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How Darktrace Quickly Foiled An Information Stealer

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23
Jun 2023
23
Jun 2023
Discover how Darktrace thwarted the CryptBot malware in just 2 seconds. Learn about this fast-moving threat and the defense strategies employed.

The recent trend of threat actors using information stealer malware, designed to gather and exfiltrate confidential data, shows no sign of slowing. With new or updated info-stealer strains appearing in the wild on a regular basis, it came as no surprise to see a surge in yet another prolific variant in late 2022, CryptBot.

What is CryptBot?

CryptBot is a Windows-based trojan malware that was first discovered in the wild in December 2019. It belongs to the prolific category of information stealers whose primary objective, as the name suggests, is to gather information from infected devices and send it to the threat actor.

ZeuS was reportedly the first info-stealer to be discovered, back in 2006. After its code was leaked, many other variants came to light and have been gaining popularity amongst cyber criminals [1] [2] [3]. Indeed, Inside the SOC has discussed multiple infections across its customer base associated with several types of stealers in the past months [4] [5] [6] [7]. 

The Darktrace Threat Research team investigated CryptBot infections on the digital environments of more than 40 different Darktrace customers between October 2022 and January 2023. Darktrace DETECT™ and its anomaly-based approach to threat detection allowed it to successfully identify the unusual activity surrounding these info-stealer infections on customer networks. Meanwhile, Darktrace RESPOND™, when enabled in autonomous response mode, was able to quickly intervene and prevent the exfiltration of sensitive company data.

Why is info-stealer malware popular?

It comes as no surprise that info-stealers have “become one of the most discussed malware types on the cybercriminal underground in 2022”, according to Accenture’s Cyber Threat Intelligence team [10]. This is likely in part due to the fact that:

More sensitive data on devices

Due to the digitization of many aspects of our lives, such as banking and social interactions, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cost effective

Info-stealers provide a great return on investment (ROI) for threat actors looking to exfiltrate data without having to do the traditional internal reconnaissance and data transfer associated with data theft. Info-stealers are usually cheap to purchase and are available through Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) offerings, allowing less technical and resourceful threat actors in on the stealing action. This makes them a prevalent threat in the malware landscape. 

How does CryptBot work?

The techniques employed by info-stealers to gather and exfiltrate data as well as the type of data targeted vary from malware to malware, but the data targeted typically includes login credentials for a variety of applications, financial information, cookies and global information about the infected computer [8]. Given its variety and sensitivity, threat actors can leverage the stolen data in several ways to make a profit. In the case of CryptBot, the data obtained is sold on forums or underground data marketplaces and can be later employed in higher profile attacks [9]. For example, stolen login information has previously been leveraged in credential-based attacks, which can successfully bypass authentication-based security measures, including multi-factor authentication (MFA). 

CryptBot functionalities

Like many information stealers, CryptBot is designed to steal a variety of sensitive personal and financial information such as browser credentials, cookies and history information and social media accounts login information, as well as cryptocurrency wallets and stored credit card information [11]. General information (e.g., OS, installed applications) about the infected computer is also retrieved. Browsers targeted by CryptBot include Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. In early 2022, CryptBot’s code was revamped in order to streamline its data extraction capabilities and improve its overall efficiency, an update that coincided with a rise in the number of infections [11] [12].

Some of CryptBot's functionalities were removed and its exfiltration process was streamlined, which resulted in a leaner payload, around half its original size and a quicker infection process [11]. Some of the features removed included sandbox detection and evasion functionalities, the collection of desktop text files and screen captures, which were deemed unnecessary. At the same time, the code was improved in order to include new Chrome versions released after CryptBot’s first appearance in 2019. Finally, its exfiltration process was simplified: prior to its 2022 update, the malware saved stolen data in two separate folders before sending it to two separate command and control (C2) domains. Post update, the data is only saved in one location and sent to one C2 domain, which is hardcoded in the C2 transmission function of the code. This makes the infection process much more streamlined, taking only a few minutes from start to finish. 

Aside from the update to its malware code, CryptBot regularly updates and refreshes its C2 domains and dropper websites, making it a highly fluctuating malware with constantly new indicators of compromise and distribution sites. 

