eSentire is The Authority in Managed Detection and Response Services, protecting the critical data and applications of 2000+ organizations in 80+ countries from known and unknown cyber threats. Founded in 2001, the company’s mission is to hunt, investigate and stop cyber threats before they become business disrupting events.
We provide sophisticated cybersecurity solutions for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), Managed Service Providers (MSPs), and Value-Added Resellers (VARs). Find out why you should partner with eSentire, the Authority in Managed Detection and Response, today.
Adversaries don’t work 9-5 and neither do we. At eSentire, our 24/7 SOCs are staffed with Elite Threat Hunters and Cyber Analysts who hunt, investigate, contain and respond to threats within minutes.
We have discovered some of the most dangerous threats and nation state attacks in our space – including the Kaseya MSP breach and the more_eggs malware.
Our Security Operations Centers are supported with Threat Intelligence, Tactical Threat Response and Advanced Threat Analytics driven by our Threat Response Unit – the TRU team.
In TRU Positives, eSentire’s Threat Response Unit (TRU) provides a summary of a recent threat investigation. We outline how we responded to the confirmed threat and what recommendations we have going forward.
Here’s the latest from our TRU Team…
What did we find?
A variant of NJRAT, a Remote Access Trojan (RAT), was identified in a customer's environment within the business services industry.
The RAT was downloaded unwittingly by a user believing it to be the setup file for Open Broadcasting Software (OBS).
The user had performed a web search for OBS and clicked on a malicious advertisement masquerading as the real page (Figure 1). The malicious OBS file was compiled on May 30th, 2022.
The OBS project tweeted a warning about this ad in June (Figure 2).
Figure 1 Fake OBS Studio download site Figure 2 Tweet by the official OBS Project account
The user would need to run the setup file as an Administrator.
Running applications as an administrator would give the malicious application extra privileges to make changes to the system files, registry, and access restricted folders.
The malicious setup file
(Figure 3) executes a series of scheduled tasks (Figure 4) on the system to disable security tools and retrieve NJRAT from l96[.]org (Figure 5).
Figure 3 Malicious setup file details Figure 4 Sample of scheduled task Figure 5 Sample of commands executed via scheduled tasks
The NJRAT payload is a slightly modified version capable of logging keystrokes, viewing the victim’s camera, and remotely controlling the system (among other capabilities). The payload was also compiled on the same day as the malicious setup file (May 30th, 2022).
Figure 6 NJRAT Configuration Details
How did we find it?
MDR for Endpoint identified the fake OBS software and blocked the subsequent payload downloads.
What did we do?
Our team of 24/7 SOC Cyber Analysts isolated the host while a threat investigation took place.
The customer was alerted and provided information about the scope of the infection as well as remediation steps.
What can you learn from this TRU positive?
Drive-by social engineering attacks are on the rise. Malicious advertisements mimicking popular software is a common delivery technique for RATs and Information Stealers.
Rapid identification of RATs is key to limiting the blast radius since infected machines can be weaponized as a foothold for follow-on attacks and stolen system information such as employee credentials can be used to access network resources.
Recommendations from our Threat Response Unit (TRU) Team:
eSentire’s Threat Response Unit (TRU) is a world-class team of threat researchers who develop new detections enriched by original threat intelligence and leverage new machine learning models that correlate multi-signal data and automate rapid response to advanced threats.
If you are not currently engaged with an MDR provider, eSentire MDR can help you reclaim the advantage and put your business ahead of disruption.
Learn what it means to have an elite team of Threat Hunters and Researchers that works for you. Connect with an eSentire Cybersecurity Specialist.
eSentire Threat Response Unit (TRU)
The eSentire Threat Response Unit (TRU) is an industry-leading threat research team committed to helping your organization become more resilient. TRU is an elite team of threat hunters and researchers that supports our 24/7 Security Operations Centers (SOCs), builds threat detection models across the eSentire XDR Cloud Platform, and works as an extension of your security team to continuously improve our Managed Detection and Response service. By providing complete visibility across your attack surface and performing global threat sweeps and proactive hypothesis-driven threat hunts augmented by original threat research, we are laser-focused on defending your organization against known and unknown threats.
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