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

• 197[.]11[.]134[.]255
• 197[.]94[.]70[.]41
• 98[.]143[.]70[.]147
• 181[.]114[.]169[.]156
• 72[.]88[.]245[.]71
• 42[.]189[.]12[.]36
• 105[.]111[.]44[.]93
• 148[.]213[.]109[.]165
• 81[.]184[.]181[.]215
• 181[.]44[.]34[.]172
• 149[.]126[.]159[.]254

MD5

• 4cf60391efc89945d85ba83c93547d5d
• 1fa2068f08d1c55f06d6c33cb846f9ad
• b5cd890b8ba5f31c3f7e457f40f5d728

SHA-256

• 814299de88cde77b7f06476f2abf8f6719d3b8d2184796114c56a6ee08833e61
• fd18b58235e50379b775cc3cbabdc8df599e71f787b2d286281999c24ecc18f8
• 051eda78705b38dc1577ef8ea4e972990d32ca7b39b4981127b2e4221d110f2a

SHA-1

• adf5411f4bd777f2a2fc7819c63f53f1f22e495e
• e305efe7987be1a91cdf39daa6bd1b19bc8c694c
• 18c143ba12246321416b77e67afac04825fca12f

Remediation

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