New DDoS IRC Bot distributed through Korean webHard platforms

Researchers spotted an IRC bot written in GoLang that is being used to carry out DDoS attacks targeting users in Korea.

Researchers from AhnLab’s Security Emergency-response Center (ASEC) spotted an IRC bot written in GoLang that is being used to carry out DDoS attacks targeting users in Korea.

Vxers use GoLang because it is easy and allows the development of cross-platform malicious codes.

The DDoS IRC Bot strains are disguised as adult games and are being installed via platforms commonly used for the distribution of malware in Korea, so-called webhards. Webhards were also used in past campaigns to distribute njRAT and UDP Rat.

The attack chain starts with threat actors uploading malware disguised as an adult game to the webhard. Attackers used different games containing the same malware. The malicious code is hosted on a web hard drive or a remote file hosting service in the form of compressed ZIP archives. Upon executing the executable (“Game_Open.exe”) in the archive, the malware is executed while the actual game is launched.

This downloader connects to a remote command-and-control (C&C) server to retrieve additional payloads, including an IRC bot that can perform DDoS attacks.

“But “Game_Open.exe” is not a launcher that runs the game. It is an executable that runs the additional malware. To be more precise, it changes the “PN” file existing in the same path as “scall.dll” and runs it. Then it copies the original game executable “index” to “Game.exe” to run it. As such, users would assume that the game is being run normally.” reads the analysis published by ASEC. “It is also a type of DDoS Bot malware, but it uses IRC protocols to communicate with the C&C server.Unlike UDP Rat that only supported UDP Flooding attacks, it can also support attacks such as Slowloris, Goldeneye, and Hulk DDoS.”

Once executed, the Golang DDoS IRC Bot connects to a particular IRC server and enters the attacker’s c in order to receive commands, including one that can instruct the bot to perform DDoS attacks.

The report published by ASEC also includes indicators of compromise for this threat.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, DDoS)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.