Targets of Wild Neutron threat has been identified in 11 countries

BANGALORE, INDIA: Kaspersky Lab researchers has identified targets of Wild Neutron in 11 countries and territories, including France, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Palestine, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, UAE, Algeria and the United States.

They include:

• Law firms
• Bitcoin-related companies
• Investment companies
• Groups of large companies often involved in M&A deals
• IT companies
• Healthcare companies
• Real estate companies
• Individual users

The focus of the attacks suggests that this is not a nation-state sponsored actor. However, the use of zero-days, multi-platform malware as well as other techniques makes Kaspersky Lab researchers believe it’s a powerful entity engaged in espionage, possibly for economic reasons.

The attack

The initial infection vector of the recent attacks is still unknown, although there are clear indications that victims are exploited by a kit that leverages an unknown Flash Player exploit through compromised websites. The exploit delivers a malware dropper package to the victim.

In the attacks observed by Kaspersky Lab researchers, the dropper was signed with a legitimate code verification certificate. The use of certificates allows malware to avoid detection by some protection solutions. The certificate used in the Wild Neutron attacks appears to be stolen from a popular manufacturer of consumer electronics. The certificate is now being revoked.

After getting in the system, the dropper installs the main backdoor.

In terms of functionality, the main backdoor is no different to many other Remote Access Tools (RATs). What really stands out is the attacker’s care in hiding the command and control server (C&C) address and its ability to recover from a C&C shutdown. The command and control server is an important part of the malicious infrastructure as it serves as a “homebase” for the malware deployed on victims’ machines. Special measures built into the malware help the attackers to protect the infrastructure from any possible C&C-takedowns.