TA505 Cyber Threat Actors Installing Remote Monitoring Tool via Weaponized MS Word Document

Cyber Criminals from TA505 group started a new campaign that targeting retail, grocery, and restaurant chains by distributing weaponized MS word documents.

TA505 group already had a record of distributing biggest threat campaign  Dridex and widely distributing Locky ransomware that affected millions of computers around the world.

Currently distributed tens of thousands of messages to various country victims along with malicious attachments.

Proofpoint security researchers observing  TA505 threat actors actvities since November 15, 2018, that delivery various different malware families such as  FlawedAmmyy, among others.

This group actively distributing various campaign including remote access trojan and other downloaders that mainly target the retail industry.

Installing Remote Monitoring Tool

Attackers using the personalise malicious file attachment which is not previously used and they are sending a scanned document.

A scanned document contains malicious Microsoft Word attachment along with a specific company logo which indicates that it was a targeted campaign.

The document contains a macro that trick user to enable it in order to download and executed an MSI file.

Once the victims enable the content then the execution leads to installation of Remote Manipulator System (RMS) with a settings file that contains a custom command and control (C&C) address.

According to Proofpoint, TA505 has helped shape the threat landscape for years, largely because of the massive volumes associated with their campaigns through the end of 2017. When this group changes tactics, it tends to correspond to broader shifts and, throughout the year, we have seen both TA505 and a number of other actors focus on downloaders, RATs, information stealers, and banking Trojans, often in smaller, more targeted campaigns.

The nature of this malware campaign distributing — RATs and backdoors since they take advantages of the ongoing holiday shopping season.

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