Even though CryptBot is less known than other info-stealers, it was reportedly infecting thousands of devices daily in the first months of 2020 [13] and its continued prevalence resulted in Google taking legal action against its distribution infrastructure at the end of April 2023 [14].  

How is CryptBot obtained?

CryptBot is primarily distributed through malicious websites offering free and illegally modified software (i.e., cracked software) for common commercial programs (e.g., Microsoft Windows and Office, Adobe Photoshop, Google Chrome, Nitro PDF Pro) and video games. From these ‘malvertising’ pages, the user is redirected through multiple sites to the actual payload dropper page [15]. This distribution method has seen a gain in popularity amongst info-stealers in recent months and is also used by other malware families such as Raccoon Stealer and Vidar [16] [17].

A same network of cracked software websites can be used to download different malware strains, which can result in multiple simultaneous infections. Additionally, these networks often use search engine optimization (SEO) in order to make adverts for their malware distributing sites appear at the top of the Google search results page, thus increasing the chances of the malicious payloads being downloaded.

Furthermore, CryptBot leverages Pay-Per-Install (PPI) services such as 360Installer and PrivateLoader, a downloader malware family used to deliver payloads of multiple malware families operated by different threat actors [18] [19] [20]. The use of this distribution method for CryptBot payloads appears to have stemmed from its 2022 update. According to Google, 161 active domains were associated with 360Installer, of which 90 were associated with malware delivery activities and 29 with the delivery of CryptBot malware specifically. Google further identified hundreds of domains used by CryptBot as C2 sites, all of which appear to be hosted on the .top top-level domain [21].

This simple yet effective distribution tactic, combined with the MaaS model and the lucrative prospects of selling the stolen data resulted in numerous infections. Indeed, CryptBot was estimated to have infected over 670,000 computers in 2022 [14]. Even though the distribution method chosen means that most of the infected devices are likely to be personal computers, bring your own device (BYOD) policies and users’ tendency to reuse passwords means that corporate environments are also at risk. 

CryptBot Attack Overview

In some cases observed by Darktrace, after connecting to malvertising websites, devices were seen making encrypted SSL connections to file hosting services such as MediaFire or Mega, while in others devices were observed connecting to an endpoint associated with a content delivery network. This is likely the location from where the malware payload was downloaded alongside cracked software, which is executed by the unsuspecting user. As the user expects to run an executable file to install their desired software, the malware installation often happens without the user noticing.

Some of the malvertising sites observed by Darktrace on customer deployments were crackful[.]com, modcrack[.]net, windows-7-activator[.]com and office-activator[.]com. However, in many cases detected by Darktrace, CryptBot was propagated via websites offering trojanized KMSPico software (e.g., official-kmspico[.]com, kmspicoofficial[.]com). KMSPico is a popular Microsoft Windows and Office product activator that emulates a Windows Key Management Services (KMS) server to activate licenses fraudulently. 

Once it has been downloaded and executed, CryptBot will search the system for confidential information and create a folder with a seemingly randomly generated name, matching the regex [a-zA-Z]{10}, to store the gathered sensitive data, ready for exfiltration. 

Figure 1: Packet capture (PCAP) of an HTTP POST request showing the file with the stolen data being sent over the connection.
Figure 1: Packet capture (PCAP) of an HTTP POST request showing the file with the stolen data being sent over the connection.

This data is then sent to the C2 domain via HTTP POST requests on port 80 to the URI /gate.php. As previously stated, CryptBot C2 infrastructure is changed frequently and many of the domains seen by Darktrace had been registered within the previous 30 days. The domain names detected appeared to have been generated by an algorithm, following the regex patterns [a-z]{6}[0-9]{2,3}.top or [a-z]{6}[0-9]{2,3}.cfd. In several cases, the C2 domain had not been flagged as malicious by other security vendors or had just one detection. This is likely because of the frequent changes in the C2 infrastructure operated by the threat actors behind CryptBot, with new malicious domains being created periodically to avoid detection. This makes signature-based security solutions much less efficient to detect and block connections to malicious domains. Additionally, the fact that the stolen data is sent over regular HTTP POST requests, which are used daily as part of a multitude of legitimate processes such as file uploads or web form submissions, allows the exfiltration connections to blend in with normal and legitimate traffic making it difficult to isolate and detect as malicious activity. 

