#FactCheck - Viral Image of Bridge claims to be of Mumbai, but in reality it's located in Qingdao, China

Executive Summary:

This report discloses a new cyber threat contributing to the list of threats targeting internet users in the name of "Aarong Ramadan Gifts". The fraudsters are imitating the popular Bangladeshi brand Aarong, which is known for its Bengali ethnic wear and handicrafts, and allure the victims with the offer of exclusive gifts for Ramadan. The moment when users click on the link, they are taken through a fictitious path of quizzes, gift boxes, and social proof, that simply could damage their personal information and system devices. Through knowing how this is done we can educate users to take caution and stop themselves from falling into cyber threats.

False Claim:

The false message accompanied by a link on social media, claims that Aarong, one of the most respected brands in Bangladesh for their exquisite ethnic wear and handicrafts, is providing Ramadan gifts exclusively through online promotion. And while that may be the facade of the scam, its real aim is to lead users to click on harmful links that may end up in their personal data and devices being compromised.

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The Deceptive Journey:

• The Landing page starts with a salutation and a catchy photo of Aarong store, and later moves ahead encouraging the visitors to take a part of a  short quiz to claim the gift. This is designed for the purpose of creating a false image of authenticity and trustworthiness.
• A certain area at the end of the page looks like a social media comment section, and users are posting the positive impacts the claim has on them. This is one of the techniques to build the image of a solid base of support and many partakers.
• The quiz starts with a few easy questions on how much the user knows about Aarong and their demographics. This data is vital in the development of more complex threats and can be used to address specific targets in the future.
• After the user hits the OK button, the screen displays a matrix of the Gift boxes, and the user then needs to make at least 3 attempts to  attain the reward. This is a commonly used approach which allows the scammer to keep users engaged longer and increases the chances of making them comply with the fraudulent scheme.
• The user is instructed to share the campaign on WhatsApp from this point of the campaign, and the user must keep clicking the WhatsApp button until the progress bar is complete. This is a way to both expand and perpetuate the scam, affecting many more users.
• After completing the steps, the user is shown instructions on how to claim the prize.

The Analysis:

• The home page and quiz are structured to maintain a false impression of genuineness and proficiency, thus allowing the victims to partake in the fraudulent design. The compulsion to forward the message in WhatsApp is the way they inspire more and more users and eventually get into the scam.
• The final purpose of the scam could be to obtain personal data from the user and eventually enter their devices, which could lead to a higher risk of cyber threats, such as identity theft, financial theft, or malware installation.
• We have also cross-checked and as of now there is no well established and credible source or any official notification that has confirmed such an offer advertised by Aarong.
• The campaign is hosted on a third party domain instead of the official Website, this raised suspicion. Also the domain has been registered recently.
• The intercepted request revealed a connection to a China-linked analytical service, Baidu in the backend.

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• Domain Name: apronicon.top
• Registry Domain ID: D20231130G10001G_13716168-top
• Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.west263[.]com
• Registrar URL: www.west263[.]com
• Updated Date: 2024-02-28T07:21:18Z
• Creation Date: 2023-11-30T03:27:17Z  (Recently created)
• Registry Expiry Date: 2024-11-30T03:27:17Z
• Registrar: Chengdu west dimension digital
• Registrant State/Province: Hei Long Jiang
• Registrant Country: CN (China)
• Name Server: amos.ns.cloudflare[.]com
• Name Server: zara.ns.cloudflare[.]com

Note: Cybercriminal used Cloudflare technology to mask the actual IP address of the fraudulent website.

CyberPeace Advisory:

• Do not open those messages received from social platforms in which you think that such messages are suspicious or unsolicited. In the beginning, your own discretion can become your best weapon.
• Falling prey to such scams could compromise your entire system, potentially granting unauthorized access to your microphone, camera, text messages, contacts, pictures, videos, banking applications, and more. Keep your cyber world safe against any attacks.
• Never, in any case, reveal such sensitive data as your login credentials and banking details to entities you haven't validated as reliable ones.
• Before sharing any content or clicking on links within messages, always verify the legitimacy of the source. Protect not only yourself but also those in your digital circle.
• For the sake of the truthfulness of offers and messages, find the official sources and companies directly. Verify the authenticity of alluring offers before taking any action.

