Posté par: igor51 le mai 16, 2019, 01:00:57
2018 Elections and Reveals Broad Operations Globally
Introduction
FireEye has examined a range of TEMP.Periscope activity revealing
extensive interest in Cambodia's politics, with active compromises of
multiple Cambodian entities related to the country’s electoral system.
This includes compromises of Cambodian government entities charged
with overseeing the elections, as well as the targeting of opposition
figures. This campaign occurs in the run up to the country’s July 29,
2018, general elections. TEMP.Periscope used the same infrastructure
for a range of activity against other more traditional targets,
including the defense industrial base in the United States and a
chemical company based in Europe. Our previous blog post focused on
the group’s
of engineering and maritime entities in the United States.
Overall, this activity indicates that the group maintains an
extensive intrusion architecture and wide array of malicious tools,
and targets a large victim set, which is in line with typical
Chinese-based APT efforts. We expect this activity to provide the
Chinese government with widespread visibility into Cambodian elections
and government operations. Additionally, this group is clearly able to
run several large-scale intrusions concurrently across a wide range of
victim types.
Our analysis also strengthened our overall attribution of this
group. We observed the toolsets we previously attributed to this
group, their observed targets are in line with past group efforts and
also highly similar to known Chinese APT efforts, and we identified an
IP address originating in Hainan, China that was used to remotely
access and administer a command and control (C2) server.
TEMP.Periscope Background
Active since at least 2013, TEMP.Periscope has primarily focused on
maritime-related targets across multiple verticals, including
engineering firms, shipping and transportation, manufacturing,
defense, government offices, and research universities (targeting is
summarized in Figure 1). The group has also targeted
professional/consulting services, high-tech industry, healthcare, and
media/publishing. TEMP.Periscope overlaps in targeting, as well as
tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), with TEMP.Jumper, a group
that also overlaps significantly with public reporting by
and
on "NanHaiShu."
Figure 1: Summary of TEMP.Periscope activity
Incident Background
FireEye analyzed files on three open indexes believed to be
controlled by TEMP.Periscope, which yielded insight into the group's
objectives, operational tactics, and a significant amount of technical
attribution/validation. These files were "open indexed" and
thus accessible to anyone on the public internet. This TEMP.Periscope
activity on these servers extends from at least April 2017 to the
present, with the most current operations focusing on Cambodia's
government and elections.
- Two servers,
chemscalere[.]com and scsnewstoday[.]com, operate as typical C2
servers and hosting sites, while the third, mlcdailynews[.]com,
functions as an active SCANBOX server. The C2 servers contained both
logs and malware. - Analysis of logs from the three servers
revealed:- Potential actor logins from an IP address
located in Hainan, China that was used to remotely access and
administer the servers, and interact with malware deployed at
victim organizations. - Malware command and control
check-ins from victim organizations in the education, aviation,
chemical, defense, government, maritime, and technology sectors
across multiple regions. FireEye has notified all of the victims
that we were able to identify.
- Potential actor logins from an IP address
- The malware
present on the servers included both new families (DADBOD, EVILTECH)
and previously identified malware families (AIRBREAK, EVILTECH,
HOMEFRY, MURKYTOP, HTRAN, and SCANBOX) .
Compromises of Cambodian Election Entities
Analysis of command and control logs on the servers revealed
compromises of multiple Cambodian entities, primarily those relating
to the upcoming July 2018 elections. In addition, a separate spear
phishing email analyzed by FireEye indicates concurrent targeting of
opposition figures within Cambodia by TEMP.Periscope.
Analysis indicated that the following Cambodian government
organizations and individuals were compromised by TEMP.Periscope:
- National Election
Commission, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and International Cooperation, Cambodian Senate, Ministry of
Economics and Finance - Member of Parliament representing
Cambodia National Rescue Party - Multiple Cambodians
advocating human rights and democracy who have written critically of
the current ruling party - Two Cambodian diplomats serving
overseas - Multiple Cambodian media entities
TEMP.Periscope sent a spear phish with AIRBREAK malware to
Monovithya Kem, Deputy Director-General, Public Affairs, Cambodia
National Rescue Party (CNRP), and the daughter of (imprisoned)
Cambodian opposition party leader Kem Sokha (Figure 2). The decoy
document purports to come from LICADHO (a non-governmental
organization [NGO] in Cambodia established in 1992 to promote human
rights). This sample leveraged scsnewstoday[.]com for C2.
Figure 2: Human right protection survey lure
The decoy document "Interview Questions.docx" (MD5:
ba1e5b539c3ae21c756c48a8b5281b7e) is tied to AIRBREAK downloaders of
the same name. The questions reference the opposition Cambodian
National Rescue Party, human rights, and the election (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Interview questions decoy
Infrastructure Also Used for Operations Against Private Companies
The aforementioned malicious infrastructure was also used against
private companies in Asia, Europe and North America. These companies
are in a wide range of industries, including academics, aviation,
chemical, maritime, and technology. A MURKYTOP sample from 2017 and
data contained in a file linked to chemscalere[.]com suggest that a
corporation involved in the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB)
industry, possibly related to maritime research, was compromised. Many
of these compromises are in line with TEMP.Periscope’s previous
activity targeting maritime and defense industries. However, we also
uncovered the compromise of a European chemical company with a
presence in Asia, demonstrating that this group is a threat to
business worldwide, particularly those with ties to Asia.
AIRBREAK Downloaders and Droppers Reveal Lure Indicators
Filenames for AIRBREAK downloaders found on the open indexed sites
also suggest the ongoing targeting of interests associated with Asian
geopolitics. In addition, analysis of AIRBREAK downloader sites
revealed a related server that underscores TEMP.Periscope's interest
in Cambodian politics.
The AIRBREAK downloaders in Table 1 redirect intended victims to the
indicated sites to display a legitimate decoy document while
downloading an AIRBREAK payload from one of the identified C2s. Of
note, the hosting site for the legitimate documents was not
compromised. An additional C2 domain, partyforumseasia[.]com, was
identified as the callback for an AIRBREAK downloader referencing the
Cambodian National Rescue Party.
|
|
|
iric.gov.kh/LICADHO/Interview-Questions.pdf | [pdf]Interview-Questions.pdf.js (e413b45a04bf5f812912772f4a14650f) | |
iric.gov.kh/LICADHO/Interview-Questions.pdf | [docx]Interview-Questions.docx.js (cf027a4829c9364d40dcab3f14c1f6b7) | |
unknown | ||
CNR.Movement.mp4.js (217d40ccd91160c152e5fce0143b16ef) |
Table 1: AIRBREAK downloaders
Figure 4: Decoy document associated with
AIRBREAK downloader file TOP_NEWS_Japan_to_Support_the_Election.js
SCANBOX Activity Gives Hints to Future Operations
The active SCANBOX server, mlcdailynews[.]com, is hosting articles
related to the current Cambodian campaign and broader operations.
Articles found on the server indicate targeting of those with
interests in U.S.-East Asia geopolitics, Russia and NATO affairs.
Victims are likely either brought to the SCANBOX server via strategic
website compromise or malicious links in targeted emails with the
article presented as decoy material. The articles come from
open-source reporting readily available online. Figure 5 is a SCANBOX
welcome page and Table 2 is a list of the articles found on the server.
Figure 5: SCANBOX welcome page
|
|
Leaders confident yet nervous | |
Mahathir_ 'We want to be friendly with | |
PM urges voters to support CPP for peace | |
CPP determined to maintain Kingdom's peace and | |
Bun Chhay's wife dies at 60 | |
Crackdown planned on boycott callers | |
Further floods coming to Kingdom | |
Kem Sokha again denied bail | |
PM vows to stay on as premier to quash | |
Iran_ Don't trust Trump | |
Kim-Trump summit_ Singapore's role | |
Trump's North Korea summit may bring peace | width="204"> |
U.S. pushes NATO to ready more forces to deter | |
Interior Minister Sar Kheng warns of dirty | Phnom Penh |
Another player to enter market for cashless | |
Donald Trump says he has 'absolute right' to | ABC News |
China-funded national road inaugurated in | The Cambodia Daily |
Kim and Trump in first summit session in | Asia Times |
U.S. to suspend military exercises with South | U.S. News |
Rainsy defamed the King_ Hun Sen | |
Associated Press |
Table 2: SCANBOX articles copied to server
TEMP.Periscope Malware Suite
Analysis of the malware inventory contained on the three servers
found a classic suite of TEMP.Periscope payloads, including the
signature AIRBREAK, MURKYTOP, and HOMEFRY. In addition, FireEye’s
analysis identified new tools, EVILTECH and DADBOD (Table 3).
|
|
|
EVILTECH | JavaScript sample that implements a simple RAT with support for uploading, downloading, and running arbitrary JavaScript. run on the system, which then causes a redirect and possibly the download of additional malware or connection to another attacker-controlled system. | |
DADBOD | Credential | used to steal user cookies. malware is still ongoing. |
Table 3: New additions to the TEMP.Periscope
malware suite
Data from Logs Strengthens Attribution to China
Our analysis of the servers and surrounding data in this latest
campaign bolsters our previous assessment that TEMP.Periscope is
likely Chinese in origin. Data from a control panel access log
indicates that operators are based in China and are operating on
computers with Chinese language settings.
A log on the server revealed IP addresses that had been used to log
in to the software used to communicate with malware on victim
machines. One of the IP addresses, 112.66.188.28, is located in
Hainan, China. Other addresses belong to virtual private servers, but
artifacts indicate that the computers used to log in all cases are
configured with Chinese language settings.
Outlook and Implications
The activity uncovered here offers new insight into TEMP.Periscope’s
activity. We were previously aware of this actor’s interest in
maritime affairs, but this compromise gives additional indications
that it will target the political system of strategically important
countries. Notably, Cambodia has served as a reliable supporter of
China’s South China Sea position in international forums such as ASEAN
and is an important partner. While Cambodia is rated as Authoritarian
by the Economist’s Democracy Index, the recent surprise upset of the
ruling party in Malaysia may motivate China to closely monitor
Cambodia’s July 29 elections.
The targeting of the election commission is particularly
significant, given the critical role it plays in facilitating voting.
There is not yet enough information to determine why the organization
was compromised – simply gathering intelligence or as part of a more
complex operation. Regardless, this incident is the most recent
example of aggressive nation-state intelligence collection on election
processes worldwide.
We expect TEMP.Periscope to continue targeting a wide range of
government and military agencies, international organizations, and
private industry. However focused this group may be on maritime
issues, several incidents underscore their broad reach, which has
included European firms doing business in Southeast Asia and the
internal affairs of littoral nations. FireEye expects TEMP.Periscope
will remain a virulent threat for those operating in the area for the
foreseeable future.
Source: Chinese Espionage Group TEMP.Periscope Targets Cambodia Ahead of July
2018 Elections and Reveals Broad Operations Globally (http://)