Emotet
This article needs to be updated.(June 2022) |
Emotet is a malware strain and a cybercrime operation believed to be based in Ukraine.[1] The malware, also known as Heodo, was first detected in 2014 and deemed one of the most prevalent threats of the decade.[2][3][4] In 2021, the servers used for Emotet were disrupted through global police action in Germany and Ukraine and brought under the control of law enforcement.[4]
First versions of the Emotet malware functioned as a banking trojan aimed at stealing banking credentials from infected hosts. Throughout 2016 and 2017, Emotet operators, sometimes known as Mealybug, updated the trojan and reconfigured it to work primarily as a "loader," a type of malware that gains access to a system, and then allows its operators to download additional payloads.[5] Second-stage payloads can be any type of executable code, from Emotet's own modules to malware developed by other cybercrime gangs.
Initial infection of target systems often proceeds through a macro virus in an email attachment. The infected email is a legitimate-appearing reply to an earlier message that was sent by the victim.[6]
It has been widely documented that the Emotet authors have used the malware to create a botnet of infected computers to which they sell access in an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model, referred in the cybersecurity community as MaaS (Malware-as-a-Service), Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CaaS), or Crimeware.[7] Emotet is known for renting access to infected computers to ransomware operations, such as the Ryuk gang.[8]
As of September 2019, the Emotet operation ran on top of three separate botnets called Epoch 1, Epoch 2, and Epoch 3.[9]
In July 2020, Emotet campaigns were detected globally, infecting its victims with
In November 2020, Emotet used parked domains to distribute payloads. [11]
In January 2021, international action coordinated by Europol and Eurojust allowed investigators to take control of and disrupt the Emotet infrastructure.[12] The reported action was accompanied with arrests made in Ukraine.[13]
On 14 November 2021, new Emotet samples emerged that were very similar to the previous bot code, but with a different encryption scheme that used elliptic curve cryptography for command and control communications.[14] The new Emotet infections were delivered via TrickBot, to computers that were previously infected with TrickBot, and soon began sending malicious spam email messages with macro-laden Microsoft Word and Excel files as payloads.[15]
On 3 November 2022, new samples of Emotet emerged attached as a part of XLS files attached within email messages[16][self-published source]
Noteworthy infections
- Allentown, Pennsylvania, city located in Pennsylvania, United States (2018)[17][18]
- Heise Online, publishing house based in Hanover, Germany (2019)[6]
- Kammergericht Berlin, the highest court of the state of Berlin, Germany (2019)[19][20]
- Humboldt University of Berlin, university in Berlin, Germany (2019)[21]
- Universität Gießen, university in Germany (2019)[22]
- Department of Justice of the province of Quebec (2020)[23]
- Lithuanian government (2020)[24]
References
- ^ Ikeda, Scott (August 28, 2020). "Emotet Malware Taken Down By Global Law Enforcement". Cpomagazine. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
- ^ "Emotet's Malpedia entry". Malpedia. January 3, 2020.
- ^ Ilascu, Ionut (December 24, 2019). "Emotet Reigns in Sandbox's Top Malware Threats of 2019". Bleeping Computer.
- ^ a b European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (January 27, 2021). "World's most dangerous malware EMOTET disrupted through global action". Eurojust.
- ^ Christiaan Beek (December 6, 2017). "Emotet Downloader Trojan Returns in Force". McAfee.
- ^ Heise Online. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
- ^ Brandt, Andrew (December 2, 2019). "Emotet's Central Position in the Malware Ecosystem". Sophos. Retrieved September 19, 2019.
- ^ "North Korean APT(?) and recent Ryuk Ransomware attacks". Kryptos Logic.
- ZDnet. Retrieved September 19, 2019.
- ^ "July 2020's Most Wanted Malware: Emotet Strikes Again After Five-Month Absence" (Press release). August 7, 2020.
- ^ "Emotet uses parked domains to distribute payloads". How To Fix Guide. October 30, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
- ^ "World's most dangerous malware EMOTET disrupted through global action". Europol. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
- zdnet, January 27, 2021
- ^ "Emotet botnet returns after law enforcement mass-uninstall operation". The Records. November 15, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
- ^ "Emotet Returns". SANS Internet Storm Center. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
- ^ "Cryptolaemus (@Cryptolaemus1)". Twitter. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
- ^ "Malware infection poised to cost $1 million to Allentown, Pa". washingtontimes.com. The Washington Times. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
- ZDNet. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
- ^ "Emotet: Trojaner-Angriff auf Berliner Kammergericht". Der Spiegel (in German). October 4, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
- ^ "Emotet: Wie ein Trojaner das höchste Gericht Berlins lahmlegte". faz.net (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
- ^ "Trojaner greift Netzwerk von Humboldt-Universität an". dpa (in German). Heise Online. November 9, 2019. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
- ^ "Trojaner-Befall: Uni Gießen nutzt Desinfec't für Aufräumarbeiten" (in German). Heise Online. December 19, 2019. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
- ^ Joncas, Hugo. "Les pirates informatiques ont pu voler tous les courriels". Le Journal de Montréal. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
- baltictimes.com. Retrieved January 27, 2021.