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Thursday, 4 February 2010

Sergey Ryabov / director@climbing-games.com strikes again

There's a somewhat unusual spate of injection attacks doing the rounds, code is being injected into the middle of victim pages through an unknown flaw, starting document.write(unescape('%3C%73%63%72%69%70%74%20%6C%61%6E%67%75%61%67%65%3D and then going on for a bit.. deobfuscating the code actually leads to a second layer of obfuscation, but once that is decoded it becomes clearer.

The injected code points to itsallbreaksoft.net


This then bounces through paymoneysystem.info/in.cgi?michaeleknowlton before hitting a seemingly random PPC search engine site hosted on 95.211.27.154, for example sdeh.net/iframe.html. Sophos have an excellent write-up of the anatomyof the injection attack here, and it's pretty clear that somebody is ripping somebody else off for PPC traffic.. its hard to say who the victims actually are.

The domains itsallbreaksoft.net and paymoneysystem.info belong to the same person, these are interesting because of the registration details:

Nexton Limited
Ryabov Sergey (director@climbing-games.com)
+79219270961
Fax: +79219270961
Scherbakova st., 6-38
Saint-Petersburg, 197375
RU
These contact details are very well known for very bad things. Incidentally, the registrar is ruler-domains.com, also an enterprise registered to "Sergey Ryabov" (if that's a real person).

It's all kind of strange as there doesn't appear to be a malware payload, which is good. But because of the way click arbitrage works, finding the real victims and villains is tricky, although interested researchers may want to have a poke around.

Using Google Images to fight fraud

A great post from the guys at F-Secure about how an employee used Google Images to stop being ripped off. Probably a good tip to stop getting defrauded at auction sites.

Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Pathetic


A multibillion dollar company operated by a bunch of f*cking amateurs.

In particular.. the bit that says "We are building a migration tool", but for some unfathomable reason we have decided to kick off this change before it's ready. Sure, Blogger is a free platform and I could always ask for my money back.

Another favourite is: "only .5% of active blogs are published via FTP".. and the reason for this is that for the past couple of years Blogger's FTP service has become increasingly unreliable for no particular reason.

Unfortunately, anyone who had business dealings with Google that involve real money will know that the the f*ck you attitude to customer service is very much ingrained in Google. To a certain extent, being jerked around when you are not paying for the service is one thing.. but business partners in things like advertising, YouTube and enterprise applications also suffer the same thing.

Yes, Google is still often awesome. But sometimes, like this time, it's just pathetic.

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

AdSlash.com is a bogus ad network

We've seen a number of ads being punted through AdSlash.com to legitimate ad networks, but it appears that these are leading to a PDF Exploit (don't visit these sites, obviously!).

For example:
fwlink.nx7.zedo.com.adslash.com/?alx=a27131939386&td=qcbp71pz=42834&sz=728x90&_zm=359161&st=n1n4&id=131939386&zcw=gh17chl277&xryr=3913771&mp=1460h1
fwlink.nx7.zedo.com.adslash.com/stats_js_e.php?id=131939386
fwlink.nx7.zedo.com.adslash.com/bdb/Health/banner_728.gif
fridayalways.com/kven/index.php
fridayalways.com/kven/js/common.js
fridayalways.com/kven/pdfadmnplay.php
fridayalways.com/kven/files/backoutblack.pdf

or

fwlink.nx7.zedo.com.adslash.com/?alx=a27131959519&td=qcbp71pz=42834&sz=120x600&_zm=359161&st=n1n4&id=131959519&zcw=gh17chl277&xryr=3913771&mp=1460h1
uparms.com/uparmglde/index.php
uparms.com/uparmglde/js/zingvaz.js
uparms.com/uparmglde/sexxhsdtk.php
which then loads a PDF exploit

or

fwlink.nx7.zedo.com.adslash.com/?alx=a27131958218&td=qcbp71pz=42834&sz=300x250&_zm=359161&st=n1n4&id=131958218&zcw=gh17chl277&xryr=3913771&mp=1460h1
setsup.com/setglde/index.php
setsup.com/setglde/js/common.js
setsup.com/setglde/ffcollab.php
setsup.com/setglde/files/slob.pdf

Despite the use of "zedo.com" in the subdomain, there is no evidence that these are being syndicated through Zedo.

Let's look at the WHOIS entry for AdSlash.com first:

Domain name: adslash.com

Registrant Contact:
PublishingAlert
Vivian Mitchell jacksosomands@gmail.com
650-887-5087 fax:
2069 Duck Creek Road
Oakland CA 94612
us

Administrative Contact:
Vivian Mitchell jacksosomands@gmail.com
650-887-5087 fax:
2069 Duck Creek Road
Oakland CA 94612
us

Technical Contact:
Vivian Mitchell jacksosomands@gmail.com
650-887-5087 fax:
2069 Duck Creek Road
Oakland CA 94612
us

Billing Contact:
Vivian Mitchell jacksosomands@gmail.com
650-887-5087 fax:
2069 Duck Creek Road
Oakland CA 94612
us

DNS:
ns1.everydns.net
ns2.everydns.net

Created: 2010-01-04
Expires: 2011-01-04

The address looks kind of legitimate, but there's no Duck Creek Road in Oakland and the phone number is most likely Los Altos, not Oakland. Also the fact that it has been registered just days ago is a clue.. and it turns out that the registrar is BIZCN.COM of China which is an odd choice for a California company.. in other words, the domain registration details are fake.

AdSlash.com is hosted on 217.23.7.6 which is reportedly a Worldstream Data Center in Faro, Portugal. There's a cluster of servers with fake registration details which are probably related:

217.23.7.6
Adslash.com
Dc2way.com
Ispmns.com
Rtcohost.com
Vpsroll.com

217.23.7.7
Net-wisp.com
Realhgost.com
Slhoste.com

217.23.7.8
Inhostin.com
Nx7tech.com
Vpbyte.com

217.23.7.9
Eywtech.com
Qhostin.com
Sslcode.com

Blocking the entire 217.23.7.x range will probably do no harm at all, it is full of typosquatting domains and other crap.

The PDF exploit itself is hosted in Russia on 213.108.56.18 at Infoteh Ltd (UNNET-LINER), there are a bunch of domains serving these exploits up:
  • alwaysinwork.com
  • fridayalways.com
  • runsup.com
  • uparms.com
  • upmostly.com
WHOIS details show the infamous moldavimo@safe-mail.net email address.

Registrant:
Name: dannis
Address: Moskow
City: Moskow
Province/state: MSK
Country: RU
Postal Code: 130610

Administrative Contact:
Name: dannis
Organization: privat person
Address: Moskow
City: Moskow
Province/state: MSK
Country: RU
Postal Code: 130610
Phone: +7.9957737737
Fax: +7.9957737737
Email: moldavimo@safe-mail.net

Technical Contact:
Name: dannis
Organization: privat person
Address: Moskow
City: Moskow
Province/state: MSK
Country: RU
Postal Code: 130610
The whole UNNET-LINER netblock of 213.108.56.0 - 213.108.63.255 looks fairly sordid, blocking access to it will probably do no harm.

As a side note, AdSlash.com did used to be owned by a hosting company called RackSlash, but it expired and was re-registered.

If you are accepting new ad banners - always remember to look closely at WHOIS details and other credentials to ensure that you are dealing with who you think you are.

Monday, 18 January 2010

Is Q-dating.com a fake?


At first this looks like some random spam:

Subject: Find a sexdate - Free registration!
From: "Q-dating" <info@qdates.net>
Date: Mon, January 18, 2010 3:19 pm

Having trouble reading this email?

FIND A SEXDATE IN YOUR OWN AREA?

www.Q-Dating.com
[http://mailings.email-pro.net/link.php?M=000&N=143&L=118&F=T]

Chantal 24 jaaronline

Single, searching for sexdate!
I'm not ready to settle down
and looking for a sexbuddy
Irene 34 jaaronline

Married, looking for date.
I am a loving wife of 34 years looking for a nice man.
The best dating site of the UK. Advanced searching, Instant chat, test it
now FREE! Click here

Click here to unsubscribe
[http://mailings.email-pro.net/unsubscribe.php?M=000&C=00000&L=7&N=143]
After a bit of "wtf" I decided to check out the WHOIS details to see who was spamming:

Company: Realcom Limited
Name: Andy Ling
Address: 33, Throgmorton street
City: LONDON
Country: UNITED KINGDOM
Postal Code: EC2N 2BR
Phone: +44 7937 082 210
Fax:
Email: realcomltd@hotmail.com
Oh, well that's kind interesting.. they appear to be based in the UK. A quick check at Companies House does come up with a Realcom Ltd.. but it's a wholly innocent and unconnected company in Oxfordshire.

There's not much of a web presence about from this Dutch-language review [autotranslated] which also complains that the site is a fake and that unauthorised credit card transactions have been made.

A bit of searching around finds some related domains:
Q-dating.com [94.229.169.102]
Q-dating.eu [78.109.162.121]
Qdates.net [78.109.162.122]
Q-dating.be [78.109.162.119]
Q-dating.de [78.109.162.119]
Q-dating.net [78.109.162.119]
Credifact.net [94.229.169.102]
Megacasting.eu [94.229.169.102]
Email-pro.net [Parked].. mailings.email-pro.net is on 78.109.162.119

All infrastructure is supplied by UKFast (abuse -at- ukfast.co.uk)

There are plenty of other dating sites to choose from.. some of them may even be genuine. But given the complaints and the questionable WHOIS details, then probably best to avoid this one.

Is trafficbuyer@gmail.com Bryan Hunter of Modena, Inc?

We have seen quite a lot of the domain registrant trafficbuyer@gmail.com lately [1] [2] [3] and it would be fair to say that this email address has been connected with malware domains for a few months [4] [5].

Domains operated by trafficbuyer@gmail.com appear to be part of the routing mechanism to bad sites, but there's no indication of who the email address actually belongs to. Is it an ad network, or is it the bad guys themselves.. and if it's an ad network, why are they hiding their name?

This post at Spyware Sucks gave a clue. There are several domains which are interesting because they have changed hands during their lifetime from a firm called Modena Inc (modenainc.com) owned by one Bryan Hunter of Oregon and are now in the hands of "trafficbuyer".

In July 2009, these domains were registered to:


Manager, Domain domains@modenainc.com
Modena Inc.
921 SW Washington ST
Suite 228
Portland, Oregon 97205
United States
(503) 241-1091 Fax --
By September 2009 they had all changed to:

Owner, Domain trafficbuyer@gmail.com
15156 SW 5th
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
+1.8005551212 Fax --
So, who are Modena Inc of Oregon? According to the State of Oregon, the two key people here are Bryan Hunter and Andrew Vilcauskas, although Mr Hunter's name is most often associated with Modena, Inc. The official status for Modena, Inc shows "Administrative Dissolution" which means that the state dissolved the company for non-filing of paperwork.. this seems to be a common issue. If we look at businesses related to Bryan Hunter then we see:

Big Truck Autobody (dissolved, failed to renew in 2004)
CreditYes, Inc (administrative dissolution in 2008, though still trading at CreditYes.com)
Diminished Value, Inc (filings overdue as of November 2009, trading at DiminishedValue.com)
ExitExchange Corporation (still active, although check the rating at WOT for ExitExchange.com or simple Google it)
Modena Homes, Inc (administrative dissolution in 2008)
Modena, Inc (administrative dissolution in 2009)
Modena, Inc (older incorporation, administrative dissolution in 2004)
Pro Web Design LLC (administrative dissolution in 2004)
Wind Song Creek Estates LLC (administrative dissolution in 2009)

Now, given the WHOIS history of these domains we would suggest that either Bryan Hunter is trafficbuyer@gmail.com or he sold the domains on to this person. If they are the same person, then perhaps he would like to review his business relationships and clean them up...

Friday, 15 January 2010

zoombanner.com / YieldManager malvertisement on ebuddy.com

ebuddy.com is running a malicious ad on the zoombanner.com domain, apparently managed by Yieldmanager.

First, the "legitimate" end of the malware chain loads at ad.zoombanner.com/content?campaign=1171557&sz=6
This forwards to deliver.commismanderakis.com/rotate?m=2;b=6;c=1;z=585778
Which goes to content.fishpotboutademalled.com/track/3388182/S_IT?[snip]
Then img.commismanderakis.com/img?XAhIPWtICDkJX0FVHXUDKFoRYhYlRxFCNlsBGEhLBEtVdRdiCRYKBA8kKV9RHBEaXFJfXFMHAQ
Followed by the payload domain at jduvazuc.info/cgi-bin/dep
then jduvazuc.info/cgi-bin/dep/j006102Hd793447cR55e239b8T9cc338b5V0100f060203L69740000000000000000
then jduvazuc.info/cgi-bin/dep/o006102203317l0010Hd793447cR55e239b8T9cc338b6V0100f060
Finally jduvazuc.info/cgi-bin/dep/e006102203318l0010Hd793447cJ0d000601R55e239b8T9cc338a4U0ec2fc77V0100f0600

This last hop tries to load an executable (and probably some other crap I haven't spotted), not very well detected according to VirusTotal. Oh yes, there's a PDF exploit too.

The malicious ad is an Italian language vacation banner in this case.


Most of the domains have anonymous registration details, except zoombanner.com which has the same details that were used in the malicous ads featured here and here.

zoombanner.com

Registrant:
Domain Owner
15156 SW 5th
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Domain Name: ZOOMBANNER.COM
Created on: 24-Jul-09
Expires on: 24-Jul-10
Last Updated on: 24-Jul-09

Administrative Contact:
Owner, Domain trafficbuyer@gmail.com
15156 SW 5th
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
+1.8005551212 Fax --

Technical Contact:
Owner, Domain trafficbuyer@gmail.com
15156 SW 5th
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
+1.8005551212 Fax --

Domain servers in listed order:
NS45.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS46.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

A search for the IP addresses show Linode is providing most of the infrastructure (again) with ezzi.net providing the payload server.

ad.zoombanner.com
69.164.215.205, 69.164.215.204 [Linode]

deliver.commismanderakis.com
74.207.232.205, 74.207.232.206, 74.207.232.248, 74.207.232.249, 74.207.232.250, 74.207.232.25, 74.207.232.30, 74.207.232.31, 74.207.232.35, 74.207.232.39, 74.207.232.202, 74.207.232.203 [Linode]

content.fishpotboutademalled.com
69.164.196.55 [Linode]

jduvazuc.info
216.150.79.74 [AccessIT / ezzi.net]

Incidentally, 69.164.196.55 also hosts a bunch of domains which are probably malicious:
  • Aspoutceringlapham.com
  • Baalcootymalachi.com
  • Bangywhoaswaikiki.com
  • Bertbleepedupsurge.com
  • Bluegumgodfulfrowzly.com
  • Bookletjigsawsenam.com
  • Boursesdeployporomas.com
  • Cabullacoexertstephen.com
  • Camastuthbroomer.com
  • Camocaexcidealaric.com
  • Cursarophitkamass.com
  • Dunnishbribesteen.com
  • Dusaexsurgeenzed.com
  • Eelfishminibusdaniel.com
  • Enyopensilflux.com
  • Fishpotboutademalled.com
  • Galasynjingkoendoss.com
  • Gombayuranidetripper.com
  • Haileschoralephydra.com
  • Haredjuvenalalkyds.com
  • Hoofishsmutsdela.com
  • Jigmenbrasschaves.com
  • Jumnamontanodillon.com
  • Limanadernaggly.com
  • Malabarvoiotiahsln.com
  • Mashlampeasewahima.com
  • Miauwbustianraynold.com
  • Mowewindsortejo.com
  • Nahshufrosterpappus.com
  • Negreetflurtagma.com
  • Nitrotowelvidovic.com
  • Oaterhabeasroyalet.com
  • Ospswraxledfummel.com
  • Oundycelticrecomb.com
  • Pcdosbahnerdalea.com
  • Pealedlupulicdunker.com
  • Polarlyfoetiskart.com
  • Potwareabipondeana.com
  • Psatchargeehewart.com
  • Puddyolderrippon.com
  • Sallierdiaushawed.com
  • Sarddieterchuted.com
  • Scullogmooerslarking.com
  • Siwardupttorntrib.com
  • Skouthlazordurning.com
  • Suttenbnetifla.com
  • Tacomanheathsdisodic.com
  • Temperabiceswayaka.com
  • Teughlyhesperegerek.com
  • Toterterrenobrasero.com
  • Vaccarykakkakcaddoan.com
  • Viperanmeatsoths.com
  • Viznomyboohoorigs.com
  • Voluntyseventechny.com
  • Wartedbiterhunter.com
  • Woodardvirgetoruli.com
  • Yawybottlersuccahs.com
  • Zirklehalavahhaunchy.com
I suspect that you probably wouldn't miss much by null-routing Linode completely at the moment.

"Croft Pole Distributors Limited" bogus job offer

Croft Pole Distributors Ltd (www.croftpoles.co.nz) are a wholly legitimate business based in Whangarei, New Zealand. This is a fake offer that falsely used Croft Pole's name in order to recruit into a money mule scam.

Subject: Online Job Offer
From: "Croft Pole Distributors Limited" <croftpole.update@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, January 15, 2010 10:52 am

Dear Sir/Ma,

Croft Timber Company Limited is a family owned business that began in 1905 and is still in Croft family hands today.

CTC moved more towards the specialised production of timber poles approximately 20 years ago and now trades locally as Croft Pole Distributors Limited with pole supply outlets in both Northland, Rodney and Auckland.

Within the last ten years CTC has grown considerably with investments in a new and larger site, plant modernisation/expansion and the introduction of equipment such as the Bezner Rounding Machine, Fogarty Kiln, Automatic Stacker, Machine stress grader and edge tester, planer and dry-mill department as well as the constant replacement and upgrading of existing plant and machinery.

The mill site is on about thirty acres of land with rail facilities adjacent and is approximately 25 minutes from the deep water port of Marsden Point. The plant ispresently capable of processing around 2,500-3,000 m3 per month.

We are committed to customer service and our aim is to remain flexible to meet the ever changing market needs with product and service unparalleled in the timber pole industry to date..

Most of our customers from Australia, Canada,United States & United Kingdom pay through various terms of payment which some are not negotiable here in New Zealand. This brings our quest to employ a credible and trustworthy fellow as our representative to coordinate our payments. This would not affect your present job but add more to your income.

Being our representative and assisting us in processing the payments from our clients should earn you a commission of 10% of every payment you coordinate.

Once we makes a sale we deliver the product to a customer (usually through UPS).The customer receives and check the products. After this has been done, the customer has to pay for the products. About 90 percent of our customers prefer to pay through Bank Wire Transfers or certified cheque. We have decided to open this new job position for solving this problem.

Your tasks are;

1. Receive payment from Customers through your Bank Accounts

2. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay on Payments processed

3. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be contacted to send payment to. (Payment is to forwarded by Local transfers (Western Union only). A local Money transfer takes barely hours, so it will give us a possibility to get customers payment almost immediately.

For example you have got �50,000.00

You take your income: �5,000.00


You will be able to operate with larger orders and you will be able to earn more.

Our payments will be sent into your Bank account that you provided, deduct your 10%(Salary) and forward the balance to the company via Western Union only.

We understand it is an unusual and incredible job position. This job takes only 3-7 hours per week.

You Will have a lot of free time doing another job, you will get good income and regular job. But this job is very challenging and you should understand it. We are looking only for the worker who satisfies our requirements and will be an earnest assistant, We are glad to offer this job position to you. If you feel that you are serious about this and be an earnest worker, All we will need for recording you to our database is below:

Full Name:-
Address:-
Age:-
Your Phone Number(s):-


Chris Moyle
Branch Manager
Croft Pole Distributors Limited
www.croftpoles.co.nz
The reply-to address is croftpole.update@gmail.com rather than croftpoles.co.nz, originating IP is 213.132.197.149 in the Netherlands, which hosts three porn sites but has probably been compromised. It is nothing at all to do with Croft Poles.

Of course, this 10% fee is a "too good to be true" scam which could well wind up with you going to prison, so it should be avoided at all costs.

Aurora

According to McAfee, the attack on Google and several other tech companies that led to the likelihood that Google will quit China was called "Aurora" by the bad guys.

The cruiser "Aurora" signalled the start of the Russian Revolution in St Petersburg in 1917.. I wonder if this name was chosen deliberately when the attackers targeted some of the West's biggest tech companies?

Image source

Thursday, 14 January 2010

More malvertisment domains

The malicious ads were running through (and I understand now terminated by) bootcampmedia.com, related to this post, according to commenter cerdo:

Blogger cerdo said...

bootcampmedia.com was also likely hosting a malicious campaign yesterday afternoon, and perhaps still ongoing. I'd contact you Jamie, but I don't have contact info for you. This all is clearly closely related to Dynamoo's post...

traffic.worldseescolor.com is an obvious bad actor. The other related domains:
deliver.bailagequinismregrow.com
img.bailagequinismregrow.com
content.cabullacoexertstephen.com

as well as:
aanserver88.com
bonnapet.com
afkenai.com
bfskul.com

14 January 2010 18:40

Blogger cerdo said...

Yep - saw traffic.worldseescolor.com via bootcamp again less than 30 minutes ago.

Related sites, accessed immediately after traffic.worldseescolor.com:

deliver.boaterdunnagechicot.com
img.boaterdunnagechicot.com

14 January 2010 18:45
Worth checking your logs for and blocking in case they turn up on another network. Checking IPs comes up with:

traffic.worldseescolor.com
69.164.215.208, 69.164.215.210, 69.164.215.205, 69.164.215.207, 69.164.215.204 [Linode]

deliver.bailagequinismregrow.com
74.207.232.205, 74.207.232.250, 74.207.232.249, 74.207.232.248, 74.207.232.203, 74.207.232.30, 74.207.232.206, 74.207.232.31, 74.207.232.39, 74.207.232.25, 74.207.232.202, 74.207.232.35 [Linode]

img.bailagequinismregrow.com
174.143.243.220, 98.129.238.102, 98.129.238.106, 98.129.236.239, 174.143.245.236, 98.129.237.14, 174.143.242.109, 174.143.243.90, 98.129.236.154, 98.129.238.101, 98.129.238.112, 98.129.236.254, 174.143.241.174, 98.129.238.105, 98.129.238.103, 174.143.243.162, 174.143.242.58, 98.129.238.99
[Slicehost / Rackspace]

content.cabullacoexertstephen.com
69.164.196.55 [Linode]

aanserver88.com
67.225.149.152 [Liquid Web]

bonnapet.com
Was 217.20.114.40 [Netdirekt / internetserviceteam.com] now appears to be down.

afkenai.com
195.2.253.93 [Madet Ltd, Moscow]

bfskul.com
195.2.253.93 [Madet Ltd, Moscow]

I don't have the full trace of these, so it's not exactly clear what these domains are doing in the reported chain.

More malicious OWA domains

In addition to these and these.

  • yht30.net.pl
  • yht36.com.pl
  • yht37.com.pl
  • yht38.com.pl
  • yht39.net.pl
  • yht3e.net.pl
  • yht3q.net.pl
  • yht3r.pl
  • yht3t.pl
  • yht3w.net.pl

Wednesday, 13 January 2010

And there's more..

More domains relating to this Zbot attack:

  • ui7772.co.kr
  • ui7772.kr
  • ui7772.ne.kr
  • ui7772.or.kr
  • ui7772co.kr
  • ui777f.kr
  • ui777f.ne.kr
  • ui777f.or.kr
  • ui777for.kr
  • ui777l.co.kr
  • ui777l.co.kr
  • ui777lco.kr
  • ui777p.co.kr
  • ui777p.kr
  • ui777p.or.kr
  • vcrtp.eu
  • vcrtp1.eu
  • vcrtp21.eu
  • vcrtprsa21.eu
  • vcrtps21.eu
  • vcrtpsa21.eu
  • vcrtrsa21.eu
  • vcrtrsr21.eu
  • vcrtrsrp2.eu
  • vcrtrsrp21.eu

Convincing look OWA fake leads to PDF exploit

There are getting spammed out at the moment:

From: automailer@blahblah.blah [mailto:automailer@blahblah.blah]
Sent: 13 January 2010 11:08
To: Victim Username
Subject: The settings for the username@blahblah.blah mailbox were changed

Dear user of the blahblah.blah mailing service!

We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (username@blahblah.blah) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:

http://blahblah.blah/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=username@blahblah.blah&from=blahblah.blah&fromname=username

Best regards, blahblah.blah Technical Support.

Letter ID#NGTS7OTY8XPZX8FEUYTTTZ1PF

The displayed link isn't the actual link, underneath it points to something like:
http://blahblah.blah.vcrtp21.eu/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=username@blahblah.bah&from=blahblah.blah&fromname=username

Clicking through the link takes you to a convincing looking OWA (Outlook Web Access) forgery page, populated with the victim's domain name and email address.

