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Glupteba Botnet Nonetheless Lively Regardless of Google’s Disruption Efforts

By Eduard Kovacs on December 19, 2022

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An evaluation performed by OT and IoT cybersecurity agency Nozomi Networks reveals that the Glupteba botnet remains to be energetic following Google’s efforts to disrupt the cybercrime operation.

The Glupteba botnet is powered by a lot of compromised Home windows gadgets. The malware can steal consumer credentials and different information, mine cryptocurrencies, and switch gadgets into proxies. It leverages cryptocurrency blockchains to guard its command and management (C&C) construction.

Google introduced in December 2021 that it had taken motion in opposition to the Glupteba botnet and its alleged operators, Russian nationals Dmitry Starovikov and Alexander Filippov. The web large had filed a lawsuit in opposition to the 2 males and labored with trade companions to take down C&C infrastructure.

Nonetheless, a blockchain evaluation performed by Nozomi reveals that the menace remains to be energetic, with the most recent marketing campaign, which is ongoing, beginning in June 2022.

Nozomi’s investigation targeted on Glupteba’s use of the Bitcoin blockchain for hidden C&C domains. Particularly, the blockchain can be utilized to retailer arbitrary information by way of an opcode that matches as much as 80 bytes of information with the signature script.

Utilizing this methodology makes the botnet extra resilient to takedown as a result of blockchain transactions can’t be erased by regulation enforcement or defenders.

“The best way the Bitcoin blockchain is constructed on high of recent cryptography additionally makes this mechanism safe; with out the Bitcoin deal with personal key, one can’t ship a transaction with such a knowledge payload originating from the malicious deal with, therefore, taking up the botnet is just not potential. Moreover, menace actors can encrypt their payload from peering eyes, making the info storage scheme sturdy and value efficient,” Nozomi defined

In response to the safety agency, Glupteba has been utilizing the method, which has additionally been utilized by the Cerber ransomware, since not less than 2019.

An evaluation of greater than 1,500 malware samples and a scan of your complete Bitcoin blockchain confirmed that the primary marketing campaign, which began in June 2019, used a single Bitcoin deal with to distribute malicious domains.

Within the second marketing campaign, which began in April 2020, two Bitcoin addresses had been used for C&C area distribution. The third marketing campaign began in November 2021 and it was the shortest, stopping after roughly two months, doubtless as a result of actions taken by Google.

Nozomi has decided that it took the cybercriminals six months to construct a brand new marketing campaign. This newest operation, which started in June 2022, is far bigger, with greater than a dozen Bitcoin addresses getting used, doubtless in an effort to hinder the efforts of the cybersecurity group. The black hat hackers additionally elevated the usage of Tor hidden providers for C&C servers.

Google introduced final month that it gained the lawsuit in opposition to Glupteba operators, with the courtroom ordering the defendants and their US-based legal professional to pay authorized charges. The operators tried to mislead the courtroom by claiming they had been keen to cooperate when in reality their plan was to abuse the courtroom system and discovery guidelines to acquire data that will assist them bypass Google’s efforts to close down the botnet.

Starovikov and Filippov at one level provided to supply details about the Bitcoin addresses related to the botnet in return for Google giving every of them $1 million and never reporting them to regulation enforcement. The supply was seen as an extortion try by Google, which notified regulation enforcement.

Google confirmed in a latest weblog submit that Glupteba operators have “resumed exercise on some non-Google platforms and IoT gadgets”, however believes that the profitable authorized case in opposition to them “makes it much less interesting for different legal operations to work with them”. As well as, Google mentioned that whereas the cybercrime marketing campaign is ongoing, the corporate’s disruption effort nonetheless had a major influence, with a 78% discount being noticed within the variety of contaminated hosts.

Nozomi has printed a weblog submit containing Bitcoin addresses used within the Glupteba operation, in addition to different indicators of compromise (IoCs) that may be helpful to defenders.

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