Malware spam: "RE: RE: ftc refund" / secretary@ftccomplaintassistant.com

This fake FTC email leads to malware. Curiously, it was sent to a company that received a multimillion dollar FTC fine, but this is almost definitely a coincidence.

From:    Federal Trade Commission [secretary@ftccomplaintassistant.com]
Date:    17 April 2017 at 15:25
Subject:    RE: RE: ftc refund


It seems we can claim a refund from the FTC.
Check this out and give me a call.
https://www.ftc.gov/refunds/company/companyname.com/FTC_refund_recipientname.doc
Thank you
James Newman
Senior Accountant
secretary@ftccomplaintassistant.com
212-0061570

The link in the email actually goes to a URL beginning http://thecomplete180.com/view.php?id= followed by a Base 64 encoded string that appears to be 6281 + recipient email address + 5434 (so for president@whitehouse.gov it would be http://thecomplete180.com/view.php?id=NjI4MXByZXNpZGVudEB3aGl0ZWhvdXNlLmdvdjU0MzQ=)

Obviously this downloaded document is up to no good, but the VirusTotal detection rates are only 5/56. The Word document itself tries to persuade victims to enable macros, which would be a bad idea.

Automated analysis [1] [2] shows network traffic to:

wasstalwihis.com/bdk/gate.php
littperevengpa.com/ls5/forum.php
littperevengpa.com/mlu/forum.php
littperevengpa.com/d1/about.php
hybridinformatica.com.br/blog/wp-content/themes/twentyeleven/inc/a1
hybridinformatica.com.br/blog/wp-content/themes/twentyeleven/inc/1
hybridinformatica.com.br/blog/wp-content/themes/twentyeleven/inc/2

It also appears to start sending traffic via Tor, which is a good reason to monitor Tor on your network. All sorts of files are dropped, most of which don't seem to be particularly malicious. "Gate.php" indicates a Pony downloader, but this does look like a tricky bugger.

Out of the domains contacted, littperevengpa.com and wasstalwihis.com shared the same registrant details and look fairly evil. We can associate the same registrant with the following domains:

soinwarep.com
ronwronsednot.com
withwasnothar.com
dingandrinfe.com
troverylit.com
derby-au.com
utonerutoft.com
situghlacsof.com
tinjecofsand.com
fortotrolhec.com
fydoratot.com
redwronwassdo.com
ronkeddari.com
littperevengpa.com
suranfortrep.com
newbillingplace.com
usps-daily-delivery.com
ringcentral-fax-inbox.com
wassheckgehan.com
wasstalwihis.com
meredondidn.com
satertdiut.com
vernothesled.com
veuntedund.com
ranwithtorsdo.com
notwipaar.com
dintrogela.com
adp-monthly-billling.com
rigakeddo.com
random-billing.com
hetoftinbut.com
hemlittratdidn.com

Perhaps more usefully, we can associate that registrant with the following IPs:

178.170.189.254 [hostname: nejokexulag.example.com] (Servachok Ltd, Russia)
185.146.1.4 (PS Internet Company LLC, Kazakhstan)
185.48.56.63 (Sinarohost, Netherlands)
185.80.53.76 (HZ Hosting, Bulgaria)
188.127.237.232 (SmartApe, Russia)
193.105.240.2 (Sia Vps Hosting, Latvia)
194.1.239.63 [hostname: nejokexulag.example.com] (Internet Hosting Ltd, Russia)
195.54.163.94 (PE Dobrogivskiy Muroslav Petrovich, Ukraine)
212.116.113.108 (Prometey Ltd, Russia)
46.148.26.87 [hostname: nejokexulag.infium.net] (Infium UAB, Ukraine)
47.90.202.88 (Alibaba.com, China)
77.246.149.100 [hostname: nejokexulag.e-vds.ru] (E-planet Ltd, Russia)
87.118.126.207 (Keyweb AG, Germany)
88.214.236.158 (Overoptic Systems, Russia)
91.230.211.67 [hostname: nejokexulag.freeopti.ru] (Optibit LLC, Russia)
93.189.43.36 (NTCOM, Russia)

This gives us a pretty useful minimum blocklist:

178.170.189.254
185.146.1.4
185.48.56.63
185.80.53.76
188.127.237.232
193.105.240.2
194.1.239.63
195.54.163.94
212.116.113.108
46.148.26.87
47.90.202.88
77.246.149.100
87.118.126.207
88.214.236.158
91.230.211.67
93.189.43.36