In this context, anomaly-based security detections such as Darktrace DETECT are the best way to pick out these anomalous connections amidst legitimate Internet traffic. In the case of CryptBot, two DETECT models were seen consistently breaching for CryptBot-related activity: ‘Device / Suspicious Domain’, breaching for connections to 100% rare C2 .top domains, and ‘Anomalous Connection / POST to PHP on New External Host’, breaching on the data exfiltration HTTP POST request. 

In deployments where Darktrace RESPOND was deployed, a RESPOND model breached within two seconds of the first HTTP POST request. If enabled in autonomous mode, RESPOND would block the data exfiltration connections, thus preventing the data safe from being sold in underground forums to other threat actors. In one of the cases investigated by Darktrace’s Threat Research team, DETECT was able to successfully identify and alert the customer about CryptBot-related malicious activity on a device that Darktrace had only begun to monitor one day before, showcasing how fast Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI learns every nuance of customer networks and the devices within it.

In most cases investigated by Darktrace, fewer than 5 minutes elapsed between the first connection to the endpoint offering free cracked software and the data being exfiltrated to the C2 domain. For example, in one of the attack chains observed in a university’s network, a device was seen connecting to the 100% rare endpoint official-kmspico[.]com at 16:53:47 (UTC).

Device Event Log showing SSL connections to the official-kmspico[.]com malvertising website.
Figure 2: Device Event Log showing SSL connections to the official-kmspico[.]com malvertising website.

One minute later, at 16:54:19 (UTC), the same device was seen connecting to two mega[.]co[.]nz subdomains and downloading around 13 MB of data from them. As mentioned previously, these connections likely represent the CryptBot payload and cracked software download.

Device Event Log showing SSL connections to mega[.]com endpoints following the connection to the malvertising site.
Figure 3: Device Event Log showing SSL connections to mega[.]com endpoints following the connection to the malvertising site.

At 16:56:01 (UTC), Darktrace detected the device making a first HTTP POST request to the 100% rare endpoint, avomyj24[.]top, which has been associated with CryptBot’s C2 infrastructure [22]. This initial HTTP POST connection likely represents the transfer of confidential data to the attacker’s infrastructure.

Device Event Log showing HTTP connections made by the infected device to the C2 domain. 
Figure 4: Device Event Log showing HTTP connections made by the infected device to the C2 domain. 

The full attack chain, from visiting the malvertising website to the malicious data egress, took less than three minutes to complete. In this circumstance, the machine-speed detection and response capabilities offered by Darktrace DETECT and RESPOND are paramount in order to stop CryptBot before it can successfully exfiltrates sensitive data. This is an incredibly quick infection timeline, with no lateral movement nor privilege escalation required to carry out the malware’s objective. 

Device Event Log showing the DETECT and RESPOND models breached during the attack. 
Figure 5: Device Event Log showing the DETECT and RESPOND models breached during the attack. 

Darktrace Cyber AI Analyst incidents were also generated as a result of this activity, displaying all relevant information in one panel for easy review by customer security teams.

Cyber AI Analyst event log showing the HTTP connections made by the breach device to the C2 endpoint.
Figure 6: Cyber AI Analyst event log showing the HTTP connections made by the breach device to the C2 endpoint.

Conclusion 

CryptBot info-stealer is fast, efficient, and apt at evading detection given its small size and swift process of data gathering and exfiltration via legitimate channels. Its constantly changing C2 infrastructure further makes it difficult for traditional security tools that really on rules and signatures or known indicators of compromise (IoCs) to detect these infections. 

In the face of such a threat, Darktrace’s anomaly-based detection allows it to recognize subtle deviations in a device’s pattern of behavior that may signal an evolving threat and instantly bring it to the attention of security teams. Darktrace DETECT is able to distinguish between benign activity and malicious behavior, even from newly monitored devices, while Darktrace RESPOND can move at machine-speed to prevent even the fastest moving threat actors from stealing confidential company data, as it demonstrated here by stopping CryptBot infections in as little as 2 seconds.

