Anti Virus Softwares

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Monday, 16 May 2011

ACH Spammer switches to Shortened URLs

Posted on 06:41 by Unknown
For many weeks now the spammers behind one particular malware family have been fighting a running battle to keep their malware-hosting domains in place for a campaign that we have been calling "NACHA Spam".

In this campaign, which we first wrote about in November 2009 (see: Newest Zeus: NACHA Electronic Payments, the criminals send emails suggesting that an Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment has failed. It is thought that this may be a method of screening recipients as only people who deal with money transfer on a regular basis would be familiar with NACHA as having authority over ACH payments.

In more recent versions of the campaign, including the one we wrote about in March 2011 (see: More ACH Spam from NACHA) we have seen dozens or even hundreds of newly created domain names used to host the malicious content.

Here's a sample of the email body:




The ACH transfer (ID: 1514969569958), recently initiated from your checking account (by you or any other person), was canceled by the Electronic Payments Association.

Rejected transaction
Transaction ID: 1514969569958
Reason for rejection See details in the report below
Transaction Report report_1514969569958.pdf.exe (self-extracting archive, Adobe PDF)

13450 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 100 Herndon, VA 20171 (703) 561-1100

2011 NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association




This morning's most popular subjects:

count | subject
-------+--------------------------
159 | ACH payment canceled
144 | ACH transfer rejected
143 | ACH payment rejected
143 | Rejected ACH payment
137 | Rejected ACH transaction
137 | ACH Transfer canceled
135 | Rejected ACH transfer
131 | Your ACH transfer
131 | ACH transaction canceled
130 | Your ACH transaction
(10 rows)

count | sender_email
-------+-------------
135 | risk@nacha.org
134 | alerts@nacha.org
134 | risk_manager@nacha.org
133 | alert@nacha.org
133 | admin@nacha.org
129 | transactions@nacha.org
124 | ach@nacha.org
122 | payment@nacha.org
120 | transfers@nacha.org
117 | payments@nacha.org
109 | info@nacha.org
(11 rows)

The "new" feature of today's spam campaign is that the criminals have begun using URL shortening services to do their redirection. Although this is new for the current campaign, we've seen it before. We wrote a technical report on the subject last fall called URL Shorteners Used by Online Drug Dealers.

So far this morning, we've observed 34 different URL shortening services in play on this campaign:

count | machine
-------+-----------------
116 | 2mb.eu
93 | p1nk.me
92 | 80p.eu
92 | mzan.si
90 | linkr.fr
88 | redir.ec
84 | 2.gp
80 | udanax.org
79 | ks.gs
71 | whir.li
71 | qr.net
70 | TinyBP.com
68 | spedr.com
68 | urlzip.fr
66 | tiny.ly
60 | shortn.me
48 | mx.vc
16 | urli.nl
11 | snipurl.com
6 | shrt.st
3 | gd.is
3 | virg10.com
2 | rurls.ru
2 | zipurl.fr
2 | lu2su.net
1 | nutshellurl.com
1 | surl.hu
1 | icy.tsd.to
1 | squeerl.net
1 | 3cm.kz
1 | tuit.in
1 | tqb.qlnk.net
1 | mi13.tk
1 | minu.me
(34 rows)

Some of these are

A full list of the more than 1,000 shortened URLs we've seen follows. Remember, these are MALICIOUS URLs. Don't go there if you aren't trained to deal with this kind of stuff.

count | machine | path
-------+-----------------+--------------
5 | spedr.com | /4y7SQSmS
5 | redir.ec | /tYvk
4 | snipurl.com | /27vmxz
4 | redir.ec | /EcPZ
4 | TinyBP.com | /15kcx
4 | 2mb.eu | /TUQBY8
4 | udanax.org | /ZPLf
3 | 2mb.eu | /W8Li1F
3 | mzan.si | /GwQm
3 | qr.net | /b4e0
3 | linkr.fr | /rLao
3 | tiny.ly | /dPnJ
3 | TinyBP.com | /53wi
3 | whir.li | /3z7g
3 | spedr.com | /G9mJzD3W
3 | 2mb.eu | /T2mMP3
3 | linkr.fr | /Jw7M
3 | udanax.org | /ZP0F
3 | urlzip.fr | /W0T
3 | 80p.eu | /ip
3 | virg10.com | /6t6
3 | qr.net | /b4ev
3 | 2mb.eu | /fKVGJX
3 | mzan.si | /N56x
3 | shortn.me | /igWl
...
(1080 rows)

(List truncated in interest of space -- for the full list of shortened URLs, click here: ACH.shortened.urls.txt.)

