Meet DoppelPaymer, BitPaymers Ransomware Lookalike

  /     /     /  
Publicated : 23/11/2024   Category : security


Meet DoppelPaymer, BitPaymers Ransomware Lookalike


New ransomware variant DoppelPaymer was leveraged in campaigns against the City of Edcouch, Texas, and the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture.



Researchers have identified a new ransomware variant dubbed DoppelPaymer, named for code similarities it shares with BitPaymer ransomware operated by the Indrik Spider attack group.
The new variant was spotted in a series of ransomware campaigns starting in June 2019, including attacks against the City of Edcouch, Texas, as well as the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture, CrowdStrike researchers report in a blog post on the malware discovery.
While most of their source code is related, differences between BitPaymer and DoppelPaymer could indicate a member of Indrik Spider splintered from the group and forked BitPaymer and Dridex source code to begin a big game hunting ransomware operation. Big game hunting is a term CrowdStrike uses to
describe
the tactic of targeting organizations for large payouts.
Big game hunters favor municipalities, industrial/manufacturing, healthcare, and targets which cannot accept downtime, says Adam Meyers, vice president of intelligence at CrowdStrike, adding that in this case, researchers saw targets across multiple verticals. They choose targets in these verticals to increase the likelihood of payment, likely thinking that these victims are not prepared to recover and the cost of ransom is less than the cost of downtime.
Indrik Spider was formed in 2014 by former affiliates of the GameOver Zeus criminal network. Shortly after its inception, the group built Dridex, which became one of the worlds most prominent cybercrime operations in 2015 and 2016. In August 2017, it launched BitPaymer and began the shift to big game hunting, using access to an organization to demand more money.
Since BitPaymer launched, Indrik Spider has made several changes to its original source code. November 2018 brought a significant update: the ransom note was altered to include the victims name, which was also included in the file extension added to encrypted files. BitPaymers file encryption was updated to use 256-bit AES in lieu of the earlier 128-bit RC4. Researchers suggest the swap was due to relative weakness of RC4 compared with AES.
The latest version of BitPaymer has been used in at least 15 confirmed ransomware attacks since November. Activity has continued through 2019, with multiple incidents in June and July.
In June, lookalike DoppelPaymer arrived on the scene. Researchers recovered DoppelPaymer builds dating back to April 2019; however, because these were missing new features seen in later versions, its likely they may have been test builds. CrowdStrike has confirmed eight malware builds and three victims with ransoms starting at $25,000 and exceeding $1.2 million.
Adversaries typically gain access to targets via other malware like Emotet or Dridex, Meyers explains. Once they identify a target, they begin to interact by escalating privileges, moving laterally, and getting to a position with enough reach to deploy the ransomware payload.
The code is very similar to BitPaymers, says Meyers of DoppelPaymer, adding that the actor likely had access to the BitPaymer source code and created a forked version where they added some customizations such as changing the cryptography and the ransom note schema.
While DoppelPaymers ransom note is similar to the one used by the original BitPaymer in 2018, there have been some changes. The payment portal is almost identical to the original BitPaymer portal,
researchers report
, and it contains a ransom amount, countdown timer, and bitcoin address for payment. Both threats use Tor for ransom payment and the .locked extension.
Code overlaps indicate DoppelPaymer is a more recent branch of the latest iteration of BitPaymer, and there are notable encryption differences between the two. The actor behind DoppelPaymer made several code changes to improve BitPaymers functionality: file encryption is now threaded to increase the speed of encrypting files, for example, and DoppelPaymer will run only after a specific command line argument is provided. If no arguments, or an incorrect one, is provided, then DoppelPaymer will crash. It also uses a technique called ProcessHacker, a legitimate open source administrative utility, to terminate some of its processes and services.
Both BitPaymer and DoppelPaymer continue to operate at the same time, as separate threats.
Related Content:
Where Businesses Waste Endpoint Security Budgets
Data Center Changes Push Cyber Risk to Networks Edge
APT Groups Make Quadruple What They Spend on Attack Tools
Most Organizations Lack Cyber Resilience
The State of IT Operations and Cybersecurity Operations
 
Black Hat USA returns to Las Vegas with hands-on technical Trainings, cutting-edge Briefings, Arsenal open-source tool demonstrations, top-tier security solutions, and service providers in the Business Hall. Click for information on the 
conference
 and 
to register.

Last News

▸ DHS-funded SWAMP scans code for bugs. ◂
Discovered: 23/12/2024
Category: security

▸ Debunking Machine Learning in Security. ◂
Discovered: 23/12/2024
Category: security

▸ Researchers create BlackForest to gather, link threat data. ◂
Discovered: 23/12/2024
Category: security


Cyber Security Categories
Google Dorks Database
Exploits Vulnerability
Exploit Shellcodes

CVE List
Tools/Apps
News/Aarticles

Phishing Database
Deepfake Detection
Trends/Statistics & Live Infos



Tags:
Meet DoppelPaymer, BitPaymers Ransomware Lookalike