The Dell Sonicwall Threats Research team observed reports of a New Malware family named GAV: Venik.RKT actively spreading in the wild.

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The Dell Sonicwall Threats Research team observed reports of a New Malware family named GAV: Venik.RKT actively spreading in the wild. This time attacker attackers performs DLL Injection on Service Host or Svchost.exe to avoid detection by Anti-Virus programs. Svchost.exe is a system process that hosts multiple Windows services.

Infection Cycle:

The Malware uses the following icon:

Md5:

  • 9ba2036234c6a043d1f55bb018be34ff

The Malware adds the following files to the system:

  • Malware.exe

    • C:WINDOWSsystem32ackypw.dll [Detected as GAV: Venik.RKT (Trojan)]

The Malware adds the following keys to the Windows registry to ensure persistence upon reboot:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesWinjHrelpq32

    • %SystemRoot%System32svchost.exe -k krnlsrvc

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesWinjHrelpq32Parameters

    • C:WINDOWSsystem32ackypw.dll

Once the computer is compromised, the malware copies its own DLL file to System Root folder.

The file ackypw.dll is dropped after malware launches on the target system, the malware uses a DLL Injection to Svchost.exe to avoid detection by Anti-Virus programs. Here is an example:

The malware generates fake traffic towards Baidu Search Engine such as shown below:

Command and Control (C&C) Traffic

Venik.RKT performs C&C communication over 8089 port. The malware sends your system information to its own C&C server via following format, here is an example:

SonicWALL Gateway AntiVirus provides protection against this threat via the following signature:

  • GAV: Venik.RKT (Trojan)

Security News
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.