Spambot Security Blog

China Told to Get Lost... Again.

Yep, I tried being nice, I let China/Korea have access to my site again, just incase some poor sot there was running a board, and in spam hell.

Well, lesson learned, all it did was attract low class script kiddies, skript kiddies, or skiddies, whatever you want to call them. And lo, when they saw ZB Block was impenetrable by their lame attacks, they decided to start an http_referer spam campaign against my site, usually from homosexual pornograpic sites. This is designed to hurt Google Pagerank and other indicators of a site's quality. Never once did I see a valid, interested access from China. Never once did they get through my protections.

But they annoyed the hell out of me.

It's funny how the infamous Great Firewall of China stops normal good folks from using the web, yet seems to be assisting organized crime in attacking the rest of the internet. Sounds like someone is buddy-buddy "heh-heh" getting their pockets lined by the Russian Business Network to open the floodgates of spam. Imagine that, many people going against their beloved Mao Zedong's party, and co-operating with the Russians to the detriment of his people, his party, and his state. What is worse is, the same attacks and spam were coming out of Korea too, this means that "Beloved Leader" Kim Jong-il's people are stabbing him in the back too. Just shows you how two faced communists are, no matter their stripe.

Well, lesson learned. The blocks are back in, and the ZB Block IP banlist for Chinese / Korea IPs has been updated, thanks to the lists Okean provides . Just paste them into the appropriate area of your customsig.inc to turn off China and Korea like a switch.

It's too bad I had to resort to this, but it's a lesson learned.

Zap.

ZB Block Racks Up More Bot and Script Virus Kills!

Well, Avira has gotten back to me, and it looks like I have found some viral gold they can add to their arsenal for all of us.

Here's a run-down of the fresh kills I have added to ZB Block's (custom in-house version w/ probe trap) record. Please note that ZB Block caused "natural" immunity to all attacks attempting to install these. So do the wise thing and go to http://www.spambotsecurity.com/zbblock.php and get protected.

#1

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your email to Avira's virus lab.

Tracking number: (REMOVED).

A listing of files alongside their results can be found below:File ID Filename Size (Byte) Result

25394824 Bildb 2.03 KB MALWARE

Please find a detailed report concerning each individual sample below:

Filename Result Bildb MALWARE

The file 'Bildb' has been determined to be 'MALWARE'. Our analysts named the threat BDS/PHP.ali.31. The term "BDS/" denotes a Backdoor-Server program. Backdoor-Server programs are used to spy out, modify or delete data.Detection is added to our virus definition file (VDF) starting with version 7.01.04.223.

#2

Thank you for your email to Avira's virus lab.

Tracking number: (REMOVED).

A listing of files alongside their results can be found below:File ID Filename Size (Byte) Result

25394829 dudul3.txt 40.88 KB MALWARE

Please find a detailed report concerning each individual sample below:

Filename Result dudul3.txt MALWARE

The file 'dudul3.txt' has been determined to be 'MALWARE'. Our analysts named the threat PHP/IrcBot.E.2. The term "PHP/" denotes a PHP scriptvirus.Detection will be added to our virus definition file (VDF) with one of the next updates.

#3

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your email to Avira's virus lab.

Tracking number: (REMOVED).

A listing of files alongside their results can be found below:File ID Filename Size (Byte) Result

25394826 bot_ping.txt 100.52 KB MALWARE

Please find a detailed report concerning each individual sample below:

Filename Result bot_ping.txt MALWARE

The file 'bot_ping.txt' has been determined to be 'MALWARE'. Our analysts named the threat PHP.IrcBot.nad. Detection will be added to our virus definition file (VDF) with one of the next updates.

#4

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your email to Avira's virus lab.

Tracking number: (REMOVED).

A listing of files alongside their results can be found below:File ID Filename Size (Byte) Result

25394836 spread.txt 19.34 KB MALWARE

Please find a detailed report concerning each individual sample below:

Filename Result spread.txt MALWARE

The file 'spread.txt' has been determined to be 'MALWARE'. Our analysts named the threat PHP/Pbot.A.6. The term "PHP/" denotes a PHP scriptvirus.Detection will be added to our virus definition file (VDF) with one of the next updates.

#5

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your email to Avira's virus lab.

Tracking number: (REMOVED).

We received the following archive files:

File ID Filename Size (Byte) Result

25395810 feelcomz 1.7 bot.zip 12.06 KB OK

A listing of files contained inside archives alongside their results can be found below:File ID Filename Size (Byte) Result

25395811 botphp.txt 48.89 KB MALWARE

Please find a detailed report concerning each individual sample below:

Filename Result botphp.txt MALWARE

The file 'botphp.txt' has been determined to be 'MALWARE'. Our analysts named the threat PHP/Pbot.A.7. The term "PHP/" denotes a PHP scriptvirus.Detection will be added to our virus definition file (VDF) with one of the next updates.

