Fake COVID-19 emails from fake German Federal Ministry of Health

by | Sep 25, 2020 | Threat Research

Fake COVID-19 emails from fake German Federal Ministry of Health

Summary

On 2020-09-09 and 2020-09-23 German companies were once again targeted using fake COVID-19 emails. The emails pretended to be from the German Federal Ministry of Health and contained a malicious JScript that gathers information about the victims system and network and beacons to a C2 server awaiting further commands. The campaign has no specific industry sector as a target but does seem to specifically target companies rather then individuals.

Background

On 2020-09-09 and 2020-09-23 German companies were targeted with emails pretending to be from the German Federal Ministry of Health.

Fake email from the German Federal Ministry of Health

The email text had no variation between malspam runs nor between individual recipients. The pretext cites new Corona health and safety rules for the workplace, which are supposedly attached to the document.

Technical Analysis

The email is send from a fake domain. Sender Bundesministerium für Gesundheit <poststelle@bundesministerium-gesundheit.com> was used on 2020-09-09. Sender Bundesministerium für Gesundheit <poststelle@bundesamtgesundheit.com> was used on 2020-09-23. The email has a ZIP file attached. The ZIP file contains a JScript file, which gathers basic information about the victims system. It sends the gathered information to its C2 server and waits for further commands.

JScript

The JScript is obfuscated. For example, the C2 URL to which the script connects is constructed by selecting specific characters from a lorem ipsum text and dynamically constructing individual letters.

JScript URL obfuscation

Similar techniques are used throughout the script. This is most likely done to avoid detection via static signatures.

Then the script gathers information about the victim, such as:

  • system UUID (via WMI Win32_ComputerSystemProduct)
  • external IP (via http://ipinfo.io/ip)
  • country (via http://ipinfo.io/country)
  • OS (via WMI Win32_OperatingSystem)
  • user (Computername/Username)
  • role (user or admin)
  • antivirus (via WMI AntivirusProduct)
  • CPU (via WMI Win32_Processor)
  • GPU (via WMI Win32_VideoController)
  • RAM
  • disk space (via WMI Win32_LogicalDisk)
  • number of computers on the victims domain (via net view)

The relevant JScript code where this information is obtained is as follows:

JScript collecting information

The JScript also downloads additional Javascript code from Github.

JScript download additional code from Github

This code provides a global JSON object with a parse function for JSON encoding (JSON.stringify) and JSON decoding (JSON.parse). It is used to encode the collected information into a JSON string.

JScript JSON.stringify

The JSON string is then send via a HTTP POST request to the C2 URL.

Wireshark capture of C2 communication

POST content

The above POST request is send every 11 seconds.

JScript beacon loop

The response is a JSON string, which in the "content" entry of each task object contained in the returned tasks array contain commands which are executed by the JScript.

JScript JSON.parse and command execution

The attackers likely use the obtained system and network information to decide whether or not they want to proceed to fully compromise the victims machine. Depending on whether the victims network has a lot of computers or whether the victims IP is not blacklisted for email sending, different secondary malware could be deployed. During our analysis, however, we did not receive any commands from the attackers. OSINT research did also not provide enough information to tie this malspam campaign to a known threat actor.

While GDATA has reported on the malspam run on 2020-09-091 their findings with regard to a threat actor were also inconclusive. However, they state that the follow up malware was a combination of Buer loader2 and NuclearBot, aka TinyNuke3.

Targeting

The pretext of Corona health and safety rules for the workplace indicates the campaign is targeted at companies rather than individuals. While the campaign obviously targets Germany, neither the emails on 2020-09-09 nor the emails on 2020-09-23 have no clear bias towards a specific industry.

Fake German Federal Ministry of Health campaign on 2020-09-09

Fake German Federal Ministry of Health campaign on 2020-09-23

Hence the targeting is German companies without industry bias.

Conclusion and Countermeasure

This campaign is just one of many using the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as a lure. The pretext of Corona health and safety rules for the workplace as well as the exfiltration of the number of computers in the network domain indicate at targeting of companies specifically.

Hornetsecurity’s Spam Filtering and Malware Protection, with the highest detection rates on the market, already detects and blocks the outlined threat. Hornetsecurity’s Advanced Threat Protection extends this protection by also detecting yet unknown threats.

References

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

Hashes

SHA256 Filename Description
c771290913a45fcd331410b99863faeb59ea8d7fefedebf5b914e22cc0ac419d Bund-Arbeitsschutzregel-Corona-September.zip Attachment used 2020-09-09
8e9a1693a52155ce2aa8758413e594128e3b5f3b9fb18ef2a1e4084156817443 Arbeitsschutzregel-Corona-September.pdf.js JScript used 2020-09-09
c63f1cc05b5d42414364f3dbd13686f04ef3735c2dd5eb477e914e6761582ba1 Bund-Corona-Arbeitsschutzregel-September.zip Attachment used 2020-09-23
1317bf53d943ab530ba70ba2cc6ec8cb97a04cf46012dd2c47249b5e4822a395 Corona-Arbeitsschutzregel-September.pdf.js JScript used 2020-09-23

URLs

  • hxxp[:]//doamvola[.]top/gate.php (used 2020-09-09)
  • hxxp[:]//promakerboi[.]top/gate.php (used 2020-09-23)
  • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js/master/json2.js (Non malicious)

DNSs

  • doamvola[.]top (used 2020-09-09)
  • promakerboi[.]top (used 2020-09-23)