We discovered a potential targeted attack that makes use of legitimate script engine AutoHotkey, in combination with malicious script files. This file is distributed as an email attachment and disguised as a legitimate document with the filename “Military Financing.xlsm.” The user would need to enable macro for it to open fully, which would use AutoHotkey in loading the malicious script file to avoid detection.
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by Loseway Lu Despite being around for decades, cybercriminals are still using malicious macro to deliver malware, albeit in more creative ways to make them more effective. The threat actors behind a recent case used macro in a more roundabout way, with a macro that searches for specific shortcut files in the user’s system, which…
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by John Anthony Bañes Malicious macros are commonly used to deliver malware payloads to victims, usually by coercing victims into enabling the macro sent via spam email. The macro then executes a PowerShell script to download ransomware or some other malware. Just this September EMOTET, an older banking malware, leveraged this method in a campaign that…
Read MoreEmail can be considered a big business—for cybercrime. In 2014, 196.3 billion emails were sent and received daily. Of that number, 108.7 billion were business emails. With the volume of business emails sent daily, it would be unimaginable for cybercriminals not to take advantage of email to target big businesses. And those attempts can result in million-dollar…
Read MoreIn the first part of this series, we discussed about the macro malware we have recently seen in the threat landscape. This second entry will delve deeper into the techniques or routines of macro malware. Unintended consequences Let us put things into perspective – by itself, macros are not harmful to the user. Its intended function is…
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