Over the past few weeks, Perception Point’s IR team has been investigating a Crypter, spread wildly via phishing emails that ultimately deliver RAT (Remote Access Trojan) malware from the Xworm family.
A Crypter is a type of software used to encrypt, or hide, files or data so that they can be protected from unauthorized access. It uses strong encryption algorithms to ensure the data remains secure from attackers. However, it can also be used to encrypt, obfuscate, or manipulate malware to make it harder for AV’s to detect. In this blog we review the ScrubCrypter and its origin, where threat actors can easily buy the Crypter, and how attackers use phishing campaigns to distribute the Crypter and its accompanying malware.
What is ScrubCrypt?
ScrubCrypt is a Crypter currently sold on HackForums, a hacking forum in the clear web, that anyone can access from their device.
The price of the Crypter is 40 USD for a monthly subscription and goes up to 200 USD for a lifetime subscription.
Figure 1: ScrubCrypt pricing plan
The seller of the Crypter “Scrubspoof” provides a list of Crypter features, which include:
- AES Encryption
- Anti VM/Debug
- Persistence mechanism
Figure 2: ScrubCrypt feature list
The seller describes the Crypter as an “antivirus evasion tool [that] converts executables into undetectable batch files”.
Figure 3: ScrubCrypt value proposition
Customers can leave a review about the Crypter in the HackForum post thread. One interesting comment we stumbled upon was as follows:
Figure 4: Prospective customer comment
This comment was made by a confused potential customer that managed to identify the similarity between ScrubCrypter and the well known Jlaive Crypter. The Jlaive Crypter has been used for a long time by many threat actors as their main Crypter of choice.
Eventually, the main developer of the Jlaive Crypter replied to the user:
Figure 5: Jlaive Crypter developer response
The developer’s response was confirmation that ScrubCrypter is just a renamed version of the Jlaive Crypter. While other customers claim that ScrubCrypter has better performance than Jlaive, the features and functions are nearly identical. With a Crypter so easily available and accessible, any malicious actor can buy it and use it to propagate malware or the actor’s attack of choice. This threatens the overall security of many organizations, as the Crypter hides the final payload, making it less detectable to even some advanced security systems.
Now that we have covered what ScrubCrypt is and how easy it is to access, let’s investigate how it can be used in a real-world example.
The Crypt Goes Phish
In this example that Perception Point’s advanced threat detection platform caught, a customer received a seemingly typical phishing email. However, upon further review there is more to this email than just meets the subject line.
The user receives an email with the subject: “LEP/RFQ/AV/04/2022/6030”. Upon opening the message, there is a generic body with keywords often employed in social engineering campaigns. he goal of the message is to convince the user to download the attachment.
Figure 6: The phishing email
When the user downloads the attached file, it leads to a .bat file (batch script), which, once executed by the user, leads to a multi-stage execution chain.
Figure 7: .bat File
This eventually unleashes the Xworm RAT. Xworm RAT is a brand new Remote Access Trojan written in .NET language. Like any other RAT, it begins by stealing the user’s basic information like their country, IP address, operating system, etc. From there, it connects to the C2 server, allowing the threat actor to employ a variety of commands like keylogging, remote control of the user’s mouse, and downloading ransomware.
By using the Crypter to send this attachment, it makes it more difficult for security systems to detect. The Crypter adds a layer of protection to the malicious file, supposedly ensuring that the attacker will gain access to the user’s system or network.
Perception Point’s advanced threat detection platform flagged this message as malicious. The platform was able to recognize the sender’s low reputation and lack of a known connection to the user. In addition, the platform identified that the attachment was an archive file, which contained an executable that prompted an automatic download on the user’s operating system.
Summary
Attackers using a Crypter to hide malicious files poses a major security concern for all organizations, regardless of industry. The accessibility and availability of this specific ScrubCrypt makes it all the more dangerous, as attackers can easily purchase it and use it to conduct widespread attack campaigns. Without the necessary security features, an individual could open a ScrubCrypt file and unknowingly impact their entire organization, thus leading to irreparable damages.
In this blog we outlined the origins and uses of a Crypter. In subsequent blogs we will explore and expand upon the Crypter itself and the attack chain of Xworm RAT malware.
IOCs
- LEPRFQAV04,pdf.001 – 28d6b3140a1935cd939e8a07266c43c0482e1fea80c65b7a49cf54356dcb58bc (Sha256)
- LEPRFQAV04,pdf.bat – 04ce543c01a4bace549f6be2d77eb62567c7b65edbbaebc0d00d760425dcd578 (Sha256)
All IOCs found by Perception Point can be found on MalwareBazzar