While we haven't followed every link, all that we have followed so far redirected to a fake forum page on mnuyspe.co.be (193.105.121.158) where "drive-by" exploits are attempted.
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • From Russia, With Love . . . new Postcard spam spies on your PC
    Isn't it nice to have friends who send you postcards? The UAB Spam Data Mine is especially fortunate in that way. Beginning the evenin...
  • Happy New Year! Here's a Virus! (New Year's Postcard malware)
    I've been busy this week looking at the various defacements (see ComputerWorld , and ABC News ) and other cyber attacks (see yesterday...
  • Tempting Photo Attachments Lead to Fake AV
    One of today's largest malicious spam campaigns continued an occasional theme we've been seeing for a few weeks. A subject line, fo...
  • Digital Certificate Spammer Goes for Google Adwords
    From late May until last week, the Digital Certificate Malware spammer has been targeting banking brands. That has changed with last week...
  • ACH Spammer switches to Shortened URLs
    For many weeks now the spammers behind one particular malware family have been fighting a running battle to keep their malware-hosting domai...
  • Most Dangerous Cities for Cyber Crime?
    Symantec Riskiest Cybercrime Cities Symantec released a study today in conjunction with Sperling's Best Places today. According to thei...
  • Beware Weekend Facebook Scam!
    The cybercriminals seem to have completed their Black Friday shopping and returned to work this morning with a new Facebook scam. Its proba...
  • What does a National Cyber Range do?
    This week Aviation Week ran a story called DARPA Unveils Cyber Warfare Range . The article quotes Rance Walleston, the director of BAE Syst...
  • 2008: Looking back on a Year of Spam and Malware
    Happy New Year! As we get ready for the New Year, there are quite a few security folks making predictions for 2009. I think my friend Dan...
  • WIRED: November Jargon Watch & Forensics?
    One of my NASA buddies (hi, Lisa!) dropped by last week for coffee and to catch up on the world of information management. When I introduce...

Categories

  • Blogs
  • Calendar
  • china
  • Communities
  • computer security careers
  • conficker
  • cyberwar
  • digital certificates
  • Drivers
  • email
  • Excel 2007
  • facebook
  • fake av
  • Features
  • Firewall
  • Gadgets
  • gumblar
  • Hardware
  • Hotmail
  • IE7
  • Internet Explorer 7
  • koobface
  • law enforcement
  • malware
  • Microsoft
  • Outlook
  • pharmaceuticals
  • phishing
  • PowerPoint 2007
  • public policy
  • Ready Boost
  • ReadyBoost
  • Security
  • Sidebar
  • Software
  • spam
  • Tutorials
  • twitter
  • twitter malware
  • USB
  • Virtual PC
  • Vista
  • waledac
  • Wallpaper
  • Websites
  • Windows
  • Windows Live
  • Windows Vista
  • Word 2007
  • zbot

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (17)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  August (3)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (1)
  • ►  2012 (18)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (7)
  • ▼  2011 (28)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  August (4)
    • ►  July (6)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ▼  May (2)
      • ACH Spammer switches to Shortened URLs
      • Help stop the Osama bin Laden Videos on Facebook
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (1)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2010 (80)
    • ►  December (6)
    • ►  November (10)
    • ►  October (6)
    • ►  September (12)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (4)
    • ►  June (11)
    • ►  April (7)
    • ►  March (8)
    • ►  February (4)
    • ►  January (7)
  • ►  2009 (93)
    • ►  December (12)
    • ►  November (11)
    • ►  October (16)
    • ►  September (7)
    • ►  July (5)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (7)
    • ►  March (7)
    • ►  February (6)
    • ►  January (10)
  • ►  2008 (109)
    • ►  December (7)
    • ►  November (17)
    • ►  October (12)
    • ►  September (10)
    • ►  August (23)
    • ►  July (14)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (8)
    • ►  April (6)
    • ►  March (2)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2007 (37)
    • ►  December (3)
    • ►  November (9)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (5)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (2)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2006 (5)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  October (3)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile