Rewterz Threat Alert – Qakbot (Qbot) Malware – Active IOCs

Severity

High

Analysis Summary

QBot, often known as QakBot, is modular information malware. It has been operational since 2007. This banking Trojan, QakBot steals financial data from infected systems, and a loader using C2 servers for payload targeting and download. Qakbot has worm capabilities, which let it propagate to other computers on the same network, as well as rootkit capabilities, which allow it to mask its existence and build persistence on infected computers.

A malware attachment to a phishing email is commonly used in QakBot attacks. This particular campaign includes an xls file that contains macros. These macros run a script that fetches the Qakbot payload from a list of URLs. To get the victim to activate macros, the attackers employ a common trick, like when the target downloads the file, it is asked to allow changes and then content before viewing the document.

Recently, it is observed that attackers are employing a number of strategies to avoid detection, using Excel (XLM) 4.0 and ZIP file extensions. They are utilizing sophisticated strategies to evade automated detection and increase the likelihood that their attack will succeed, such as obfuscating code, using numerous URLs to deliver the payload and others. Threat actors are disguising attachments intended to spread malware using a variety of different common file names with typical keywords for finance and business operations.

Impact

• Unauthorized Access
• Financial Theft
• Information Theft

Indicators of Compromise

IP

99[.]221[.]33[.]122
29[.]202[.]180[.]222

MD5

• 9912f6a13b3410fbfa187697f61a9270
• 6bc854cbed6886d1f9f805c60f1c3778
• d89521adaf6418e6ebe43b1a1a9d2af9

SHA-256

• d3527a29989b0d6122e692660c965b9120c0e1ef680601ae64fe2b5d31c9b1c6
• 5578fbc2b70fb9c4a49bfb8b7b6fbe945febee193699fcc9c2aa46675d86f778
• 1965dc57456d4fc01b6ce0f242d80776fe08a16354e6177255cba618348355ac

SHA-1

• e6444ca2fb057266485e74d957d8b403b4eddecc
• fe875e37e98df087296d27a03428345035998696
• 38cac8495ef43e51cdac1cb5e85d10137b365bee

Remediation

• Block the threat indicators at their respective controls.
• Search for IOCs in your environment.