Credit to Alexandra Sentenac, Cyber Analyst, Roberto Romeu, Senior SOC Analyst

Darktrace Model Detections  

AI Analyst Coverage 

  • Possible HTTP Command and Control  

DETECT Model Breaches  

  • Device / Suspicious Domain 
  • Anomalous Connection / POST to PHP on New External Host 
  • Anomalous Connection / Multiple HTTP POSTs to Rare Hostname 
  • Compromise / Multiple SSL to Rare DGA Domains

List of IOCs

Indicator Type Description
luaigz34[.]top Hostname CryptBot C2 endpoint
watibt04[.]top Hostname CryptBot C2 endpoint
avolsq14[.]top Hostname CryptBot C2 endpoint

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

Category Technique Tactic
INITIAL ACCESS Drive-by Compromise - T1189 N/A
COMMAND AND CONTROL Web Protocols - T1071.001 N/A
COMMAND AND CONTROL Domain Generation Algorithm - T1568.002 N/A

References

[1] https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/threats/info-stealers

[2] https://cybelangel.com/what-are-infostealers/

[3] https://ke-la.com/information-stealers-a-new-landscape/

[4] https://darktrace.com/blog/vidar-info-stealer-malware-distributed-via-malvertising-on-google

[5] https://darktrace.com/blog/a-surge-of-vidar-network-based-details-of-a-prolific-info-stealer 

[6] https://darktrace.com/blog/laplas-clipper-defending-against-crypto-currency-thieves-with-detect-respond

[7] https://darktrace.com/blog/amadey-info-stealer-exploiting-n-day-vulnerabilities 

[8] https://cybelangel.com/what-are-infostealers/

[9] https://webz.io/dwp/the-top-10-dark-web-marketplaces-in-2022/

[10] https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/security/information-stealer-malware-on-dark-web

[11] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/revamped-cryptbot-malware-spread-by-pirated-software-sites/

[12] https://blogs.blackberry.com/en/2022/03/threat-thursday-cryptbot-infostealer

[13] https://www.deepinstinct.com/blog/cryptbot-how-free-becomes-a-high-price-to-pay

[14] https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/continuing-our-work-to-hold-cybercriminal-ecosystems-accountable/

[15] https://asec.ahnlab.com/en/31802/

[16] https://darktrace.com/blog/the-last-of-its-kind-analysis-of-a-raccoon-stealer-v1-infection-part-1

[17] https://www.trendmicro.com/pt_br/research/21/c/websites-hosting-cracks-spread-malware-adware.html

[18] https://intel471.com/blog/privateloader-malware

[19] https://cyware.com/news/watch-out-pay-per-install-privateloader-malware-distribution-service-is-flourishing-888273be 

[20] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/04/28/handout_google_cryptbot_complaint.pdf

[21] https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/google-wins-court-order-to-block-cryptbot-infrastructure-a-21905

[22] https://github.com/stamparm/maltrail/blob/master/trails/static/malware/cryptbot.txt

INSIDE THE SOC
Darktrace cyber analysts are world-class experts in threat intelligence, threat hunting and incident response, and provide 24/7 SOC support to thousands of Darktrace customers around the globe. Inside the SOC is exclusively authored by these experts, providing analysis of cyber incidents and threat trends, based on real-world experience in the field.
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Alexandra Sentenac
Cyber Analyst
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Inside the SOC

Disarming the WarmCookie Backdoor: Darktrace’s Oven-Ready Solution

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26
Jul 2024

What is WarmCookie malware?

WarmCookie, also known as BadSpace [2], is a two-stage backdoor tool that provides functionality for threat actors to retrieve victim information and launch additional payloads. The malware is primarily distributed via phishing campaigns according to multiple open-source intelligence (OSINT) providers.

Backdoor malware: A backdoor tool is a piece of software used by attackers to gain and maintain unauthorized access to a system. It bypasses standard authentication and security mechanisms, allowing the attacker to control the system remotely.

Two-stage backdoor malware: This means the backdoor operates in two distinct phases:

1. Initial Stage: The first stage involves the initial infection and establishment of a foothold within the victim's system. This stage is often designed to be small and stealthy to avoid detection.

2. Secondary Stage: Once the initial stage has successfully compromised the system, it retrieves or activates the second stage payload. This stage provides more advanced functionalities for the attacker, such as extensive data exfiltration, deeper system control, or the deployment of additional malicious payloads.

How does WarmCookie malware work?

