For all intents and purposes, this simply appears to be a legitimate browsing instance. The above image represents the worm communicating with its command center via the compromised Internet Explorer process.
Datathief windows full#
This is in fact a trick often used by many types of threats, as antivirus products, firewalls and other security safeguards are generally programmed to allow such common Windows processes full access to both the Internet and other applications on the infected computer.
This creates the illusion that all subsequent actions undertaken by the threat appear to be the work of these otherwise legitimate Windows processes. Similarly, the iexplore.exe process, which many readers will recognize as the process responsible for operating the Internet Explorer browser, is also injected. The file explorer.exe, a core Windows process and one of the few that runs in memory constantly on Windows operating systems, is compromised by _qbotinj.exe injecting _qbot.dll into it – that is, into the instance of explorer.exe running in memory.
The _qbotinj.exe file acts as a kind of servant to the _qbot.dll file. We will talk more about this file later in the article. The downloaded file _qbot.dll is the main component of the Qakbot worm and is responsible for collecting certain information from the infected machine and uploading that stolen data to FTP servers under the control of the creator, the locations of which are frequently changed. The first two components the threat downloads are _qbot.dll and _qbotinj.exe. Once a machine is infected with Qakbot, all Qakbot-related files are stored in the user profile data directory, which typically is C:\Documents and Settings\\_qbothome. Qakbot initially spreads via web pages containing Javascript which attempts to exploit certain vulnerabilities, including Microsoft Internet Explorer ADODB.Stream Object File Installation Weakness and Apple QuickTime RTSP URI Remote Buffer Overflow (Symantec IPS detection details here and here) and where those exploits are successful, downloads its malicious files on to the compromised computer. We will discuss each of these components briefly as we walk through the various functionality contained within and methods employed by this nefarious data thief. Taking a peak under the proverbial covers, we see that it uses several components to accomplish the task, including the following: The motive of Qakbot is quite clear, to steal information. Benign not because it is harmless - stealing login details, reporting keystrokes and uploading system certificates is malicious behavior indeed - but as will become obvious as we describe it in more detail below, because it moves slowly and with caution, trying not to bring attention to its presence.
W32.Qakbot (hereafter referred to as Qakbot) is a somewhat benign worm that is capable of spreading through network shares, downloading additional files and opening a back door on the compromised computer, all in aid of its ultimate goal. Then select Next.We recently had the opportunity to revisit a threat that first appeared on our radar back in May of this year. If the drive already has files and folders on it, choose Encrypt entire drive to ensure they’re all encrypted immediately. It’s very fast.Īnything added to the drive after this will be automatically encrypted. If there’s nothing on the drive being encrypted, select Encrypt used disk space only. This step asks to Choose how much of your drive to encrypt. When the key is needed, it’ll need to be manually typed in.ĭepending on the method selected, there may be some additional steps, but all methods will eventually lead to the next screen.
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