BADNEWS

S0128

Malware.View on attack.mitre.org

About this malware

BADNEWS is malware that has been used by the actors responsible for the Patchwork campaign. Its name was given due to its use of RSS feeds, forums, and blogs for command and control.

Techniques used24

Procedure examples24

TechniqueProcedure example
T1005
Data from Local System

When it first starts, BADNEWS crawls the victim's local drives and collects documents with the following extensions: .doc, .docx, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, and .txt.

T1025
Data from Removable Media

BADNEWS copies files with certain extensions from USB devices to
a predefined directory.

T1036.001
Invalid Code Signature

BADNEWS is sometimes signed with an invalid Authenticode certificate in an apparent effort to make it look more legitimate.

T1036.005
Match Legitimate Resource Name or Location

BADNEWS attempts to hide its payloads using legitimate filenames.

T1039
Data from Network Shared Drive

When it first starts, BADNEWS crawls the victim's mapped drives and collects documents with the following extensions: .doc, .docx, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, and .txt.

T1053.005
Scheduled Task

BADNEWS creates a scheduled task to establish by executing a malicious payload every subsequent minute.

T1055.012
Process Hollowing

BADNEWS has a command to download an .exe and use process hollowing to inject it into a new process.

T1056.001
Keylogging

When it first starts, BADNEWS spawns a new thread to log keystrokes.

T1059.003
Windows Command Shell

BADNEWS is capable of executing commands via cmd.exe.

T1071.001
Web Protocols

BADNEWS establishes a backdoor over HTTP.

T1074.001
Local Data Staging

BADNEWS copies documents under 15MB found on the victim system to is the user's %temp%\SMB\ folder. It also copies files from USB devices to a predefined directory.

T1083
File and Directory Discovery

BADNEWS identifies files with certain extensions from USB devices, then copies them to a predefined directory.

T1102.001
Dead Drop Resolver

BADNEWS collects C2 information via a dead drop resolver.

T1102.002
Bidirectional Communication

BADNEWS can use multiple C2 channels, including RSS feeds, Github, forums, and blogs.

T1105
Ingress Tool Transfer

BADNEWS is capable of downloading additional files through C2 channels, including a new version of itself.

View all 24 procedure examples

Groups that use it1

Campaigns0

None recorded.

References2

  1. Forcepoint Monsoon Open source
    Settle, A., et al. (2016, August 8). MONSOON - Analysis Of An APT Campaign. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  2. TrendMicro Patchwork Dec 2017 Open source
    Lunghi, D., et al. (2017, December). Untangling the Patchwork Cyberespionage Group. Retrieved July 10, 2018.

Data from MITRE ATT&CK® (Enterprise). ATT&CK® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.