Reported attack patterns include emails attempting to impersonate recruitment firms such as PageGroup, Michael Page, and Hays. These emails likely represented social engineering tactics, with attackers attempting to manipulate jobseekers into engaging with the emails and following malicious links embedded within [3].

This backdoor tool also adopts stealth and evasion tactics to avoid the detection of traditional security tools. Reported evasion tactics included custom string decryption algorithms, as well as dynamic API loading to prevent researchers from analyzing and identifying the core functionalities of WarmCookie [1].

Before this backdoor makes an outbound network request, it is known to capture details from the target machine, which can be used for fingerprinting and identification [1], this includes:

- Computer name

- Username

- DNS domain of the machine

- Volume serial number

WarmCookie samples investigated by external researchers were observed communicating communicated over HTTP to a hardcoded IP address using a combination of RC4 and Base64 to protect its network traffic [1]. Ultimately, threat actors could use this backdoor to deploy further malicious payloads on targeted networks, such as ransomware.

Darktrace Coverage of WarmCookie

Between April and June 2024, Darktrace’s Threat Research team investigated suspicious activity across multiple customer networks indicating that threat actors were utilizing the WarmCookie backdoor tool. Observed cases across customer environments all included the download of unusual executable (.exe) files and suspicious outbound connectivity.

Affected devices were all observed making external HTTP requests to the German-based external IP, 185.49.69[.]41, and the URI, /data/2849d40ade47af8edfd4e08352dd2cc8.

The first investigated instance occurred between April 23 and April 24, when Darktrace detected a a series of unusual file download and outbound connectivity on a customer network, indicating successful WarmCookie exploitation. As mentioned by Elastic labs, "The PowerShell script abuses the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) to download WarmCookie and run the DLL with the Start export" [1].

Less than a minute later, the same device was observed making HTTP requests to the rare external IP address: 185.49.69[.]41, which had never previously been observed on the network, for the URI /data/b834116823f01aeceed215e592dfcba7. The device then proceeded to download masqueraded executable file from this endpoint. Darktrace recognized that these connections to an unknown endpoint, coupled with the download of a masqueraded file, likely represented malicious activity.

Following this download, the device began beaconing back to the same IP, 185.49.69[.]41, with a large number of external connections observed over port 80.  This beaconing related behavior could further indicate malicious software communicating with command-and-control (C2) servers.

Darktrace’s model alert coverage included the following details:

[Model Alert: Device / Unusual BITS Activity]

- Associated device type: desktop

- Time of alert: 2024-04-23T14:10:23 UTC

- ASN: AS28753 Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH

- User agent: Microsoft BITS/7.8

[Model Alert: Anomalous File / EXE from Rare External Location]

[Model Alert: Anomalous File / Masqueraded File Transfer]

- Associated device type: desktop

- Time of alert: 2024-04-23T14:11:18 UTC

- Destination IP: 185.49.69[.]41

- Destination port: 80

- Protocol: TCP

- Application protocol: HTTP

- ASN: AS28753 Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH

- User agent: Mozilla / 4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1;.NET CLR 1.0.3705)

- Event details: File: http[:]//185.49.69[.]41/data/b834116823f01aeceed215e592dfcba7, total seen size: 144384B, direction: Incoming

- SHA1 file hash: 4ddf0d9c750bfeaebdacc14152319e21305443ff

- MD5 file hash: b09beb0b584deee198ecd66976e96237

[Model Alert: Compromise / Beaconing Activity To External Rare]

- Associated device type: desktop

- Time of alert: 2024-04-23T14:15:24 UTC

- Destination IP: 185.49.69[.]41

- Destination port: 80

- Protocol: TCP

- Application protocol: HTTP

- ASN: AS28753 Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH  

- User agent: Mozilla / 4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1;.NET CLR 1.0.3705)

Between May 7 and June 4, Darktrace identified a wide range of suspicious external connectivity on another customer’s environment. Darktrace’s Threat Research team further investigated this activity and assessed it was likely indicative of WarmCookie exploitation on customer devices.

Similar to the initial use case, BITS activity was observed on affected devices, which is utilized to download WarmCookie [1]. This initial behavior was observed with the device after triggering the model: Device / Unusual BITS Activity on May 7.

Just moments later, the same device was observed making HTTP requests to the aforementioned German IP address, 185.49.69[.]41 using the same URI /data/2849d40ade47af8edfd4e08352dd2cc8, before downloading a suspicious executable file.