There are two exploits on the page, the first one is a drive-by download of an infected PDF file called pdf.pdf for which VirusTotal detection is only 10/41, detected by McAfee as Exploit-PDF.ac and various others. The executable file you are directed to download is also a bit patchy on detections.

Sender names include:
  • operator@
  • support@
  • notifications@
  • no-reply@
  • system@
  • alert@
  • info@
..all on your local domain, obviously.

Subjects include:
  • The settings for the blah@blah.blah mailbox were changed
  • The settings for the blah@blah.blah were changed
  • A new settings file for the blah@blah.blah mailbox
  • A new settings file for the blah@blah.blah has just been released
  • For the owner of the blah@blah.blah e-mail account
  • For the owner of the blah@blah.blah mailbox

Some domains in use on this are:
  • vcrtp1.eu
  • vcrtp21.eu
  • vcrtprsa21.eu
  • vcrtpsa21.eu
  • vcrtrsa21.eu
  • vcrtrsr21.eu
  • vcrtrsrp2.eu
  • vcrtrsrp21.eu
..there are probably many more of a similar pattern.

WHOIS details are fake:
Name:
Quezada, Ramon
Address:
1800 N. Bayshore Drive
33132 Roma
Roma
Italy
Email:
wawddhaepny@yahoo.com
Domains are on a fast flux botnet, so there's no point listing IPs. However, nameservers are as follows:
ns1.raddoor.com
84.243.201.159 [Netrouting Data Facilities, Amsterdam]
ns2.raddoor.com
71.123.51.158 [Verizon Internet Services Inc, Aston]
ns1.elkins-realty.net
84.243.201.159 [Netrouting Data Facilities, Amsterdam]
ns2.elkins-realty.net
71.123.17.61 [Verizon Internet Services Inc, Whitesboro]

Registrant details for raddoor.com are probably bogus:

edmund pang figarro77@gmail.com
751 kinau st. #30
honolulu
HI
96813
US
Phone: +1.8085362450
Registration details for elkins-realty.net are DEFINITELY bogus:
Name : B O
Organization : B O
Address : 123 elm str.
City : Los Angeles
Province/State : beijing
Country :
Postal Code : 23456
Phone Number : 86--8586104812
Fax : 86--8586104819
Email : BO.la@yahoo.com
Once your machine is infected, it probably gets infected with a Zbot variant as in these two previous examples.

More on malvertisements running through Bootcampmedia.com

Sandi at Spyware Sucks has a closer look at the malvertisements running through Bootcampmedia.com and comes up with some more details, following up from this post yesterday.

In this case the endpoint of the infection has switched to bonnapet.com hosted on 217.20.114.40 which is hosted by netdirekt e.K. / internetserviceteam.com, hardly surprising as they are one of the more common havens for crimeware. The internetserviceteam.com name appears to be a sub-brand used for black hat hosting .. perhaps it is time for a visit from the Bundespolizei?

Google to quit China?


"We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this any more!"

More here and here.

Image credit

Tuesday, 12 January 2010

BoingBoing.net / Bootcampmedia.com ad leads to malware


A malicious ad running on BoingBoing.net is delivering visitors to a PDF exploit.

Given the complicated state of advertising arbitrage, it is unlikely that BoingBoing.net have much control over it. The ad appears to be loading in from ad.yieldmanager.com (which is Yahoo!) and/or ad.z5x.net (DSNR Media Group) both of which are hosted on the same multihomed IP addresses.

The ad itself (pictured) appears to be some sort of get-rich-quick scheme or other.

This ad then directs through ads.bootcampmedia.com/servlet/ajrotator/790744/0/vh?z=BootCamp&dim=335848 to traffic.firedogred.com/content?campaign=1219131&sz=2 (this combination of bootcampmedia.com and firedogred.com has been noted before)

The ad then hops to deliver.amerchibchapowered.com/rotate?m=5;b=2;c=1;z=243826 then content.baalcootymalachi.com/track/3388182/S_SE?[snip] loading an image from img.amerchibchapowered.com along the way.

Finally, the visitor is directed to chohivyb.info/cgi-bin/aer/[snip] which contains an exploit detected as Troj/PDFJs-GI by Sophos.

"Boot Camp Media" is run by a guy called Jamie Dalgetty of Guelph, Ontario in Canada. It's unlikely that he's a bad guy, more likely that his ad network is being exploited by a malcious third party.

traffic.firedogred.com is rather more interesting, multihomed on 69.164.215.204, 69.164.215.205, 69.164.215.207, 69.164.215.208 and 69.164.215.210 at Linode, New Jersey. The domain firedogred.com is slightly interesting:

Registrant:
Domain Owner
15156 SW 5th
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)

Domain Name: FIREDOGRED.COM
Created on: 15-Sep-09
Expires on: 15-Sep-10
Last Updated on: 15-Sep-09

Administrative Contact:
Owner, Domain trafficbuyer@gmail.com
15156 SW 5th
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(800) 555-1212 Fax --

Technical Contact:
Owner, Domain trafficbuyer@gmail.com
15156 SW 5th
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(800) 555-1212 Fax --

Domain servers in listed order:
NS57.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS58.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
trafficbuyer@gmail.com has been used for these malicious domains for some months and is well known.

deliver.amerchibchapowered.com is also multihomed at Linode on 74.207.232.250, 74.207.232.25, 74.207.232.30, 74.207.232.31, 74.207.232.35, 74.207.232.39, 74.207.232.202, 74.207.232.203, 74.207.232.205, 74.207.232.206, 74.207.232.248 and 74.207.232.249. The domain was registered on 7th January 2010 and is hidden by DomainsByProxy.

content.baalcootymalachi.com is hosted on 69.164.196.55 at Linode again, again registered on 7th January via DomainsByProxy.

img.amerchibchapowered.com is hosted on a large number of servers at 174.143.243.90, 174.143.243.162, 174.143.243.220, 174.143.245.236, 98.129.236.154, 98.129.236.239, 98.129.236.254, 98.129.237.14, 98.129.238.99, 98.129.238.101, 98.129.238.102, 98.129.238.103, 98.129.238.105, 98.129.238.106, 98.129.238.112, 174.143.241.174, 174.143.242.58, 174.143.242.109 - these are all hosted at Slicehost.com which is a customer of Rackspace.

Finally, chohivyb.info is hosted on 216.150.79.74 which is some outfit called ezzi.net of New York owned by another outfit called AccessIT. No prizes for guessing that chohivyb.info has been registered only very recently with anonymous details.

216.150.79.74 is a well-known malware server, and that hosts the following domains which you can assume are malicious:

  • Ablxsr.info
  • Ajgdrt.info
  • Alevfq.info
  • Alfwqr.info
  • Alrpsl.info
  • Ameronada.info
  • Bnzbfz.info
  • Bodxmt.info
  • Bplimo.info
  • Briliantio.info
  • Bvqlag.info
  • Bzjsqk.info
  • Ccwarj.info
  • Cityopicos.info
  • Clthth.info
  • Ctksji.info
  • Dasyxe.info
  • Dbivoh.info
  • Dgltup.info
  • Dpuefh.info
  • Dtjblp.info
  • Enhmqq.info
  • Enqpqk.info
  • Euespj.info
  • Exmxfd.info
  • Fblooe.info
  • Fdwghs.info
  • Fopqde.info
  • Fprvsu.info
  • Frgbat.info
  • Fymjjz.info
  • Gelvmf.info
  • Gnautw.info
  • Gnysgg.info
  • Gredotcom.info
  • Grupodanot.info
  • Grxqog.info
  • Gukuny.info
  • Gyckjq.info
  • Hagijd.info
  • Haqdsc.info
  • Hgtbng.info
  • Hjdnps.info
  • Hyiyyi.info
  • Iakecg.info
  • Iaoaxz.info
  • Iewwpn.info
  • Ijaflj.info
  • Iohbvo.info
  • Jhrubd.info
  • Jokirator.info
  • Kbwstb.info
  • Kibfsz.info
  • Klamniton.info
  • Ktebkx.info
  • Kxlglw.info
  • Leeloe.info
  • Lgcezx.info
  • Lkraat.info
  • Lktcaj.info
  • Llchqs.info
  • Lnmrjz.info
  • Lokitoreni.info
  • Lqhczk.info
  • Lywavy.info
  • Lyzocu.info
  • Mallstern.info
  • Manaratora.info
  • Megafrontan.info
  • Mesxql.info
  • Mngmjc.info
  • Monsatrik.info
  • Montrealt.info
  • Mruvienno.info
  • Mrvsnq.info
  • Nalszu.info
  • Ncnzfh.info
  • Neiaea.info
  • Nigrandara.info
  • Njcmug.info
  • Npmkrr.info
  • Ntaxkj.info
  • Obzdkn.info
  • Ocftfa.info
  • Optugj.info
  • Otfcco.info
  • Owpwhi.info
  • Pbrugb.info
  • Plxxii.info
  • Pncgfd.info
  • Ppusmb.info
  • Prbakn.info
  • Qdinql.info
  • Qgxelo.info
  • Qqtwft.info
  • Realuqitor.info
  • Refrentora.info
  • Retuvarot.info
  • Rfouce.info
  • Rljysj.info
  • Rocqdn.info
  • Roeaaj.info
  • Semqef.info
  • Snosrz.info
  • Spgsgh.info
  • Stqvqw.info
  • Swrapz.info
  • Tcoqgo.info
  • Tehfnn.info
  • Top-lister1.info
  • Transforltd.info
  • Tsfxzg.info
  • Tyenxv.info
  • Ugrdzf.info
  • Uliganoinc.info
  • Urupnk.info
  • Utpxno.info
  • Uyguau.info
  • Vbqfdm.info
  • Veqibp.info
  • Vkfaao.info
  • Vwwtlp.info
  • Wddifv.info
  • Wdhcvv.info
  • Wdokxd.info
  • Wevoratora.info
  • Wtstds.info
  • Wvkjxx.info
  • Wvlsam.info
  • Xbhmws.info
  • Xbxynl.info
  • Xcisup.info
  • Xxiyrv.info
  • Ybeaxd.info
  • Yfntrg.info
  • Yqjxkj.info
  • Ywbxen.info
  • Zdkaki.info
  • Zhwtqz.info
  • Zlpbha.info
  • Znkwjc.info
  • Zqpwco.info
Unlocker.org.uk is located on the same server, but it doesn't seem to fit in with the malware delivery and perhaps it is best to assume that it is a coincidence.

