Dangerous new phishing campaign infects Windows devices with malicious Linux VM

• A phishing onslaught leads to nan download of a ample file
• The Linux VM comes preloaded pinch malware, granting crooks each kinds of advantages
• Securonix advises be aware erstwhile handing inbound emails

A imaginative caller phishing method has been spotted that looks to instrumentality victims into downloading and installing a virtual Linux instrumentality connected their Windows endpoints. The virtual instrumentality comes preloaded pinch a backdoor, granting nan crooks unabated entree to nan compromised devices.

A study from cybersecurity researchers Securonix dubbed nan run ‘CRON#TRAP’. It starts pinch a clone “OneAmerica” study which distributes nan VM installation record (285 MB), and a clone correction popup image.

If nan victims autumn for nan instrumentality and trigger nan installer, it will tally successful nan background, while showing nan clone correction connection successful nan front. That way, nan victims will deliberation that nan study was unavailable astatine nan time. In nan background, though, a afloat legit type of a Linux VM, called TinyCore, will beryllium installed via QEMU, a legitimate, open-source virtualization instrumentality that allows for emulating various hardware and processor architectures.

Tricking nan AV

Since QEMU is legitimate, nary antivirus programs emblem it arsenic malicious. Furthermore, they will not emblem thing that happens successful nan virtual machine, since it is walled successful and operates arsenic a sandbox. “This emulated Linux situation enables nan attacker to run extracurricular nan visibility of accepted antivirus solutions,” nan researchers explained.

However, since nan VM comes pinch a backdoor, crooks tin usage it for a number of things, including web testing and first reconnaissance, instrumentality installation and preparation, payload manipulation and execution, configuration persistence and privilege escalation, SSH cardinal manipulation for distant access, record and situation management, strategy and personification enumeration, and imaginable exfiltration aliases bid power channels.

The backdoor was said to incorporate a instrumentality called Chisel, which is simply a web tunneling program, pre-configured to group up a unafraid communications transmission pinch nan C2 server.

Since nan run starts pinch a elemental phishing email, Securonix advises attraction erstwhile handling inbound emails.

Via BleepingComputer

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