Trojan.Korhigh

Posted: July 1, 2013

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:	54

First Seen:	July 1, 2013
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Trojan.Korhigh is a backdoor Trojan that makes several unauthorized changes to your PC, including changing your desktop image to an image referencing the Anonymous hacker-activist group, as well as deleting various files on your PC. Trojan.Korhigh is something of a callback to previous Trojan.Jokra attacks, since Trojan.Korhigh has a very similar payload and performs similar attacks against PCs related to the South Korean government, and is suspected to be a replacement for Jokra. Because Trojan.Korhigh is an advanced PC threat that can block your ability to access your own computer, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers emphasize preemptive defense against any possible Trojan.Korhigh attack by avoiding all potential infection vectors. As always, anti-malware programs should be used as required to block, disable or delete Trojan.Korhigh before its payload can be implemented.

Trojan.Korhigh: High on Activism... or High on National Sabotage?

Trojan.Korhigh's most identifiable trait is its desktop-changing attack. Scamware programs like those from the WinWebSec family often use similar attacks to force your desktop to display a fake malware alert, but Trojan.Korhigh uses it to display a 'message' from Anonymous including its characteristic slogan, 'We are Anonymous/We are Legion,' etc. However, because the group of criminals involved in Trojan.Korhigh's attack campaign, dubbed DarkSeoul, is well-funded and sophisticated, it's estimated that this 'Anonymous' message actually is a false trail that's intended to blame the notoriously decentralized hacker-activist group for the activities of what seems to be either a very well-organized group of criminals or even an opposing government.

Trojan.Korhigh's desktop-locking attack actually isn't very dangerous compared to its less visible but more problematic functions, which SpywareRemove.com malware experts have noted as follows:

Trojan.Korhigh may attempt to wipe part or all of your hard drive, deleting all files and making them unrecoverable. Files of targeted formats include (but aren't limited to) HTML, GIF, MP4, EXE and AVI.
Trojan.Korhigh may change any Windows accounts passwords; currently, samples of Trojan.Korhigh are believed to be limited to changing passwords to the phrase 'highanon2013.'
Trojan.Korhigh also can gather basic system information from your PC and transfer this information to a remote server, where DarkSeoul may exploit it for future attacks. At least two separate IP addresses have been observed in this function, indicative of DarkSeoul being prepared with at least one backup server in case the authorities disable their primary C&C server.
Lastly, Trojan.Korhigh has been linked to DDoS attacks (such as those involving TROJ_DIDKR.A) that are targeted at disabling South Korean government websites.

Averting the File-Eating Gaze of Masked PC Threats

Similar to the unfortunate victims of the Greek medusa, if you're staring back at Trojan.Korhigh's trademark masked gaze, your files likely are in the process of being robbed of all their 'life,' but prevention always is the best policy in dealing with such high-level PC threats. Spam e-mail messages and compromised USB flash drives may be involved in distributing Trojan.Korhigh, as SpywareRemove.com malware experts have found that these are the methods through which most similar high-level threats target government, business and media systems. In previous attacks, compromised SimDisk auto-updaters also are believed to have been partially responsible for the infections. If your PCs are protected with up-to-date anti-malware software, they should be able to block and delete Trojan.Korhigh before its attacks can commence.

Backing up your files also is critical for recovering from attacks by file wipers such as Trojan.Korhigh, Jokra or Shamoon. As long as you keep your file backups on uncompromised hard drives (such as a standard USB device), you should be able to restore anything that Trojan.Korhigh deletes, even if Trojan.Korhigh does manage to infect your PC.

Trojan.Korhigh

Threat Metric

Trojan.Korhigh: High on Activism... or High on National Sabotage?

Averting the File-Eating Gaze of Masked PC Threats

Leave a Reply