Check Point Software Technologies has published its Global Threat Index for July 2023.
Researchers found that Remcos moved to third place after threat actors created fake websites last month to spread malicious downloaders carrying the RAT. Meanwhile, mobile banking Trojan Anubis knocked relative newcomer SpinOk from top spot on the mobile malware list, and Education/Research was the most impacted industry.
Remcos is a RAT first seen in the wild in 2016 and is regularly distributed through malicious Microsoft documents or downloaders. It has been most recently observed in a campaign involving the Fruity malware downloader. The objective was to lure the victims to download the Fruity downloader, which ends up installing different RATs such as Remcos, which is known for its ability to gain remote access to the victim system, steal sensitive information and credentials and conduct malicious activity on the user computer.
“This time of year is perfect for cybercriminals. While many take advantage of the holiday season, organizations are left dealing with lower or altered staffing levels, which could impact their ability to monitor threats and minimize risk,” says Maya Horowitz, vice-president: research at Check Point Software. “Introducing automated and consolidated security processes can help businesses maintain good practices during busy vacation periods, in addition to good user education.”
CPR also revealed that “Web Servers Malicious URL Directory Traversal” was the most exploited vulnerability, impacting 49% of organizations globally, followed by “Apache Log4j Remote Code Execution” with 45% and “HTTP Headers Remote Code Execution” with a global impact of 42%.
Top malware families
Globally, Qbot was the most prevalent malware this month with an impact of 5% on worldwide organizations, followed by Formbook with a global impact of 4% and Remcos with a global impact of 2%.
In South Africa, Qbot was the most prevalent malware this month with an impact of 3,71%, followed by Emotet with an impact of 3,25% and Shampoo with an impact of 2,55%.
* Qbot – Qbot AKA Qakbot is a multipurpose malware that first appeared in 2008. It was designed to steal a user¿s credentials, record keystrokes, steal cookies from browsers, spy on banking activities, and deploy additional malware. Often distributed via spam email, Qbot employs several anti-VM, anti-debugging, and anti-sandbox techniques to hinder analysis and evade detection. Commencing in 2022, it emerged as one of the most prevalent Trojans.
* Emotet – Emotet is an advanced, self-propagating and modular Trojan that was once used as a banking Trojan, and currently distributes other malware or malicious campaigns. Emotet uses multiple methods for maintaining persistence and evasion techniques to avoid detection and can be spread via phishing spam emails containing malicious attachments or links.
* Shampoo – Shampoo is a malicious ChromLoader extension. It deceives users into downloading and executing malicious VBScript files from websites, leading to the installation of a harmful Chrome browser extension.
Top Attacked Industries Globally
Last month, Utilities remained in first place as the most exploited industry in Africa, followed by Transportation and Retail/Wholesale.
Top exploited vulnerabilities
Last month, “Web Servers Malicious URL Directory Traversal” was the most exploited vulnerability, impacting 49% of organisations globally, followed by “Apache Log4j Remote Code Execution” with 45% and “HTTP Headers Remote Code Execution” with a global impact of 42%.
* Web Servers Malicious URL Directory Traversal – There exists a directory traversal vulnerability on different web servers. The vulnerability is due to an input validation error in a web server that does not properly sanitise the URI for the directory traversal patterns. Successful exploitation allows unauthenticated remote attackers to disclose or access arbitrary files on the vulnerable server.
* Apache Log4j Remote Code Execution (CVE-2021-44228) – A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Apache Log4j. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected system.
* HTTP Headers Remote Code Execution (CVE-2020-10826, CVE-2020-10827, CVE-2020-10828, CVE-2020-13756) – HTTP headers let the client and the server pass additional information with an HTTP request. A remote attacker may use a vulnerable HTTP Header to run arbitrary code on the victim machine.
Top Mobile Malwares
Last month Anubis took first place in the most prevalent Mobile malware, followed by SpinOk and AhMyth.
* Anubis – Anubis is a banking Trojan malware designed for Android mobile phones. Since it was initially detected, it has gained additional functions including Remote Access Trojan (RAT) functionality, keylogger, audio recording capabilities and various ransomware features. It has been detected on hundreds of different applications available in the Google Store.
* SpinOk – SpinOk is an Android software module that operates as spyware. It collects information about files stored on devices and is capable of transferring them to malicious threat actors. The malicious module was found present in more than 100 Android apps and downloaded more than 421 000 000 times until May 2023.
* AhMyth – AhMyth is a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) discovered in 2017. It is distributed through Android apps that can be found on app stores and various websites. When a user installs one of these infected apps, the malware can collect sensitive information from the device and perform actions such as keylogging, taking screenshots, sending SMS messages, and activating the camera, which usually used to steal sensitive information.