Backdoor.APT.Merong
Posted: March 19, 2013
Threat Metric
The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:
Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.
Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.
Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.
Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.
% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.
Threat Level: | 2/10 |
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Infected PCs: | 55 |
First Seen: | March 19, 2013 |
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OS(es) Affected: | Windows |
Backdoor.APT.Merong is a backdoor Trojan that is included in a malware attack, which affects companies. The malware campaign that is used by cybercriminals to distribute Backdoor.APT.Merong uses the name of the company it aims at in the CnC URL name. Backdoor.APT.Merong regularly uses either names of companies or a project that a particular company works on in its CnC URL name in order not to appear suspicious. Backdoor.APT.Merong propagates via malicious emails carrying harmful web addresses. The zip file encompasses 'Updated_office_contact_v1.exe', which when run creates 'ctfmon.exe' and 'Lanl_Office_Contact_oct.pdf' in the '%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temp' directory. It then opens a decoy PDF document for instance, 'Lanl_Office_Contact_oct.pdf' from the Temp directory and then executes 'ctfmon.exe'. 'Lanl_office_contact_oct.pdf' belongs to 'Los Alamos National Lab' and the contacts can also be found in the PDF file on the website. 'ctfmon.exe' creates a copy of itself into the '%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\ctfmon.exe' directory to load whenever the corrupted PC is switched on and starts to talk to the CnC server.
Technical Details
File System Modifications
Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.
The following files were created in the system:hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v1.zip
File name: hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v1.zipMime Type: unknown/zip
Group: Malware file
hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v2.zip
File name: hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v2.zipMime Type: unknown/zip
Group: Malware file
hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v3.zip
File name: hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v3.zipMime Type: unknown/zip
Group: Malware file
hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v4.zip
File name: hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v4.zipMime Type: unknown/zip
Group: Malware file
hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v5.zip
File name: hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v5.zipMime Type: unknown/zip
Group: Malware file
hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v6.zip
File name: hxxp://americansystems.ddns.info/corporate/office/Updated_office_contact_v6.zipMime Type: unknown/zip
Group: Malware file
Updated_office_contact_v1.exe
File name: Updated_office_contact_v1.exeFile type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file
Lanl_Office_Contact_oct.pdf
File name: Lanl_Office_Contact_oct.pdfMime Type: unknown/pdf
Group: Malware file
ctfmon.exe
File name: ctfmon.exeFile type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file
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