FireEye has been busy over the last year. We have tracked
malware-based espionage campaigns and published research papers on
numerous advanced threat actors. We chopped through Poison
Ivy, documented a cyber
arms dealer, and revealed that Operation
Ke3chang had targeted Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Europe.
Worldwide, security experts made many breakthroughs in cyber defense
research in 2013. I believe the two biggest stories were Mandiant’s APT1
report and the ongoing Edward Snowden revelations, including the
revelation that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) compromised
50,000 computers around the world as part of a global espionage campaign.
In this post, I would like to highlight some of the outstanding
research from 2013.
Trends in Targeting
Targeted malware attack reports tend to focus on intellectual
property theft within specific industry verticals. But this year,
there were many attacks that appeared to be related to nation-state
disputes, including diplomatic espionage and military conflicts.
Conflict
Where kinetic conflict and nation-state disputes arise, malware is
sure to be found. Here are some of the more interesting cases
documented this year:
- Middle East: continued attacks targeting the Syrian
opposition; further activity by Operation
Molerats related to Israel and Palestinian territories. - India and Pakistan: tenuous relations in physical world equate
to tenuous relations in cyberspace. Exemplifying this trend was the
Indian malware group Hangover,
the ByeBye
attacks against Pakistan, and Pakistan-based attacks
against India. - Korean peninsula: perhaps
foreshadowing future conflict, North Korea was likely behind the Operation
Troy (also known as DarkSeoul)
attacks on South Korea that included defacements, distributed
denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and malware that wiped hard disks.
Another campaign, Kimsuky,
may also have a North Korean connection. - China: this was
the source of numerous attacks, including the ongoing Surtr
campaign, against the Tibetan and Uygur communities, which targeted
MacOS
and Android.
Diplomacy
Malware continues to play a key role in espionage in the Internet
era. Here are some examples that stood out this year:
- The Snowden documents revealed that NSA and GCHQ deployed key
logging malware during the G20 meeting in 2009. - In
fact, G20 meetings have long been targets for foreign intelligence
services, including this year’s G20
meeting in Russia. - The Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC)
and The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
are also frequent targets. - FireEye announced that Operation
Ke3chang compromised at least five Ministries of Foreign Affairs
in Europe. -
Red
October, EvilGrab,
and Nettraveler
(aka RedStar) targeted both diplomatic missions and commercial
industries.
Technical Trends
Estimations of “sophistication” often dominate the coverage of
targeted malware attacks. But what I find interesting is that simple
changes made to existing malware are often more than enough to evade
detection. Even more surprising is that technically “unsophisticated”
malware is often found in the payload of “sophisticated” zero-day
exploits. And this year quite a number of zero-days were used in
targeted attacks.
Exploits
Quite a few zero-day exploits appeared in the wild this year,
including eleven discovered by FireEye. These exploits included
techniques to bypass ASLR and application sandboxes. The exploits that
I consider the most significant are the following:
-
CVE-2013-0640,
which was used in the MiniDuke
attacks, -
CVE-2013-1347,
which was used in a watering hole attack on the Department of Labor
website, -
CVE-2013-3893,
which was deployed by the same group, DeputyDog, which compromised
Bit9 earlier in the year, -
CVE-2013-3906,
which was used in both targeted attacks and in cybercrime
campaigns -
DeputyDog
in a watering hole attack.
Evasion
The malware samples used by several advanced persistent threat (APT)
actors were slightly modified this year, possibly as an evasive
response to increased scrutiny, in order to avoid detection. For
example, there were changes to Aumlib
and Ixeshe, which are malware families associated with APT12,
the group behind attacks on the New
York Times. When APT1 (aka Comment Crew) returned
after their activities were exposed, they also used modified malware.
In addition, Terminator
(aka FakeM),
and Sykipot
were modified.
Threat Actors
Attribution is a tough problem, and the term itself has multiple meanings.
Some use it to refer to an ultimate benefactor, such as a
nation-state. Others use the term to refer to malware authors, or
command-and-control (CnC) operators. This year, I was fascinated by
published research about exploit and malware dealers and targeted
attack contractors (also known as cyber “hitmen”), because it further
complicates the traditional “state-sponsored” analysis that we’ve
become accustomed to.
-
Dealers — The malware and exploits used in targeted attacks
are not always exclusively available to one threat actor. Some are
supplied by commercial entities such as FinFisher,
which has been reportedly used against activists around the world,
and HackingTeam,
which sells spyware to governments and law enforcement agencies.
FireEye discovered a likely cyber
arms dealer that is connected to no fewer than 11 APT
campaigns – however, the relationship between the supplier and those
who use the malware remains unclear. Another similar cluster, known
as the Maudi
Operation, was also documented this year.
-
Hitmen — Although this analysis is still highly speculative,
some threat actors, such as Hidden
Lynx, may be “hackers for hire”, tasked with breaking into
targets and acquiring specific information. Others, such as IceFog,
engage in “hit and run” attacks, including the propagation of
malware in a seemingly random fashion. Another group, known as Winnti,
tries to profit by targeting gaming companies with malware (PlugX)
that is normally associated with APT activity. In one of the
weirdest cases I have seen, malware known as “MiniDuke”,
which is reminiscent of some “old school” malware developed by 29A,
was used in multiple attacks around the world.
My colleagues at FireEye have put forward some interesting stealthy
techniques in the near future. In any case, 2014 will no doubt be
another busy year for those of us who research targeted malware attacks.