Obviously block or null-route these destinations as you feel fit, and do not purchase any ads from firedogred.com!

Added: You probably want to block these too..

216.150.79.76
  • Cacorq.info
  • Clxhbz.info
  • Dgrxqh.info
  • Diwiowano.info
  • Dmdurz.info
  • Funkol.info
  • Geetol.info
  • Gitoer.info
  • Gondiroda.info
  • Gutrandin.info
  • Hizfek.info
  • Hopore.info
  • Ivgzda.info
  • Jopqae.info
  • Kolpao.info
  • Nadotraza.info
  • Niraynome.info
  • Ofahitino.info
  • Oirjsa.info
  • Ornotivec.info
  • Pirtaf.info
  • Popsto.info
  • Rellok.info
  • Ruhcsy.info
  • Sacmtf.info
  • Sdoras.info
  • Tapiroten.info
  • Tiizwb.info
  • Traxemere.info
  • Ulmqmq.info
  • Vivibt.info
  • Xsxydj.info
  • Yuncdjbiw.info
  • Yyoqny.info

216.150.79.77
  • Bnodas.info
  • Brasilianstoree.info
  • Byzypub.info
  • Depahugu.info
  • Gionasodor.info
  • Giratunes.info
  • Gyreal.info
  • Hlopki.info
  • Huerin.info
  • Igerinsar.info
  • Jcafuzixa.info
  • Joketarona.info
  • Koevoru.info
  • L-iza.info
  • Laryju.info
  • Manocoraz.info
  • Nbuuf.info
  • Npefu.info
  • Nvihobepo.info
  • Pe-aqemop.info
  • Pyneh.info
  • Retiof.info
  • Rzajexu.info
  • Tolkienad.info
  • Tymane.info
  • Typolazu.info
  • Vfoxoe.info
  • Wanitale.info
  • Yawibyve.info
  • Ydiuvy.info
  • Zoimie.info

Thursday, 7 January 2010

"Testkauf" - German language "mystery shopper" scam

For some reason, I've been getting a lot of these German-language spams, mostly originating from Brazil..
Subject: Testkauf

Mitarbeiter fuer Testeinkauf bundesweit gesucht.
Bewerbung bitte an blahblah@yahoo.de
This roughly translates as:

Subject: Test Shopping
Searching nationwide for employees to do test purchasing.
To apply, please contact blahblah@yahoo.de
In each case, the header contain a fake "from" address, the Yahoo! email address changes constantly.. and the mail seems to come from Brazil. This is most likely just a version of the mystery shopper scam, and should be avoided.

Tuesday, 22 December 2009

mailbox-email.com scam

Part of a long running dating scam, mailbox-email.com looks like a free email service, but isn't. Hosted on 222.170.127.122 in China, the server also hosts various fake dating and prescription sites.

All of these following sites are some scam or another, avoid them:
  • Adltfuntime.com
  • Adultmeetspot.com
  • Amazmail.com
  • Aprofilepage.com
  • Blowingawaytherestnow.com
  • Email-mailbox.com
  • Findallthebestherenow.com
  • Findnewfriend.net
  • Free-email-chat.com
  • Free-email-connect.com
  • Free-email-fun.com
  • Free-email-live.com
  • Freeextender.net
  • Freemailaccounts.net
  • Freemailnow.net
  • Getitatrxcenternow.com
  • Greatestofrxznow.com
  • Happeningrxcenternow.com
  • Hotlivemailchat.com
  • Kingofthekingofrxznow.com
  • Myemailhome.net
  • Netherlandsdns.com
  • Nodocneededforrxmedznow.com
  • Plygroundadlt.com
  • Realdealrxbrandnamesnow.com
  • Sexyhotlivechat.com
  • Skinny-me.info
  • Ysjhdfjd.com
  • Zeuhiuer.com

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

Piradius.Net / Adobe Zero-Day threat

Another good reason not to have Adobe Reader on your PC - the ISC is reporting yet another zero-day threat being exploited by the bad guys, using the domain foruminspace.com.

And guess who is hosting it.. yes, our old friends at Piradius.net, going to show just how dark grey their hat is and demonstrating another very good reason to block 124.217.224.0 - 124.217.255.255.

Saturday, 5 December 2009

"freeemailnow.net" scam

The domain freeemailnow.net looks like.. well, it looks like a free e-mail provider. But it isn't, it's part of some sort of fraudulent scheme, most likely a dating scam.

The pitch arrives something like this:

Subject: your profile
From: "Pasquale Clay"
Date: Fri, December 4, 2009 11:55 pm

Hey!
I know you dont know me, but I d like to get to know you.
I stumbled upon your contact information, am looking for a chat friend and maybe more.
Write me back at: snowfall1@freeemailnow.net

i am anxious to talk with you
A look at the SOA records points to ns1.netherlandsdns.com and admin.affilnet.net - affilnet.net is familiar, indicating that this is a re-run of the warmfuzzylove.com scam but again annoyingly missing a picture of a pretty Russian girl.

The registration details for freeemailnow.net are anonymous, nameservers are ns1.netherlandsdns.com and ns2.netherlandsdns.com, both on 222.170.127.122 in China along with freeemailnow.net itself.

There's a bunch of fake pharma sites sharing the same server:

  • Acquireflowherenow.com
  • Acquirerxmedzherenow.com
  • Allthebestatyourfingertips.com
  • Alwaysbetterrx.com
  • Anyrxmedications.com
  • Beatingallcompetition.com
  • Besatifiedmedsnow.com
  • Bestrxbuyshere.com
  • Blowingawaytherestnow.com
  • Championrxsource.com
  • Cheapcodeines.com
  • Choosefr0mthebest.com
  • Codeineoffers.com
  • Codeinepromo.com
  • Crazymedsupplyforyou.com
  • Discount-codeine.com
  • Easyrxhere.com
  • Expressmedz4u.com
  • Findallthebestherenow.com
  • Fingtertiprxmedacces.com
  • Firerxmedication.com
  • Flowagerofgood.com
  • G00dsonline.com
  • Getallyourfavorites.com
  • Getitatrxcenternow.com
  • Getmedicatedonline.com
  • Getrxeasily.com
  • Getrxeasilyonline.com
  • Getrxmedicationsherenow.com
  • Goodzchoices.com
  • Greatestofrxznow.com
  • Greatmedicalshere.com
  • Greatrxdepot.com
  • Greatrxg00ds.com
  • Greatrxonline4u.com
  • Grillindealz4u.com
  • Happeninggoodtime.com
  • Happeningrxcenternow.com
  • Honorablechoice.com
  • Incrediblerx4u.com
  • Kingofthekingofrxznow.com
  • Maxsav3r.com
  • Maxsaverz.com
  • Meddiezcenter.com
  • Medzfromonlinetoyourhome.com
  • Mosthighlysoughtafter.com
  • Neverendingflowages.com
  • Neverwaitrx.com
  • Newrx4champions.com
  • Niceflowofmedz.com
  • Nodocneededforrxmedznow.com
  • Nomorewaitinginlinenow.com
  • Onpointflowage.com
  • Qualitycodeine.com
  • Quickrxmedications.com
  • Readysetgetmedz.com
  • Realdealrxbrandnames.com
  • Realdealrxbrandnamesnow.com
  • Realdealrxrefills.com
  • Refillrx-depot.com
  • Reliableflowagehere.com
  • Reliablemedsource4u.com
  • Reliablerx4uonline.com
  • Rightrxchoice.com
  • Rx-refilldepot.com
  • Rxmainsource.com
  • Rxmedsolution4unow.com
  • Rxmedzatthefingers.com
  • Rxmedzinnotime.com
  • Rxremedies4u.com
  • Rxthatbeatsallothers.com
  • Rxwindowonline.com
  • Rxsourceforwinners.com
  • Selectfromallthebestmeds.com
  • Selectionfromthebest.com
  • Simeplyarx.com
  • Smokingdealz4u.com
  • Swiftestmedz.com
  • Theeasyreliablesourcenow.com
  • Theflowageoccurshere.com
  • Themybetterrx.com
  • Toprxsuppliers.com
  • Toprxsupplierz.com
  • Uniqueflowagesnow.com
  • Wehaveallyourfavorites.com
  • Wehavethemforyou.com
  • Wehavewhaturlookingfornow.com
  • Wehavewhatyourlooking4.com
  • Your-rxs.com
  • Netherlandsdns.com
Anyway, this is the same old scam and it should be avoided along with the fake RX sites that go with it.

Thursday, 3 December 2009

"Bank of England" scam email

This is some sort of fraud or phishing attempt, the email originates from richardscott269@msn.com but solicits replies to richardscott555@rediffmail.com - both of these are free email providers, and I'm pretty sure that the Bank of England can afford its own email servers. Avoid.

Subject: Payment Notification
From: "Richard Scott" <richardscott269@msn.com>
Date: Thu, December 3, 2009 10:12 pm

From: Richard Scott
International Settlement Dept.
Bank of England
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/
Ref: BOE/ISD/ACD/4556/09


ATTN :

The International Settlement department of Bank of England is obligated to contact you for the immediate release of your fund whose account has be come dormant and subsequently transferred to this department as unclaimed fund.Our findings have revealed that the problem behind your inability to have received your fund from the corresponding bank resulted from lack of transparency, insincerity and incessant demand for money by your representative(s) for unusual payments. We have therefore decided to establish a direct transfer payment system (DIPS) with you for the prompt release of your funds without any hitch.

We therefore request that you respond to this email immediately ( forwarding your direct contact telephone number) to enable us proceed with the release of your fund accordingly.

Yours in service,
Richard Scott.

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Incisive Media / writeathomesystems.com spam

Incisive Media is a little-known firm that comprises the rump of the much better known VNU Publications that was sold off into private equity a few years ago.

You might know the name "Incisive Media" through their miserable failure to sustain Personal Computer World which was one of the oldest computer magazines in the world, but they also own several other professional publications.

So, I was a little surprised to see that Incisive now seems to be in the business of sending out get-rich-quick spam.

Subject: Private Equity Europe
From: "Chesther Jane" <mcjane99@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, December 2, 2009 7:21 pm


Respected Friends,
“Who else wants to earn a full-time income writing on the INTERNET? You can start earning money writing online even if you have no prior experience.” If you can write at a 9th grade level, you could easily earn a full time income writing online.
Companies are desperately looking for entry level writers. If you want to start
earning money writing at home, this may be the most important page on the Internet you’ll read all year. Right now, you can make really good money, quickly and easily.
http://miniurl.com/22939
Chesther Jane
to unsubscribe reply REMOVE

Thank you for visiting my site!

http://www.incisivemedia.com/public/showPage.html?page=330349

DISCLAIMER
Private Equity Europe and Incisive Media do not take any responsibility for the
content of this email

The spam originates from 62.140.213.241 which is an Incisive Media IP address, and a close look at the mail headers shows more evidence:

Message-ID: <02 Dec 2009 19:21 IncisiveMailer@www.incisivemedia.com>

The URL miniurl.com/22939 forwards to Caroline.mikepsanderswri.click2sell.eu which is a laughably pathetic work-at-home scheme on the click2sell.eu affiliate network. To give click2sell.eu some credit, they are pretty good at terminating spammers.. which is why spammers try to mask their affiliate URLs.

I said "laughably pathetic", because you end up at writeathomesystems.com which attempts to recruit people to part with cold hard cash in order to learn how to write and market articles on the web.


Now, I'm not the best writer in the world.. and we all make tpyos now and again, but this one has a howler:

Yes, that says "(Prize will be changed tomorrow from $34.95 to $64.95)" when I'm really pretty sure that they mean "price".

Incidentally, a check of the Google cache shows that it was still referring to a price change "tomorrow" six days ago. I think there's a word for that.

Anyway, despite writeathomesystems.com truly crappy ad copy and highly dubious marketing techniques, they are not responsible for the spam. And as already mentioned, I know that click2sell.eu are pretty good at terminating spammers... so who is responsible?

Well, obviously the affiliate is responsible.. but also the people who strenuously deny responsibility are right in the frame.. remember the footer from the Incisive Media spam?

DISCLAIMER
Private Equity Europe and Incisive Media do not take any responsibility for the
content of this email
That's a bit like saying "I don't take any responsibility for taking a shit in your shoes" even though you have just left a big steaming turd in someone's footwear. And one vital question is.. where did the spammers get their email addresses from? Did Incisive sell them on? Or were they scraped?

Friday, 27 November 2009

"Please design a logo for me. With pie charts. For free."

Classic.. but wait, there's more to this story too! Language possibly NSFW.


This is the guy who tried to pay a bill with a drawing of a spider.

Mystery Google Toothbrush Mystery

Mystery Google is old news for many.. basically you get the search results that the previous person had typed in, and the possibility of being redirected to a malware site seeded by the previous person is a legitimate concern.



Just out of curiosity, I was poking around at it and got the folllowing message:
mission: write a limerick about toothbrushes and send it to randombystander -at- yahoo.com
Of course, there are no matches for "mission: write a limerick about toothbrushes and send it to randombystander -at- yahoo.com".. except there are now I blogged about it.

Now, only a complete nutjob would actually follow these instructions. So here's my effort:
There was an old battered toothbrush
It was ancient and didn't get used much
You'd be willing to bet
That because of neglect
The owner's teeth surely are now mush
Well.. it sort of rhymes. Let's see if that mailbox actually exists.. it does! :)

Friday, 20 November 2009

"please update your blah@blah.blab mailbox" spam

Another version of the Zbot trojan coming in via email, much like this one.

From: operator@blah.blah Sent: 20 November 2009 15:21
To: Blah

Subject: please update your blah@blah.blah mailbox


Dear owner of the blah@blah.blah mailbox,
You have to change the security mode of your account, from standart to secure. Please change the security mode by using the link below:

http://accounts.blah.blah.verzzi.org.uk/webmail/settings/noflash.php?mode=standart&id=[snip]&email=blah@blah.blah

So far verzzi.co.uk and verzzi.org.uk seem to be domains that are used for this, there are probably many others.

Target page is a fake Flash download:

Target file is flashinstaller.exe with patchy or generic detection at best, according to VirusTotal.

ThreatExpert report is here which could be useful if you are trying to disinfect a machine.

When infected, the machine calls home to 193.104.27.42 in the Ukraine, allegedly belonging to "Vladimir Vasulyovich Kamushnoy" but that could be fake.

Fake WHOIS details for verzzi.co.uk and verzzi.org.uk:

Domain name:
verzzi.co.uk

Registrant:
Suzanne Mendez

Registrant type:
Non-UK Individual

Registrant's address:
Taylor Street Apt. 22
Wilrijk
2771
Belgium

Registrar:
Webfusion Ltd t/a 123-Reg.co.uk [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 18-Nov-2009
Renewal date: 18-Nov-2011
Last updated: 19-Nov-2009

Registration status:
Registration request being processed.