#6 & 7

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your email to Avira's virus lab.

Tracking number: (REMOVED).

We received the following archive files:

File ID Filename Size (Byte) Result

25395813 One attack from t...ts.zip 23.89 KB OK

A listing of files contained inside archives alongside their results can be found below:File ID Filename Size (Byte) Result

25395814 pbota.txt 27.42 KB MALWARE
25395815 pbotb.txt 27.39 KB MALWARE
25395816 pbotc.txt 27.72 KB MALWARE
25395817 pbotd.txt 27.73 KB MALWARE

Please find a detailed report concerning each individual sample below:

Filename Result pbota.txt MALWARE

The file 'pbota.txt' has been determined to be 'MALWARE'. Our analysts named the threat PHP/IrcBot.E.3. The term "PHP/" denotes a PHP scriptvirus.Detection will be added to our virus definition file (VDF) with one of the next updates.

Filename Result pbotb.txt MALWARE

The file 'pbotb.txt' has been determined to be 'MALWARE'. Our analysts named the threat PHP/IrcBot.E.4. The term "PHP/" denotes a PHP scriptvirus.Detection will be added to our virus definition file (VDF) with one of the next updates.

Filename Result pbotc.txt MALWARE

The file 'pbotc.txt' has been determined to be 'MALWARE'. Our analysts named the threat PHP/IrcBot.E.4. The term "PHP/" denotes a PHP scriptvirus.Detection will be added to our virus definition file (VDF) with one of the next updates.

Filename Result pbotd.txt MALWARE

The file 'pbotd.txt' has been determined to be 'MALWARE'. Our analysts named the threat PHP/IrcBot.E.4. The term "PHP/" denotes a PHP scriptvirus.Detection will be added to our virus definition file (VDF) with one of the next updates.

Sweetness I tell you. Nothing feels better than being the shiv in the dark that takes some of this crap off the virtual streets. Real hackers don't use scripts... they may write them, but they don't use them. (Ever wonder if your pre-made script isn't designed to take away your toys eventually, eh skiddy?)

If you want to see the places these were injected, well, where they were attempted to be injected, just pour over the killed_log.txt files shared with the public on ZB Block's page.

Most will be there. Some won't.

Where are the others? Other servers!

Where are the other servers? Wouldn't you like to know!

Zap!

Booyeah! Nailed one to the wall! Scratch one bot variant.

I gots me a trophy!

*** BEGIN MESSAGE ***

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your email to Avira's virus lab.

Tracking number: (REMOVED).

A listing of files alongside their results can be found below:

File ID	Filename	Size (Byte)	Result
25382358	mucil_idle.txt	39.07 KB	MALWARE

Please find a detailed report concerning each individual sample below:

The file 'mucil_idle.txt' has been determined to be 'MALWARE'. Our analysts named the threat PHP/IrcBot.F. The term "PHP/" denotes a PHP scriptvirus.Detection will be added to our virus definition file (VDF) with one of the next updates.

Alternatively you can see the analysis result here:

http://analysis.avira.com/samples/details.php?uniqueid=(REMOVED)

An overview of all your submissions can be found here:

http://analysis.avira.com/samples/details.php?uniqueid=(REMOVED)

Please note: If you have specific questions please address them to support@avira.com

Kind regards

Avira Virus Lab

*** END OF MESSAGE ***

Interesting things happen when I modify a version of ZB Block on another site to return a false success to a scanning probe... like actually taking some scum off the streets, rather than just stopping the attack their probes were trying.

I hereby declare PHP/IrcBot.F to be my first kill, in what I hope to be a string of many! And to those who might not like this news, all I can say is, you knew it was coming.

Zap!  

P.S. I might also mention here, that those of you running ZB Block were naturally immune to this infection vector. My modification just had to do with modifying the output of ZB Block to cause the virus to think it had found an infectable machine, by returning the proper code to it.

Stop Keyword Poaching - It's mutiny on your bounty!

You may notice that now ZB Block is blocking SEO keyword scrapers. You may ask just what they are, and why I am directing your site to block it. Well, I will do my best to fill you in on the scoop.

