MWZLesson

Posted: September 30, 2015

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

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:	9/10
Infected PCs:	215

First Seen:	September 30, 2015
Last Seen:	May 22, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

MWZLesson is a spyware program dedicated to compromising Point of Sale systems, such as those used at major retail stores. Although MWZLesson does borrow much of its functionality from past threats, MWZLesson includes a healthy array of features allowing MWZLesson to collect customer information, harm the infected PC's state of security and conduct other attacks. Preventative anti-malware security remains your most practical defense against MWZLesson, and you only should use specialized anti-malware products for uninstalling MWZLesson in all normal circumstances.

A Hard Lesson to Learn about PoS Security

Although the threat industry continually invents new threats to race ahead of popularized anti-malware solutions, these threats also are prone to the reuse of code from older threats, for the sake of efficiency. MWZLesson is one of the latest Trojans found using both old and new code in its payload, which includes a variety of attacks focusing predominantly on collecting credit card information. Code from MWZLesson has clear connections to both the Dexter PoS Trojan and, somewhat unusually, the Neutrino Exploit Kit. EKs often may be used for distributing other threats, and primarily are HTML-based threats hosted on compromised or corrupted Web pages.

Like Dexter, MWZLesson tries to compromise Point-of-Sale retail machines so that MWZLesson can 'scrape' the system's memory for any bank card data. Other features malware experts found of interest in MWZLesson include:

MWZLesson monitors any Web browser usage for information worth collecting (via the 'GET' and 'POST' data submissions and requests).
MWZLesson also may, like any common Trojan downloader, download and launch other files, including installers for other threats.
MWZLesson may search for specific files on the PC to transfer to third parties.
MWZLesson's C&C connection, which allows MWZLesson to transfer collected information, also lets MWZLesson update itself. This network connection also allows MWZLesson's misappropriation to occur without requiring a physical actor at the machine to transfer any data.
However, MWZLesson's most extraneous feature is its ability to launch DDoS attacks. These attacks can crash Web servers or sites, and often may cover other illicit activities targeting the same system.

Passing MWZLesson's Test with Flying Colors

Exploit kits like Neutrino can install MWZLesson through passive vulnerabilities most often found on outdated systems. After that installation, MWZLesson can protect itself with an anti-Virtual Environment feature and even remove other, competing threats from the infected machine. Updating all software routinely and using anti-malware security solutions are the two steps malware experts would recommend the most for crimping MWZLesson's campaign.

Although updated and proven brands of anti-malware products should be able to remove MWZLesson, any insufficiently prompt responses may give MWZLesson a window of opportunity for conducting its attacks. Customers may suffer from fraudulent cash charges and other harmful actions related to collected card data while other information stored on the infected PC also may be at risk. Businesses using PoS machines with Internet connectivity are encouraged to mind potential infection vectors that could disseminate MWZLesson, such as disguised e-mail links.

MWZLesson

Threat Metric

A Hard Lesson to Learn about PoS Security

Passing MWZLesson's Test with Flying Colors

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