Name servers:
ns1.elkinsrealty.net
ns1.winderz.net
The Verzzi domains are hosted on a fast flux botnet, so the good news is that it won't be very reliable if some muppet DOES visit the site.

elkinsrealty.net is one nameserver domain, with obviously fake WHOIS details

Domain Name : elkinsrealty.net
PunnyCode : elkinsrealty.net
Creation Date : 2009-07-02 19:50:00
Updated Date : 2009-11-20 01:11:11
Expiration Date : 2010-07-02 19:49:56


Registrant:
Organization : Elkins Realty
Name : O Berg
Address : 2150 1st Ave
City : San Diego
Province/State : beijing
Country :
Postal Code : 92101

Administrative Contact:
Name : Elkins Realty
Organization : O Berg
Address : 2150 1st Ave
City : San Diego
Province/State : beijing
Country :
Postal Code : 92101
Phone Number : 86--6195728001
Fax : 86--6195728002
Email : OBerg@gmail.com

Technical Contact:
Name : Elkins Realty
Organization : O Berg
Address : 2150 1st Ave
City : San Diego
Province/State : beijing
Country :
Postal Code : 92101
Phone Number : 86--6195728001
Fax : 86--6195728002
Email : OBerg@gmail.com

Billing Contact:
Name : Elkins Realty
Organization : O Berg
Address : 2150 1st Ave
City : San Diego
Province/State : beijing
Country :
Postal Code : 92101
Phone Number : 86--6195728001
Fax : 86--6195728002
Email : OBerg@gmail.com
And for Winderz.net:

Registrant:
R Opitz, Brian
341 Church Road
West Sunbury, PA 16061
US

Domain Name: WINDERZ.NET

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
R Opitz, Brian straus2009@live.com
341 Church Road
West Sunbury, PA 16061
US
7246372446


Record expires on 17-Nov-2010.
Record created on 17-Nov-2009.
Database last updated on 20-Nov-2009 10:46:04 EST.

Domain servers in listed order:

NS1.WINDERZ.NET 198.177.253.152
NS2.WINDERZ.NET 210.217.45.138
ns1.winderz.net and ns1.elkinsrealty.net are on 198.177.253.152 (Allerion Inc, Altlanta)
ns2.elkinsrealty.net is on 210.217.15.41 (Korea Telecom)
ns2.winderz.net is on 210.217.45.138 (Korea Telecom)

In this case the email "came" from operator@victimdomain - filtering your own domain at the gateway (or the "operator" address) could be useful.

Update: full list so far..
dirddrf.be
dlsports.be
ftpddrs.be
modertps.be
verzzi.co.uk
verzzi.org.uk
verzzq.co.uk
verzzq.me.uk
verzzq.org.uk
verzzg.co.uk
verzzg.me.uk
verzzg.org.uk
verzzm.co.uk
verzzm.me.uk
verzzm.org.uk
verzzn.co.uk
verzzn.me.uk
verzzn.org.uk


Thursday, 19 November 2009

Warning: Affilnet.net

Just as a follow-up to the warmfuzzylove.com scam, the same server (98.126.22.178) now hosts Affilnet.net which may be trying to pass itself off as Affili.net which is a legitimate marketing agency, although at the moment the site appear to be blank.

The domain was previously registered to Warner Brothers (of all people!) but was reregistered to an anonymous registrant on 13th November.

Given that the pattern of registration and server being used are consistent with an existing scam, then any approach from Affilnet.net should be regarded as being suspicious unless proven otherwise.

Avira detects TR/Crypt.XPACK.Gen in MW2

I don't play Modern Warfare 2 - but some reports indicate that it has a virus in it.

What seems to be happening is that Avira is coming up with a generic detection of TR/Crypt.XPACK.Gen on a temporary file (perhaps ~B8.tmp) in C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Temp.

However, "TR/Crypt.XPACK.Gen" is a generic detection - Avira is scanning the file and determining that it might be suspicious because it has been compressed with a commercial packer (a bit like a ZIP file). It is almost definitely a false positive that will be fixed quite soon.

If you like, you can head to the Avira Support Forums although where there is a short thread about it.

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

T-Mobile & LBM: Just a coincidence?

In what appears to be a systematic plundering of customer records, T-Mobile staff have sold hundreds of thousands (or perhaps millions) of customer details to rival operators. Given that a lead for an expiring mobile phone contract seems to sell for around 50p to £2 a pop, this is possibly a significant slice of cash.

One question is: who sold the data. But a more pertinent one is: who bought the data?

It is probably just a sheer coincidence that I have previously documented unexplained cold calling for T-Mobile customers from a company called LBM Direct Marketing in the UK.

This current round of cold calling is on behalf of O2. LBM appears to have subscriber details - when they finally do talk to you rather than putting the phone down, they greet you by name. [..] The caller denied that they worked for LBM, and claimed to be working for O2 [..]. Our attempts to talk to a supervisor at LBM resulted in the caller putting the phone down. In this case, they do seem to know the name of the subscriber ([..] the phone had previously been with Vodafone and then transferred to T-Mobile)
This is probably not an isolated incident - expiring mobile phone contract leads are valuable and are regularly traded, and we're not just talking about T-Mobile here.. it seems to be very widespread, and T-Mobile deserve some kudos for tackling the issue.

Just in case you missed all the furore, T-Mobile have a news article about it:

Sunday, 15 November 2009

Who is My-Data-Source.com?

My spidey sense started to tingle when I got this spam:


Subject: Your friend Workathomesystem[6194] would like to tell you about the Site
From: HR6194@workathomesystem.org
Date: Sun, November 15, 2009 4:09 am

Hello, my name is Derek Lindsay, and I am the Director of My-Data-Source.com. I
would personally like to invite you to become part of our team doing work-at-home data entry. We have guided thousands of team members to success using our new type of data-entry job called Global Data Entry. Some members are currently making $300 - $2000 and more per day, using our program and guidance. We have been dealing with online data entry for over 7 years. Do you have a few minutes? I will explain more.The Legitimacy of Our Company and the Programs We Offer If you are hearing Data-Entry Jobs before then I would like to make something very clear first. We are NOT a get-rich-quick company. If you are visiting our Web site looking for this type of opportunity then I am sorry to inform you that the programs we offer are not get-rich-quick schemes. We are a legitimate company, offering legitimate work-from-home data-entry job opportunities that have proven success and that we stand behind 100% with our satisfaction guarantee. If you were to ask us the biggest difference between My-Data-Source.com and all of the other work-from-home programs on the Internet, the answer would be this - With My-Data-Source.com, we give you training courses before you could do the the actual job to perform and get paid as we will explain on this page with our newest sources of Data Processing Jobs that pays. We will also provide you other programs that you will find when you became a member and that all you are getting is a list of links to jobs that you will need to apply to. WE ARE PROVIDING TRAINING COURSE AND THE ACTUAL DATA PROCESSING JOBS WITH OUR My-DATA-SOURCE.com TRAINING CENTER AND DATA PROCESSING JOBS THAT PAYS! Join our team, get started with complete instructions and guidance on our program.
Click this link: (snip)
The spam redirects through an affiliate link of mikepsandersmyd.click2sell.eu after first taking a couple of hops through TinyURL to avoid reporting. Originating IP is 200.46.204.144 in Panama.

My-Data-Source.com is one of those work-from-home programs that you have to pay to join. Is it a scam though? A good place to start is by looking for general advice on this sort of scheme from reputable sources, for example the BBB, National Consumer League, ScamBusters, and Consumer Direct.

One important thing is to know who you are dealing with - and My-Data-Source.com doesn't mention any real contact details anywhere on their website. The domain was registered to an anonymous registrant on 1st September 2009, so it has only been around for a few months. So, no clue there.. so it is impossible to know who you are actually dealing with.

Another thing to look at are testimonials - you can find these at www.my-data-source.com/testimonials.php - they all look fantastic, but in fact they turn up for all sorts of different sites on the web and clearly do not relate to My-Data-Source.com directly.

The so-called testimonials give a clue though - many of these are on "cookie cutter" sites, basically the same site with a different name. That's never a good sign as it looks like someone is trying to hide something. Sites that appear to be largely the same are:

  • my-data-team.com
  • global-data-entry.com
  • mydatateam.net
  • earn-clickhere.com
  • mydatateamjobs.com
  • mydataentryjobs.net
  • my-data-source.com
  • onlinedataworkjobs.co.uk
my-data-team.com is the longest established of these sites, registered in 2006 to someone called Gary Endres in Concord, California. It does seem to have a verifiable address, but comes with a poor rating at the BBB. But although the text content is largely the same as My-Data-Source.com, the site layout is different.. but they both have the same testimonials!

onlinedataworkjobs.co.uk takes exactly the content and claims to have been in business for 5 years, although the domain was only registered on 14th May 2009 to a company called "United Service Solutions" (who are not listed anywhere as a UK company) apparently based out of a flat in Bristol. Doesn't fill you with confidence, eh?

Where it is possible to find a registrant for these sites, then they all appear to be different. So, either they are reselling some else's "work at home" product, or they are just copy-and-pasting content from someone else.

There are very few clues as to the owner of My-data-source.com except for the name "Mike P Sanders" embedded in the affiliate link. When you try to sign up for program, eBay gives an email address of mikepsanders@gmail.com

..but here's an oddity, when the domain was originally registered, the registrant was "Lyndon Dave Ardimer"and a straight Google for that name points to a website called primemarketers.com which contains a number of ads for various schemes.. including My-data-source.com posted by Mike Sanders. So, is Mike P Sanders actually Lyndon Dave Ardimer? Or it this Derek Lindsay? Or Timothy Darwin (who's name appears on many of these sites)? At this point, the lead vanishes into a mass of affiliate programs and offshore marketers.

So who is My-Data-Source.com? As you can see, it is difficult if not impossible to determine if there's a real company involved anywhere in this scheme. Should you shell out $50 to join up with a company with no discernible history or physical location? Almost every consumer advice site says that you shouldn't get involved in any type of work-at-home scheme unless you can verify real contact details.. so on that basis, perhaps give this one a miss!

Friday, 13 November 2009

warmfuzzylove.com scam

Another dating scam, but they could even be bothered with a picture of a pretty Russian girl.

Subject: re:
From: "jody"
Date: Fri, November 13, 2009 10:49 pm

Hi there:

My name is jody. I was just looking at your picture online and i would
love to chat with you tonight. i just moved close to you and i have no
friends yet :(

you can send a message to my private email jody@warmfuzzylove.com

i would love to hear from you !!!!
warmfuzzylove.com was registered with anonymous details on 4th November 2009 and is hosted on 98.126.22.178 which also handles all the mail. The same server also hosts personals-online.net and singasong4u.com, both also recently registered with anonymous details.

Of course, "Jody" is probably a fat middle-aged man from a former Soviet Republic who will unexpectedly need some money wiring to them. Avoid.

Thursday, 12 November 2009

support@nacha.org: "Please review the transaction report"

This is the Zbot trojan or something, very much like this one.


From: Electronic Payments Association [mailto:support@nacha.org]
Sent: 12 November 2009 14:58

Subject: Please review the transaction report


Dear bank account holder,
The ACH transaction, recently initiated from your bank account (by you or any third party), was rejected by the Electronic Payments Association. Please review the transaction report by clicking the link below:

Unauthorized ACH Transaction Report

------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright ©2009 by NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association



The underlying link goes to nacha.org.fffazsf.org.uk which is itself hosted on some sort of Fast Flux botnet. The landing page attempts to get a user to download report.exe ( a Zbot variant). It also opens an IFRAME to 121.12.170.177 in China, a well-known malware domain.



VirusTotal shows patchy detections, still being analysed by ThreatExpert.

The domain name registration is obviously fake:


Domain name: fffazsf.org.uk
Registrant:
Matthew Hughes
Registrant type:
Non-UK Individual
Registrant's address:
203 Striding Ridge Drive Goldsboro 3881 Belgium
Registrar:
Webfusion Ltd t/a 123-Reg.co.uk [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk

Relevant dates:

Registered on: 12-Nov-2009

Renewal date: 12-Nov-2011
Last updated: 12-Nov-2009
Registration status:
Registration request being processed.
Name servers: ns1.pa-estate.com ns1.tradesdomains.net
Dig deeper at pa-estate.com and we see a familiar email address:

Name : Michell
Organization : Michell

Address : 8663 Sudley Road
City : Manassas
Province/State : beijing

Country : United States

Postal Code : 20108

Phone Number : 571-866-7585793

Fax : 571-866-7585793

Email : Michell.Gregory2009@yahoo.com


A Google Search for that address comes up with over 24,000 references!

tradesdomains.net is registered differently:

Dolorous Lane
fergunis@gmail.com

512 Stonegate Pl

Brentwood
TN

37027

US

Phone: +1.6155546664


ns1.pa-estate.com and ns1.tradesdomains.net are hosted at 207.210.101.253 (Global Net Access, LLC ) which also hosts puioypai.org which looks suspect too. ns2.tradesdomains.net is on 195.178.190.48 (Bahnhof Internet, Sweden).

Added: the email comes from several different addresses, including:
  • report@nacha.org
  • support@nacha.org
  • info@nacha.org
Subjects include:
  • Your ACH transaction was rejected by The Electronic Payments Association (NACHA)
  • Please review the transaction report
  • Your ACH transaction was rejected
Domains spotted so far:
  • nacha.org.tttteacf.co.uk
  • nacha.org.tttteacx.org.uk
  • nacha.org.redaczxm.me.uk
  • nacha.org.fffazsx.co.uk
Some additional nameservers:
  • ns1.pa-estate.net
  • ns1.video-format.com

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

media-servers.net hit bu superkahn.ru injection attack

media-servers.net is some sort of advertising agency that doesn't advertise who it belongs to and hides its WHOIS details behind privacy protection. A look at the historical WHOIS records show the following contact details:

Registrant:
Netposition Ltd.
POB 16041
Tel Aviv 61160
Israel

Domain Name: MEDIA-SERVERS.NET
Created on: 19-Sep-04
Expires on: 19-Sep-13
Last Updated on: 17-Feb-09

Administrative Contact:
Administrator, Domain domadmin@netposition.com
Netposition Ltd.
POB 16041
Tel Aviv 61160
Israel
+972.9723928600 Fax --

Technical Contact:
Administrator, Domain domadmin@netposition.com
Netposition Ltd.
POB 16041
Tel Aviv 61160
Israel
+972.9723928600 Fax --
Their site is infected with injected code pointing to superkahn.ru:8080/index.php - probably the people who own media-servers.net know nothing about it, but they don't make it easy to be contacted.

superkahn.ru is registered to:

domain: SUPERKAHN.RU
type: CORPORATE
nserver: ns1.freeonlinednshost.com.
nserver: ns2.freeonlinednshost.com.
nserver: ns3.freeonlinednshost.com.
nserver: ns4.freeonlinednshost.com.
state: REGISTERED, DELEGATED, VERIFIED
person: Private Person
phone: +7 4912 219900
e-mail: dibs@freemailbox.ru
registrar: NAUNET-REG-RIPN
created: 2009.10.28
paid-till: 2010.10.28
source: TC-RIPN

This is multihomed on:
91.121.88.218 (OVH, Paris)
91.121.108.53 (OVH, Paris)
94.23.211.214 (OVH, Paris)
94.75.198.241 (Leaseweb, Amsterdam)
82.192.88.35 (Leaseweb, Amsterdam)

Websense report that this runs a variety of exploit attempts against unpatched Microsoft and Abode products. Quantcast figures say that almost a million US visitors access this site per month, so a lot more worldwide.

Friday, 6 November 2009

"Congratulations!! You have won todays Macbook Air.".

Another day, another badly detected trojan:

Subject: Congratulations
From: "Media Service"

Congratulations!! You have won todays Macbook Air.
Please open attached file and see datails.

Attachments:
winner.zip 21 k [ application/zip ]


winner.zip contains winner.exe detected by some products as the Sasfis Trojan.

ThreatExpert report is here, malware phones home to 193.104.27.4 and 193.104.27.91 in the Ukraine.

Thursday, 5 November 2009

BBC websites down - possible DDOS attack?

The BBC's websites (e.g. news.bbc.co.uk and www.bbc.co.uk) are either down or very slow to respond from multiple ISPs and countries. It feels like a DDOS attack, but I cannot confirm it.

It's not trending on Twitter yet, but you can see that it's a widespread issue in real time. The BBC was subject to a major DDOS attack almost exactly a year ago.


Update: the BBC have a statement blaming "network problems" here. Perhaps they should be blaming Siemens?

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

Cracking logo, Gromit

Google celebrates 20 years of Wallace and Gromit. Genius.