Pierluigi Paganini March 07, 2024

Threat actors are using Facebook messages to spread a Python-based information stealer dubbed Snake, researchers warn.

Cybereason researchers warn that threat actors are utilizing Facebook messages to spread the Snake malware, a Python-based information stealer.

The researchers noticed that the threat actors are maintaining three different Python Infostealer variants. Two of these variants are regular Python scripts, whereas the third variant is an executable assembled by PyInstaller. 

Once the malware has siphoned the credentials from the infected system, it transmits them to different platforms such as Discord, GitHub, and Telegram by abusing their APIs.

The campaign has been active since at least August 2023 when it was disclosed by a cybersecurity researcher on X.

Threat actors sent Facebook messenger direct messages to the victims attempting to trick them into downloading archive files such as RAR or ZIP files. The archives contain two downloaders, a batch script and a cmd script, with the final downloader used to drop the appropriate Python Infostealer variant on the victim’s system.

“The archived file contains a BAT script which is the first downloader initiating the infection chain. The BAT script attempts to download a ZIP file via the cURL command, placing the downloaded file under the directory C:\Users\Public as myFile.zip. The BAT script proceeds to spawn another PowerShell command Expand-Archive to extract the CMD script vn.cmd from the ZIP file and proceeds with its infection.” reads the report published by Cybereason. “The CMD script vn.cmd is the primary script responsible for downloading and executing the Python Infostealer.“

The infostealer can gather sensitive data from different web browsers, including:

• Brave
• Coc Coc Browser
• Chromium
• Google Chrome Browser
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera Web Browser

Let me highlight that Coc Coc Browser is a browser widely used by the Vietnamese community. The selection of this browser also suggests that there was a specific demand to target the Vietnamese community at some point.

The researchers noticed that the infostealer is also able to gather cookie information specific to Facebook.

“Aside from cookies and credential information, project.py dumps cookie information specific to Facebook cookiefb.txt to disk. This behavior is likely for the Threat Actor to hijack the victim’s Facebook account, potentially to expand their infection.” continues the report.

The researchers attribute the campaign to Vietnamese-speaking individuals based on a few indicators, including comments in the scripts, naming conventions, and the presence of the Coc Coc Browser in the list of targeted browsers.

The report includes the MITRE ATT&CK MAPPING for this campaign.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Snake)