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

Domain Name

• 41[.]104[.]45[.]240
• 181[.]114[.]169[.]156
• 163[.]182[.]177[.]80
• 42[.]189[.]12[.]36
• 197[.]53[.]0[.]166
• 181[.]164[.]194[.]228
• 61[.]166[.]221[.]67
• 41[.]111[.]15[.]44

MD5

• a105f79ac52026d97918416d61764780
• 4f8a3fbbb04355b3671d7bdd0c6b77b3
• 608a02b0c1948bf476c0d4df3a5a5c4c

SHA-256

• a44cc3f87c7953f5a13b91f6d472936884af802c574a1a05466233c0e089f057
• d3788e69dd125449af3d985de93701c49cef0658bc98e3b449185f86cbee027d
• cb786f48cda7665e5dd07e80672e0c5facb6b6300335561327b95e58029ea376

SHA-1

• 9e1616fe833d51ce40094e2937672fb9c2b28b81
• f4475896b8a0e6d6c4d21eb433df2926affccfcc
• 5590e498f4f1aa9e4f71e64f54e5a6d0144bc94f

Remediation

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