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TSPY_RETGATE.A

September 16, 2014
 Analysis by: Rhena Inocencio
 ALIASES:

Trojan:Win32/Rombertik.B (Microsoft), Infostealer.Retgate (Symantec)

 PLATFORM:

Windows

 OVERALL RISK RATING:
 DAMAGE POTENTIAL:
 DISTRIBUTION POTENTIAL:
 REPORTED INFECTION:
 INFORMATION EXPOSURE:

  • Threat Type: Spyware

  • Destructiveness: No

  • Encrypted: No

  • In the wild: Yes

  OVERVIEW

Infection Channel:

Dropped by other malware, Downloaded from the Internet

This known as the Carbon Grabber malware which is capable of stealing usernames and passwords from SSL and HTTP websites through form grabbing. The Carbon Grabber kit appeared in forums earlier July 2014

This spyware arrives on a system as a file dropped by other malware or as a file downloaded unknowingly by users when visiting malicious sites.

  TECHNICAL DETAILS

File Size:

Varies

File Type:

EXE

Memory Resident:

Yes

Initial Samples Received Date:

15 Sep 2014

Payload:

Steals information

Arrival Details

This spyware arrives on a system as a file dropped by other malware or as a file downloaded unknowingly by users when visiting malicious sites.

Installation

This spyware drops the following copies of itself into the affected system:

  • %AppDataLocal%\svchost.exe

(Note: %AppDataLocal% is the Local Application Data folder, which is usually C:\Documents and Settings\{user name}\Local Settings\Application Data on Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003, or C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Local on Windows Vista and 7.)

It injects codes into the following process(es):

  • chrome.exe
  • firefox.exe
  • iexplore.exe

Autostart Technique

This spyware adds the following registry entries to enable its automatic execution at every system startup:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
Microsoft = "%AppDataLocal%\svchost.exe"

Information Theft

This spyware gathers the following data:

  • IP address
  • Computer name
  • Browser

Stolen Information

This spyware sends the gathered information via HTTP POST to the following URL:

  • www.{BLOCKED}91.appfarm.ru/css/index.php?a=insert
  • www.{BLOCKED}l.zapto.org/aldi/thc/index.php?a=insert
    • using the User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/32.0.1700.76 Safari/537.36
  • using the User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/32.0.1700.76 Safari/537.36
-- >

NOTES:
This is known as the Carbon Grabber malware which is capable of stealing usernames and passwords from SSL and HTTP websites through form grabbing

  SOLUTION

Minimum Scan Engine:

9.700

Step 1

Before doing any scans, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 users must disable System Restore to allow full scanning of their computers.

Step 2

Restart in Safe Mode

[ Learn More ]

Step 3

Delete this registry value

[ Learn More ]

Important: Editing the Windows Registry incorrectly can lead to irreversible system malfunction. Please do this step only if you know how or you can ask assistance from your system administrator. Else, check this Microsoft article first before modifying your computer's registry.

 
  • In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
    • Microsoft = "%AppDataLocal%\svchost.exe"

Step 4

Restart in normal mode and scan your computer with your Trend Micro product for files detected as TSPY_RETGATE.A. If the detected files have already been cleaned, deleted, or quarantined by your Trend Micro product, no further step is required. You may opt to simply delete the quarantined files. Please check this Knowledge Base page for more information.


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