New Botnet controlled via Twitter (Aug 18, 2009)

SonicWALL UTM Research team observed a new Botnet family that uses social networking services like Twitter, Jaiku, Tumblr as its Command & Control (C&C) server mechanism.

The status messages on the social blogging sites serve as the C&C commands that contain links to download malicious payload. The status messages are Base-64 encoded.

Example Base-64 encoded status message shown below:

aHR0cDovL2JpdC5seS9HaHVVdSBodHRwOi8vYml0Lmx5L1FqC

http://bit.ly/GhuUu -> http://rifers.org/paste/content/paste/9506/body [Malware payload]

The name of one such account used for issuing C&C commands on these blogging sites – upd4t3. Twitter, Jaiku, and Tumblr have already suspended the account in question but there could be more such accounts.

This Bot is packed using MPRESS packer. It is also known as Trojan:Win32/Svelta.A [Microsoft], Trojan-Banker.Win32.Banker.alvx [Kaspersky], and W32/Bancos.MSB [Eset].

SonicWALL Gateway AntiVirus provides protection against this malware via GAV: Suspicious#mpress (Worm),GAV: Suspicious#mpress.2 (Worm), and GAV: Agent.CMCF (Trojan) signatures.

Screenshot of the Twitter C&C account –

Screenshot of the Jaiku C&C account –

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The SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Research Team gathers, analyzes and vets cross-vector threat information from the SonicWall Capture Threat network, consisting of global devices and resources, including more than 1 million security sensors in nearly 200 countries and territories. The research team identifies, analyzes, and mitigates critical vulnerabilities and malware daily through in-depth research, which drives protection for all SonicWall customers. In addition to safeguarding networks globally, the research team supports the larger threat intelligence community by releasing weekly deep technical analyses of the most critical threats to small businesses, providing critical knowledge that defenders need to protect their networks.