Conclusion:

Aarong Ramadan Gift scam is a fraudulent act that takes advantage of the victims' loyalty to a reputable brand. The realization of the mechanism used to make the campaign look real, can actually help us become more conscious and take measures to our community not to be inattentive against cyberthreats. Be aware, check the credibility, and spread awareness to others wherever you can, to contribute in building a security conscious digital space.

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Executive Summary:

New Linux malware has been discovered by a cybersecurity firm Volexity, and this new strain of malware is being referred to as DISGOMOJI. A Pakistan-based threat actor alias ‘UTA0137’ has been identified as having espionage aims, with its primary focus on Indian government entities.  Like other common forms of backdoors and botnets involved in different types of cyberattacks, DISGOMOJI, the malware  allows the use of commands to capture screenshots, search for files to steal, spread additional payloads, and transfer files. DISGOMOJI  uses Discord (messaging service)  for Command & Control (C2)  and uses emojis  for C2 communication. This malware targets Linux operating systems.

The DISCOMOJI Malware:  

• The DISGOMOJI malware opens a specific channel in a Discord server and every new channel corresponds to a new victim. This means that the attacker can communicate with the victim one at a time.

• This particular malware connects with the attacker-controlled Discord server using Emoji, a form of relay protocol. The attacker provides unique emojis as instructions, and the malware uses emojis as a feedback to the subsequent command status.

• For instance, the ‘camera with flash’ emoji is used to screenshots the device of the victim or to steal, the ‘fox’ emoji cracks all Firefox profiles, and the ‘skull’ emoji kills the malware process.

• This C2 communication is done using emojis to ensure messaging between infected contacts, and it is almost impossible for Discord to shut down the malware as it can always change the account details of Discord it is using once the maliciou server is blocked.

• The malware also has capabilities aside from the emoji-based C2 such as network probing, tunneling, and data theft that are needed to help the UTA0137 threat actor in achieving its espionage goals.

Specific emojis used for different commands by UTA0137:

• Camera with Flash (📸): Captures a picture of the target device’s screen as per the victim’s directions.

• Backhand Index Pointing Down (👇): Extracts files from the targeted device and sends them to the command channel in the form of attachments.

• Backhand Index Pointing Right (👉): This process involves sending a file found on the victim’s device to another web-hosted file storage service known as Oshi or oshi[. ]at.

• Backhand Index Pointing Left (👈): Sends a file from the victim’s device to transfer[. ]sh, which is an online service for sharing files on the Internet.

• Fire (🔥): Finds and transmits all files with certain extensions that exist on the victim’s device, such as *. txt, *. doc, *. xls, *. pdf, *. ppt, *. rtf, *. log, *. cfg, *. dat, *. db, *. mdb, *. odb, *. sql, *. json, *. xml, *. php, *. asp, *. pl, *. sh, *. py, *. ino, *. cpp, *. java,

• Fox (🦊): This works by compressing all Firefox related profiles in the affected device. 

• Skull (💀): Kills the malware process in windows using ‘os. Exit()’

• Man Running (🏃‍♂️):  Execute a command on a victim’s device. This command receives an argument, which is the command to execute.

• Index Pointing up (👆) : Upload a file to the victim's device. The file to upload is attached along with this emoji

Analysis:   

The analysis was carried out for one of the indicator of compromised SHA-256 hash file-  C981aa1f05adf030bacffc0e279cf9dc93cef877f7bce33ee27e9296363cf002.

It is found that most of the vendors have marked the file as trojan in virustotal and the graph explains the malicious nature of the contacted domains and IPs.

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Discord & C2 Communication  for UTA0137:

• Stealthiness: Discord is a well-known messaging platform used for different purposes, which means that sending any messages or files on the server should not attract suspicion. Such stealthiness makes it possible for UTA0137 to remain dormant for greater periods before launching an attack.

• Customization: UTA0137 connected to Discord is able to create specific channels for distinct victims on the server. Such a framework allows the attackers to communicate with each of the victims individually to make a process more accurate and efficient.

• Emoji-based protocol: For C2 communication, emojis really complicates the attempt that Discord might make to interfere with the operations of the malware. In case the malicious server gets banned, malware could easily be recovered, especially by using the Discord credentials from the C2 server.

• Persistence: The malware, as stated above, has the ability to perpetually exist to hack the system and withstand rebooting of systems so that the virus can continue to operate without being detected by the owner of the hacked system.

• Advanced capabilities: Other features of DISGOMOJI are the Network Map using Nmap scanner, network tunneling through Chisel and Ligolo and Data Exfiltration by File Sharing services. These capabilities thus help in aiding the espionage goals of UTA0137.

• Social engineering: The virus and the trojan can show the pop-up windows and prompt messages, for example the fake update for firefox and similar applications, where the user can be tricked into inputting the password.

• Dynamic credential fetching: The malware does not write the hardcoded values of the credentials in order to connect it to the discord server. This also inconveniences analysts as they are unable to easily locate the position of the C2 server.

• Bogus informational and error messages: They never show any real information or errors because they do not want one to decipher the malicious behavior easily.

Recommendations to mitigate the risk of UTA0137:

• Regularly Update Software and Firmware: It is essential to regularly update all the application software and firmware of different devices, particularly, routers, to prevent hackers from exploiting the discovered and disclosed flaws. This includes fixing bugs such as CVE-2024-3080 and CVE-2024-3912 on ASUS routers, which basically entails solving a set of problems.

• Implement Multi-Factor Authentication: There are statistics that show how often user accounts are attacked, it is important to incorporate multi-factor authentication to further secure the accounts.

• Deploy Advanced Malware Protection: Provide robust guard that will help the user recognize and prevent the execution of the DISGOMOJI malware and similar threats.

• Enhance Network Segmentation: Utilize stringent network isolation mechanisms that seek to compartmentalize the key systems and data from the rest of the network in order to minimize the attack exposure.

• Monitor Network Activity: Scanning Network hour to hour for identifying and handling the security breach and the tools such as Nmap, Chisel, Ligolo etc can be used.

• Utilize Threat Intelligence: To leverage advanced threats intelligence which will help you acquire knowledge on previous threats and vulnerabilities and take informed actions.

• Secure Communication Channels: Mitigate the problem of the leakage of developers’ credentials and ways of engaging with the discord through loss of contact to prevent abusing attacks or gaining control over Discord as an attack vector.

• Enforce Access Control: Regularly review and update the user authentication processes by adopting stricter access control measures that will allow only the right personnel to access the right systems and information.

• Conduct Regular Security Audits: It is important to engage in security audits periodically in an effort to check some of the weaknesses present within the network or systems.

• Implement Incident Response Plan: Conduct a risk assessment, based on that design and establish an efficient incident response kit that helps in the early identification, isolation, and management of security breaches.

• Educate Users: Educate users on cybersecurity hygiene, opportunities to strengthen affinity with the University, and conduct retraining on threats like phishing and social engineering.

Conclusion:

The new threat actor named UTA0137 from Pakistan who was utilizing DISGOMOJI malware to attack Indian government institutions using embedded emojis with a command line through the Discord app was discovered by Volexity. It has the capability to exfiltrate and aims to steal the data of government entities. The UTA0137 was continuously improved over time to permanently communicate with victims. It underlines the necessity of having strong protection from viruses and hacker attacks, using secure passwords and unique codes every time, updating the software more often and having high-level anti-malware tools. Organizations can minimize advanced threats, the likes of DISGOMOJI and protect sensitive data by improving network segmentation, continuous monitoring of activities, and users’ awareness.

References:

https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/66712446e23b1d14e4f293eb

https://thehackernews.com/2024/06/pakistani-hackers-use-disgomoji-malware.html?m=1

https://cybernews.com/news/hackers-using-emojis-to-command-malware/

https://www.blackhatethicalhacking.com/news/disgomoji-new-linux-malware-uses-emojis-for-command-execution/

https://www.volexity.com/blog/2024/06/13/disgomoji-malware-used-to-target-indian-government/

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About Customs Scam:

The Customs Scam is a type of fraud where the scammers pretend to be from the renowned courier office company (DTDC, etc.), or customs department or other government entities. They try to deceive the targets to transfer the money to resolve the fake customs related concerns.  The Research Wing at CyberPeace along with the Research Wing of Autobot Infosec Private Ltd. delved into this case through Open Source Intelligence methods and undercover interactions with the scammers and concluded with some credible information.