Just like the first use case, this device followed up this suspicious download with a series of beaconing connections to 185.49.69[.]41, again with a large number of connections via port 80.

Similar outgoing connections to 185.49.69[.]41 and model alerts were observed on additional devices during the same timeframe, indicating that numerous customer devices had been compromised.

Darktrace’s model alert coverage included the following details:

[Model Alert: Device / Unusual BITS Activity]

- Associated device type: desktop

- Time of alert: 2024-05-07T09:03:23 UTC

- ASN: AS28753 Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH

- User agent: Microsoft BITS/7.8

[Model Alert: Anomalous File / EXE from Rare External Location]

[Model Alert: Anomalous File / Masqueraded File Transfer]

- Associated device type: desktop

- Time of alert: 2024-05-07T09:03:35 UTC  

- Destination IP: 185.49.69[.]41

- Protocol: TCP

- ASN: AS28753 Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH

- Event details: File: http[:]//185.49.69[.]41/data/2849d40ade47af8edfd4e08352dd2cc8, total seen size: 72704B, direction: Incoming

- SHA1 file hash: 5b0a35c574ee40c4bccb9b0b942f9a9084216816

- MD5 file hash: aa9a73083184e1309431b3c7a3e44427  

[Model Alert: Anomalous Connection / New User Agent to IP Without Hostname]

- Associated device type: desktop

- Time of alert: 2024-05-07T09:04:14 UTC  

- Destination IP: 185.49.69[.]41  

- Application protocol: HTTP  

- URI: /data/2849d40ade47af8edfd4e08352dd2cc8

- User agent: Microsoft BITS/7.8  

[Model Alert: Compromise / HTTP Beaconing to New Endpoint]

- Associated device type: desktop

- Time of alert: 2024-05-07T09:08:47 UTC

- Destination IP: 185.49.69[.]41

- Protocol: TCP

- Application protocol: HTTP  

- ASN: AS28753 Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH  

- URI: /  

- User agent: Mozilla / 4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1;.NET CLR 1.0.3705) \

Cyber AI Analyst Coverage Details around the external destination, ‘185.49.69[.]41’.
Figure 1: Cyber AI Analyst Coverage Details around the external destination, ‘185.49.69[.]41’.
External Sites Summary verifying the geographical location of the external IP, 185.49.69[.]41’.
Figure 2: External Sites Summary verifying the geographical location of the external IP, 185.49.69[.]41’.

Fortunately, this particular customer was subscribed to Darktrace’s Proactive Threat Notification (PTN) service and the Darktrace Security Operation Center (SOC) promptly investigated the activity and alerted the customer. This allowed their security team to address the activity and begin their own remediation process.

In this instance, Darktrace’s Autonomous Response capability was configured in Human Confirmation mode, meaning any mitigative actions required manual application by the customer’s security team.

Despite this, Darktrace recommended two actions to contain the activity: blocking connections to the suspicious IP address 185.49.69[.]41 and any IP addresses ending with '69[.]41', as well as the ‘Enforce Pattern of Life’ action. By enforcing a pattern of life, Darktrace can restrict a device (or devices) to its learned behavior, allowing it to continue regular business activities uninterrupted while blocking any deviations from expected activity.

Actions suggested by Darktrace to contain the emerging activity, including blocking connections to the suspicious endpoint and restricting the device to its ‘pattern of life’.
Figure 3: Actions suggested by Darktrace to contain the emerging activity, including blocking connections to the suspicious endpoint and restricting the device to its ‘pattern of life’.

Conclusion

Backdoor tools like WarmCookie enable threat actors to gather and leverage information from target systems to deploy additional malicious payloads, escalating their cyber attacks. Given that WarmCookie’s primary distribution method seems to be through phishing campaigns masquerading as trusted recruitments firms, it has the potential to affect a large number of organziations.

In the face of such threats, Darktrace’s behavioral analysis provides organizations with full visibility over anomalous activity on their digital estates, regardless of whether the threat bypasses by human security teams or email security tools. While threat actors seemingly managed to evade customers’ native email security and gain access to their networks in these cases, Darktrace identified the suspicious behavior associated with WarmCookie and swiftly notified customer security teams.

