Transcript Document
BOTNETS & TARGETED
MALWARE
Fernando Uribe
Fernando Uribe
Email:[email protected]
IT trainer and Consultant for over 15 years specializing in Cyber
security.
INTRODUCTION
Bot, Standing for Robot, is the name given to malware which I
installed on vulnerable devices and used to receive commands.
Once a vulnerable machine is infected with a bot, it can also be
called a “Zombie”; since the bot lies dormant
WHAT IS A BOT?
When one has multiple zombie machines under a single controller,
it’s known as a botnet.
Botnets can be used for good, like web crawling or search engine
indexing.
Majority of the time botnets are used for Distributed denial of service
attack.
DDOS is when a target is being attack by multiple zombie machines
simultaneously.
Usually bots are controlled through an IRC channel via a command
and control program.
People whom operate bonnets are usually called bot herder
WHAT IS A BOTNET?
There are several phases to this:
Setup of command and control
Release bot to infect
Have zombie propagate
Bots connect to C&C ready to receive instructions
Command is given to attack target
Bots attack said target
HOW DO BOTNETS GET CREATED?
Attackers may use various tools, one example is poison ivy, or
they may create their own.
SETUP OF COMMAND AND CONTROL
This could be done via social engineering, phishing, fake
websites.
RELEASE BOT TO INFECT
Depending on the bot, this could occur in similar ways of worm
infection or malware installation.
PROPAGATE
Think “ET phone home!” the bots try to connect to the
programmed irc channel and report status
CONNECT TO C&C
The command is for a coordinated and automated attack of a
target.
COMMAND SENT
Once the bots receive the command, they start the attack till
told otherwise.
Usually a DDOS
ATTACK ORDERED
Few ways to recognize a possible DDOS attack
Websites unavailable
Specific site not available
Network access bogged down
Increase of spam received in large amounts
RECOGNIZING DOS
Ways to Detect :
Activity Profiling
Changepoint Detection
Wavelet-Based signal analysis
DETECTING DDOS
This is the average packet rate for network flow
It’s made up continuous packets with like fields
An attack if identified when activity level increases
ACTIVITY PROFILING
Points out the change traffic during attack
Identifies difference in actual vs. expected traffic
Can also be use to identify scanning activities within your network
CHANGEPOINT DETECTION
Analyzes input signal when it comes to spectral components
They give you concurrent time and how often description
By analyzing the spectral data one can determine the presence
of an anomaly
So they help you get the time when anomalies may have
occurred
WAVE SIGNAL ANALYSIS
2 examples of methods to mitigate a DDOS:
Load Balancing
Throttling
ONCE WE KNOW WE MITIGATE ATTACK
RFC 3704 filtering
Black hole filtering
Cisco IPS Source ip reputation filtering
DDOS prevention offering from ISP or DDOS service
DEFENDING AGAINST BOTNETS
Also knows as Ingress filtering for multihomed networks
You're basically filtering out address space originating from
internet that is using private IP addresses
Remember that private IP are not routable on public networks
RFC 3704 FILTERING
Drops packets at routing level
Normally, hen a packet did not reach its destination it sends a
request to resend, which would continue the attack.
Simply drops packet, but does not inform source
BLACK HOLE FILTERING
Used by cisco IPS
Database that deems whether an ip or service are to be a
possible threat
CISCO IPS SOURCE IP REPUTATION
FILTERING
Helps prevent ip spoofing at the isp level
Uses DHCP snooping to make sure host use ip addresses assigned
to them
Creates a white list in a way, of what ip address can access your
network
DDOS PREVENTION FROM ISP
Different method for malware attacks, where an individual or
entity are specifically targeted.
Usually malware uses a “artillery” approach, to hit and infect as
many as possible.
Main objectives could be to obtain access to sensitive
information, or disruption.
TARGETED MALWARE
Attackers use all the tricks in the book fake emails, malware filled
websites.
They research their victims, to be able to extract information
With the information gathered, a greater social engineering
attack Can be successfully completed
Since the attacks are targeted to a smaller audience, it
sometimes slip through the cracks due to them not getting
reported
HOW IT WORKS
Stuxnet worm
Specifically targets industrial control systems
Hotord Trojan and Ginwui4
Both used in corporate espionage
EXAMPLES OF TARGETED MALWARE
Some methods of detecting and mitigating malware:
Heuristics
Multi-layered pattern scanning
Traffic-origin scanning
Behavior observation
DETECT AND MITIGATE
THANK YOU