Case Study:

The victim receives a phone call posing as a renowned courier office (DTDC, etc.) employee (in some case custom’s officer) that a parcel in the name of the victim has been taken into custody because of inappropriate content. The scammer provides the victim an employee ID, FIR number to prove the authenticity of the case and also they show empathy towards the victim. The scammer pretends to help the victim to connect with a police officer for further action. This so-called police officer shows transparency in his work. He asks him to join a skype video call and he even provides time to install the skype app. He instructs the victim to connect with the skype id provided by the fake police officer where the scammer created a fake police station environment. He also claims that he contacted the headquarters and the victim’s phone number is associated with many illegal activities to create panic to the victim.  Then the scammers also ask the victim to give their personal details such as home address, office address, aadhar card number, PAN card number and screenshot of their bank accounts along with their available account balance for the sake of so-called investigation. Sometimes scammers also demand a high amount of money to resolve the issue and create fake urgency to trap the victim in making the payment. He sternly warns the victim not to contact any other police officials or professionals, making it clear that doing so would only lead to more trouble.

Analysis & Findings: 

After receiving these kinds of complaints from multiple sources, the analysis was done on the collection of phone numbers from where the calls originated. These phone numbers were analysed for alias name, location, Telecom operator,  etc.  Further, we have verified the number to check whether the number is linked with any social media account on reputed platforms like Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, and other classified platforms such as Locanto.

• Phone Number Analysis: Each phone number looks authentic, cleverly concealing the fraud. Sometimes scammers use virtual/temporary phone numbers for these kinds of scams. In this case the victim was from Delhi, so the scammer posed themselves from Delhi Police station, while the phone numbers belong to a different place.

• Undercover Interactions:  The interactions with the suspects reveals their chilling way of modus operandi. These scammers are masters of psychological manipulation. They threaten the victims and act as if they are genuine LEA officers. 
• Exploitation Tactics: They target unsuspecting individuals and create fear and fake urgency among the targets to extract sensitive information such as Aadhaar, PAN card and bank account details.

• Fraud Execution: The scammers demand for the payment to resolve this issue and they make use of the stolen personally identifiable information. Once the victims transfer the money, the fraudsters cut off all the communication.
• Outcome for Victims:  The scammers act so genuine and they frame the incidents so realistic, victims don't realise that they are trapped in this scam. They suffer severe financial loss and psychological trauma.

Recommendations:

• Verify Identities: It is important to verify the identity of any individual, especially if they demand personal information or payment. Contact the official agency directly using verified contact details to confirm the authenticity of the communication.
• Education on Personal Information: Provide education to people to protect their personal identity numbers like Aadhaar and PAN card number. Always emphasise the possible dangers connected to sharing such data in the course of phone conversations.
• Report Suspicious Activity: Prompt reporting of suspicious phone calls or messages to relevant authorities and consumer protection agencies helps in tracking down scammers and prevents people from falling. Report to https://cybercrime.gov.in or reach out to helpline@cyberpeace.net for further assistance. 
• Enhanced Cybersecurity Measures: Implement robust cybersecurity measures to detect and mitigate phishing attempts and fraudulent activities. This includes monitoring and blocking suspicious phone numbers and IP addresses associated with scams.

Conclusion:

In the Customs Scam fraud, the scammers pretend to be a custom or any government official and sometimes threaten the targets to get the details such as Aadhaar, PAN card details, screenshot of their bank accounts along with their available balance in their account. The phone numbers used for these kinds of scams were analysed for any suspicious activity. It is found that all the phone numbers look authentic concealing the fraudentent activities. The interactions made with them reveals that they create fearness and urgency between the individuals. They act as if they are genuine officer’s and ask for money to resolve this issue. It is important to stay vigilant and not to share any personal or financial information. When facing these kinds of scams, report and spread awareness among individuals.

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