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Botnets: The Advanced Malware Threat in Kenya's Cyberspace
Paula Musuva-Kigen
Research Associate Director, Centre for Informatics Research and Innovation (CIRI). Lecturer in Cyber-security and Digital Forensics, USIU, MSc, CCSP, CISA
Christian Kisutsa
Information Security Consultant – Serianu Limited, Computer Forensics & Cyber Crime Graduate (USIU)
Introduction: What is a bot(net)
Bot – type of malicious software
- Places the infected machine (zombie) under the control of an attacker (bot herder or bot master)
- Zombie connects to a Command and Control (C&C) server
- Initially Internet Relay Chat (IRC) used to connect to C&C
- These days use HTTP to connect to C&C because its NOT blocked on firewalls
Botnet - Network of machines infected with a particular bot
- Common Command and Control (C&C) server
- Often infected machines are designed to use automated infection vectors to infect other machines on the network
Introduction: Worldwide Statistics
Top Banking Botnets of 2013 – Released Feb 2014
Dell Secure Works Counter Threat Unit (CTU)
- Over 900 financial institutions around the globe are being targeted
- Banks and Corporate Finance providers
- Also providers of corporate payroll services, stock trading, social networking, email services, mail delivery services, employment portals, entertainment and dating portals
Top Banking Botnets of 2013
Top Botnets in Kenya - 2013 [exclusive statistics]
Check out Kenya Cyber Security Report 2014 by Serianu
What do Botnets Do?
- Theft of Information (keyloggers)
- Login credetials leading to Identity Theft
- Financial data especially Credit Card data
- IP/Trade secrets on espionage basis and Identity theft
- Financial fraud: E-banking and Mobile banking
- Consumer Accounts – Online shopping (Jambopay/Jumia/Pesapal)
- Business Accounts – Online Banking (Corporate/Retail)
- Spam/Phishing: Infected machines relay spam
- Click Fraud: Automated clicks of Web advertising links for revenue
- DDoS: Zombies can be co-ordinated to launch massive attacks
- Pay per Install: malware distribution. Bot masters get paid for every 1,000 infected machines
- Botnets for hire: Crime as a Service(CaaS)
Tactics for Botnet malware delivery
- Cracked softwares or Free wares
- Clicking links to infected sites e.g link on email/social media
- Drive by downloads: visiting site with malicious scripts, automatic download through browser without user’s interaction/knowledge
- Malicious PDFs’
- Malicious images/photos e.g. on social media
- Creating FUD (Fully Undetectable) files by use of cryptors that evade anti-virus detection
- Executable flash disks
- Malicious mobile applications
Botnets on the Network
Background of Zeus, Citadel and Spyeye
- Zeus creator called Slavik aka Monstr
- Released 2007. Zeus code publicly leaked in May 2011 (Many variants thereafter
- SpyEye creator called Gribodemon, aka Harderman
- Released 2009. Initially a competitor to Zeus (removed Zeus)
- Author Aleksander Panin arrested in Jan 2014
- Citadel and Ice IX considered by-products of Zeus
- Released in 2011
- Citadel’s creator called Aquabox
- Improved ZeuS’s code by making its control panel more user-friendly
- Very good customer support network for buyers in underground
- Ice IX creator called nvidiag
- Gameover – P2P Zeus variant released in 2011. Highest infection. P2P
- ZitMO – Zeus in The Mobile since 2010. Intercepts SMS and 2F authentication
- KINS – latest Zeus variant since 2013
Timeline of Zeus and its variants
http://securityblog.s21sec.com/2013/11/zeus-timeline-i.html
ZEUS AND CITADEL
Building the botnet
- Builder – Bot preparation and compilation
- Configuration file – Contains settings for the Bot
- Web injects – Man-in-the-Browser customizations. These show extra fields in the log-in screens
- Control Panel – Bot Master’s screen where they control all the Bots under their control.
- Remote Scripts – The Bot Master’s tools to send commands to the infected machines
WHERE IS EAST AFRICA?
Online Services
Measures Taken to Secure Online Banking in East Africa
- Virtual Keyboards
- Randomized Keys
- Hover-mode
- Encryption
- SSL over HTTP - HTTPS
- Client Side Encryption
- 2 page authentication
Measures Taken to Secure Online Payment and Shopping
- Encryption
- SSL over HTTP - HTTPS
Statistics: Online Banking - Kenya
Bank using virtual keyboards – 6/33 banks Bank using 2PG – 4/33 banks
Banks with client side encryption – 2/33 Banks Banks with NO client side encryption : 31/33
Online Banking - East Africa
Banks using virtual keyboards – 9/46 Banks using 2PG – 6/46 Banks
Banks with NO client side encryption : 40/46 Banks Banks with client side encryption: 6/46 Banks
Banks Online Payment and Shopping
Top Online Payment Sites in Kenya with NO Top Online Shopping Sites in Kenya with NO client side encryption 4/4 client side encryption : 6/6
Mobile Malware
ZitMo for Mobile banking
- Version of Zeus that infects Mobile Phones
- Mobile Banking is the new “thing” in Kenya hence users exposed to this Mobile Trojan and other mobile malware.
- M-pesa users at risk as Android malware is on the rise.
- Only a matter of time before a custom malware is made that targets M-pesa.
Botnet Evolution
- Domain Generation Algorithms (DGA)
- Tor Botnets - Anonymized
- P2P botnets – Zeus P2P/Gameover etc
REMEDIATION. WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?
Prevention
- Patch systems: bots exploit known vulnerabilities for infection especially browsers and Windows OS
- Anti-malware tools: antivirus makers have signatures for the well known bot types
- Use Browser protection
- Use latest anti-malware updates and signatures
- User Information Security Education, Training and Awareness Program (SETA)
- Use reports like those by Serianu and Tespok Cyberusalama to know latest trends and how to avoid common vectors of infection
How do I know I’m Infected
- Process Monitoring: e.g. use of CrowdInspect and Sysinternals TCP View
- Registry Entries with sdra64.exe
Strange UDP and TCP ports
- CrowdInspect – highly recommended for Microsoft users
- Multiple sources of information, including VirusTotal, Web of Trust (WOT), and Team Cymru's Malware Hash Registry
- Host-based process inspection for Forensic analysis
- Tells you which network connections are open to which IP addresses, processes
Remediation: Network Side
- Detecting C&C traffic
- Examine networktrafficforcertain known patterns
- Use logging information from IDS/IPS, Firewalls, e.g BotHunter and BotSniffer
- Honeypots/Honeybots: www.honeynet.org Dionaea, Spam traps, Open Proxies, URL analysis
- Correlate using SIEM tools
Sinkholing
- Hijacking Botnet traffic, redirecting it to analysis servers
- Done by CERTs and Security Researchers in collaboration with ISPs and Domain Registrars
- E.g. by Microsoft (Mar 2012) , Polish CERT, Team Cymru
- Study the Botnet then take down Domain Names and C&C Servers
Remediation: Network Side
- Zeus Tracker and SpyEye Tracker (abuse.ch)
Provide domain- and IP-blocklist of known ZeuS Command&Control servers (hosts) around the world
Including Kenya
Authors:
Paula Musuva-Kigen: [email protected]
Christian Kisutsa: [email protected]
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