Had Darktrace’s Autonomous Response capability been fully enabled in these cases, it could have blocked any suspicious connections and subsequent activity in real-time, without the need of human intervention, effectively containing the attacks in the first instance.

Credit to Justin Torres, Cyber Security Analyst and Dylan Hinz, Senior Cyber Security Analyst

Appendices

Darktrace Model Detections

- Anomalous File / EXE from Rare External Location

- Anomalous File / Masqueraded File Transfer  

- Compromise / Beacon to Young Endpoint  

- Compromise / Beaconing Activity To External Rare  

- Compromise / HTTP Beaconing to New Endpoint  

- Compromise / HTTP Beaconing to Rare Destination

- Compromise / High Volume of Connections with Beacon Score

- Compromise / Large Number of Suspicious Successful Connections

- Compromise / Quick and Regular Windows HTTP Beaconing

- Compromise / SSL or HTTP Beacon

- Compromise / Slow Beaconing Activity To External Rare

- Compromise / Sustained SSL or HTTP Increase

- Compromise / Sustained TCP Beaconing Activity To Rare Endpoint

- Anomalous Connection / Multiple Failed Connections to Rare Endpoint

- Anomalous Connection / New User Agent to IP Without Hostname

- Compromise / Sustained SSL or HTTP Increase

AI Analyst Incident Coverage:

- Unusual Repeated Connections

- Possible SSL Command and Control to Multiple Endpoints

- Possible HTTP Command and Control

- Suspicious File Download

Darktrace RESPOND Model Detections:

- Antigena / Network / External Threat / Antigena Suspicious File Block

- Antigena / Network / External Threat / Antigena Suspicious File Pattern of Life Block

List of IoCs

IoC - Type - Description + Confidence

185.49.69[.]41 – IP Address – WarmCookie C2 Endpoint

/data/2849d40ade47af8edfd4e08352dd2cc8 – URI – Likely WarmCookie URI

/data/b834116823f01aeceed215e592dfcba7 – URI – Likely WarmCookie URI

4ddf0d9c750bfeaebdacc14152319e21305443ff  - SHA1 Hash  – Possible Malicious File

5b0a35c574ee40c4bccb9b0b942f9a9084216816  - SHA1 Hash – Possiblem Malicious File

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

(Technique Name) – (Tactic) – (ID) – (Sub-Technique of)

Drive-by Compromise - INITIAL ACCESS - T1189

Ingress Tool Transfer - COMMAND AND CONTROL - T1105

Malware - RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT - T1588.001 - T1588

Lateral Tool Transfer - LATERAL MOVEMENT - T1570

Web Protocols - COMMAND AND CONTROL - T1071.001 - T1071

Web Services - RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT - T1583.006 - T1583

Browser Extensions - PERSISTENCE - T1176

Application Layer Protocol - COMMAND AND CONTROL - T1071

Fallback Channels - COMMAND AND CONTROL - T1008

Multi-Stage Channels - COMMAND AND CONTROL - T1104

Non-Standard Port - COMMAND AND CONTROL - T1571

One-Way Communication - COMMAND AND CONTROL - T1102.003 - T1102

Encrypted Channel - COMMAND AND CONTROL - T1573

External Proxy - COMMAND AND CONTROL - T1090.002 - T1090

Non-Application Layer Protocol - COMMAND AND CONTROL - T1095

References

[1] https://www.elastic.co/security-labs/dipping-into-danger

[2] https://www.gdatasoftware.com/blog/2024/06/37947-badspace-backdoor

[3] https://thehackernews.com/2024/06/new-phishing-campaign-deploys.html

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About the author
Justin Torres
Cyber Analyst

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Thought Leadership

The State of AI in Cybersecurity: Understanding AI Technologies

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24
Jul 2024

About the State of AI Cybersecurity Report

Darktrace surveyed 1,800 CISOs, security leaders, administrators, and practitioners from industries around the globe. Our research was conducted to understand how the adoption of new AI-powered offensive and defensive cybersecurity technologies are being managed by organizations.

This blog continues the conversation from “The State of AI in Cybersecurity: Unveiling Global Insights from 1,800 Security Practitioners”. This blog will focus on security professionals’ understanding of AI technologies in cybersecurity tools.

To access download the full report, click here.

