce5fdb1fdeac0b3d
smarthdd.exe6eddcf70df22cd65b1cfa26de2513f32
DskDiag32.exe ( 32 bit)cbfdfcf530147abb18d9af84bb1736ae
DskDiag.exe ( 64 bit )7c74c7e6f478e28453e085adf6c2b298

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Security News

The SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Research Team gathers, analyzes and vets cross-vector threat information from the SonicWall Capture Threat network, consisting of global devices and resources, including more than 1 million security sensors in nearly 200 countries and territories. The research team identifies, analyzes, and mitigates critical vulnerabilities and malware daily through in-depth research, which drives protection for all SonicWall customers. In addition to safeguarding networks globally, the research team supports the larger threat intelligence community by releasing weekly deep technical analyses of the most critical threats to small businesses, providing critical knowledge that defenders need to protect their networks.