Categories: Cyber CrimeMalware

Botnet authors use Evernote account as C&C Server

Botnet author are increasing complexity of the malicious code they use and at the same time security firms are adopting more sophisticated detection methods. Between principal concerns of botmaster the need to improve the capabilities of bot agents to operate silently and necessity to masquerade traffic from bots and Command & Control servers.

Focusing on this second question in the past authors of botnet malware have misused popular platform such as Google Docs, Twitter and Facebook to masquerade malicious traffic.

Researchers at TrendMicro recently detected a malware, dubbed “BKDR_VERNOT.A” that tried to exploit popular note-taking app Evernote as Command-and-Control Server to provide instructions to the bot installed on the victim’s machine.

Authors of “BKDR_VERNOT.A” tried to send command to bot with Command-and-Control Server using Evernote, malicious code is delivered via an executable file that installs the malware as a dynamic-link library, once installed the DLL is linked to a legitimate running process to remain undetected from detection systems. 

But here’s the interesting part: BKDR_VERNOT.A retrieves its C&C server and queries its backdoor commands in the notes saved in its Evernote account. The backdoor may also use the Evernote account as a drop-off point for its stolen information.

The behavior of BKDR_VERNOT.A is typical of any backdoor code, it is able to receive commands such as downloading, executing, and renaming files. The malware collects information from the infected system, including OS version, Timezone, user name, computer name and organization.

MalwareCeCEvernoteMalwareCeCEvernote

As is possible to note in the above picture the malicious code may have used Evernote as Command Server where to store stolen data, unfortunately the researchers haven’t had during analysis access to the account used by the agent.

Unfortunately, during our testing, it was not able to login using the credentials embedded in the malware. This is possibly a security measure imposed by Evernote following its recent hacking issue.” Though this is a clever maneuver to avoid detection, this is not the first time that a legitimate service like Evernote was used as a method of evasion.” 

The malicious code attempts to connect to Evernote via the legitimate URL https://evernote.com/intl/zh-cn making hard detection activities.

 

Misusing legitimate services such as Google or Evernote is an useful technique to prevent efforts done by the security researchers, the legitimate network traffic generated is not detected by most antimalware products.

How to defend our systems from these categories of cyber threat?

Blog post provided the response:

“To avoid this threat, you must always be cautious with visiting unknown websites and opening email messages.”

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Malware)

 

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”.

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