How familiar are security professionals with supervised machine learning

Just 31% of security professionals report that they are “very familiar” with supervised machine learning.

Many participants admitted unfamiliarity with various AI types. Less than one-third felt "very familiar" with the technologies surveyed: only 31% with supervised machine learning and 28% with natural language processing (NLP).

Most participants were "somewhat" familiar, ranging from 46% for supervised machine learning to 36% for generative adversarial networks (GANs). Executives and those in larger organizations reported the highest familiarity.

Combining "very" and "somewhat" familiar responses, 77% had familiarity with supervised machine learning, 74% generative AI, and 73% NLP. With generative AI getting so much media attention, and NLP being the broader area of AI that encompasses generative AI, these results may indicate that stakeholders are understanding the topic on the basis of buzz, not hands-on work with the technologies.  

If defenders hope to get ahead of attackers, they will need to go beyond supervised learning algorithms trained on known attack patterns and generative AI. Instead, they’ll need to adopt a comprehensive toolkit comprised of multiple, varied AI approaches—including unsupervised algorithms that continuously learn from an organization’s specific data rather than relying on big data generalizations.  

Different types of AI

Different types of AI have different strengths and use cases in cyber security. It’s important to choose the right technique for what you’re trying to achieve.  

Supervised machine learning: Applied more often than any other type of AI in cyber security. Trained on human attack patterns and historical threat intelligence.  

Large language models (LLMs): Applies deep learning models trained on extremely large data sets to understand, summarize, and generate new content. Used in generative AI tools.  

Natural language processing (NLP): Applies computational techniques to process and understand human language.  

Unsupervised machine learning: Continuously learns from raw, unstructured data to identify deviations that represent true anomalies.  

What impact will generative AI have on the cybersecurity field?

More than half of security professionals (57%) believe that generative AI will have a bigger impact on their field over the next few years than other types of AI.

Chart showing the types of AI expected to impact security the most
Figure 1: Chart from Darktrace's State of AI in Cybersecurity Report

Security stakeholders are highly aware of generative AI and LLMs, viewing them as pivotal to the field's future. Generative AI excels at abstracting information, automating tasks, and facilitating human-computer interaction. However, LLMs can "hallucinate" due to training data errors and are vulnerable to prompt injection attacks. Despite improvements in securing LLMs, the best cyber defenses use a mix of AI types for enhanced accuracy and capability.

AI education is crucial as industry expectations for generative AI grow. Leaders and practitioners need to understand where and how to use AI while managing risks. As they learn more, there will be a shift from generative AI to broader AI applications.

Do security professionals fully understand the different types of AI in security products?

Only 26% of security professionals report a full understanding of the different types of AI in use within security products.

Confusion is prevalent in today’s marketplace. Our survey found that only 26% of respondents fully understand the AI types in their security stack, while 31% are unsure or confused by vendor claims. Nearly 65% believe generative AI is mainly used in cybersecurity, though it’s only useful for identifying phishing emails. This highlights a gap between user expectations and vendor delivery, with too much focus on generative AI.

Key findings include:

  • Executives and managers report higher understanding than practitioners.
  • Larger organizations have better understanding due to greater specialization.

As AI evolves, vendors are rapidly introducing new solutions faster than practitioners can learn to use them. There's a strong need for greater vendor transparency and more education for users to maximize the technology's value.

To help ease confusion around AI technologies in cybersecurity, Darktrace has released the CISO’s Guide to Cyber AI. A comprehensive white paper that categorizes the different applications of AI in cybersecurity. Download the White Paper here.  

Do security professionals believe generative AI alone is enough to stop zero-day threats?

No! 86% of survey participants believe generative AI alone is NOT enough to stop zero-day threats

This consensus spans all geographies, organization sizes, and roles, though executives are slightly less likely to agree. Asia-Pacific participants agree more, while U.S. participants agree less.

Despite expecting generative AI to have the most impact, respondents recognize its limited security use cases and its need to work alongside other AI types. This highlights the necessity for vendor transparency and varied AI approaches for effective security across threat prevention, detection, and response.

Stakeholders must understand how AI solutions work to ensure they offer advanced, rather than outdated, threat detection methods. The survey shows awareness that old methods are insufficient.

To access the full report, click here.

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