First off, no keyword scraping SEO robot ever drove traffic to YOUR site. Quite the opposite, they attempt to tear traffic away from your site. Worse, they try to do this by fooling the legitimate search engines, and they make money in the process. Even beyond this, some of these are known to feed the Russian Business Network (A giant cybercrime conglomerate). They RBN is interested in this so they can make bogus pages (especially security related) that have high page ranks, to attract those with legitimate interest, away to pages with bogus scam software (Like the very evil AntiVirusPro XP 2010, otherwise known as Troj/FakeXPA).

Let's use a probable hypothetical example, one that happens far too often, to describe this:

*John, an expert in the field of wonder widgets, decides to share his knowledge with the world on the best way to care for and maintain wonder widgets. He works long and hard on a site describing how to do this, and even how you can make your own wonder widget if you can't afford to buy one. His site is very informative, and well written, and the great google gods decide to give him a good page rank as an award for his hard labor.

The SEO botmasters notice his up and coming star, and decide to scrape his site for keyword content, and build a profile of his site.

Then, Gidget's Gadgets notices that their business is failing a little, and hires a SEO firm to find out why. The SEO firm compares keywords in her site, to known profiles of other sites, and finds that John's site, and wonder widgets, have a lot in common with the gadgets that Gidget sells. Not caring that they aren't the same product, and each one fills a different, but related niche, they then sell the keywords that John has, to Gidget. Gidget adds these keywords into her site, and her page rank goes up a bit on these words, and John's pagerank gets diluted.

Now John's visits drop, and people are no longer getting helped. Gidget's site gets much more traffic, but she isn't making sales, because people really want wonder widgets, and her drop is sales was due to market saturation of gadgets, not a competing site. Now no one is happy... except the SEO company that has Gidget's money.*

This sort of behavior is in the realm of keyword spamming, it helps no one. Keyword spam turns the internet into a sargassosistic morass of false leads generated by tricked search engines, that just cause more traffic overload, and more confused, and frustrated innocent victims.

Someday, search engines may find a way to stop this, but for now, and until the expiration of P.T. Barnum's Maxim "You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.", and until the invention of decent AI, keyword spam will be a threat. Your best defense is to send the SEO bots packing with something like ZB Block, while welcoming legitimate search bots with open arms.

~Zaphod

P.S. Thanks WY G&F for a title idea. To be honest, it fits!

Deffinate New MySQL attack through phpBB2 and possibly other CMS. ZB Block defends.

Well, just when you think life is boring, some aspiring skript kiddie tries a new attack! This one affects MySQL and was attempted against a phpBB2 board. I feel that this attack is probably damaging to any board, and perhaps even CMS systems.

This is a serious situation, and did require an update to the signatures in ZB Block. Here is what the new attack looked like...

#: 5437 @: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:10:16 -0600
Host: mail.tmanshost.com
IP: 207.44.178.47
Score: 2
Why blocked: MySQL attack. Mail server, usually infected. Please access from a regular domain name.
File: removed for security
Post:
Query: p=-1/**/AND/**/1=0/**/UNION/**/ALL/**/SELECT/**/0x30653763326137383538643038336566366365353233373433305317531753175317/*
Referer:
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0
Reconstructed URL: http://zaphodb777.dyndns.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=-1/**/AND/**/1=0/**/UNION/**/ALL/**/SELECT/**/0x30653763326137383538643038336566366365353233373433305317531753175317/*

Don't worry, that version has been neutered. It appears to be a self propogating worm, with several attack sequences, most much longer, attempting multiple injections into your MySQL db. ZB Block caught it on just 1 variable, and in smarter hands, would have missed it, and I would have been exploited.

Things the new attack has in common...

1. Uses a negative page number (probably to pop execution at a specified/known/expected place in the script.)
2. Uses "/**/" for blind concatenation of strings. The older attacks used "+".
3. Has a "/*" trailing at the end of query.

ZB Block's signatures have been updated to adapt to this new threat, and updating them is critical!

Zap.

Possible new kind of attack on your website, and revenue stream... Defamation by HTTP Referer!

I am not going to pretend I know ALL the inner workings of google adsense, but if bots are hitting your page, and dropping fake icky referrers like...

http://www.cigarclub.tld

http://cigarettes.cheap-24h.tld

http://www.pillthrills.tld

and

http://slimy-tentacle-hentai.pornshop.tld

They must be trying to convince something that actually sees the referrer of the visit, that you are linked from their crap pages... something perhaps like - - - Google Ad Sense?

That is my best guess, and now ZB Block has rules designed to block connections that contain reputation damaging HTTP_REFERERs. Included in Signature Update #24. Sure am glad I wrote it from the beginning to be extensible, as this only needed a signature update.

Now I just wonder how much damage they've done to my reputation allready.

UPDATE: It's amazing how often the word sex pops up in referers. One of my most important ones, NOAA/NWS, has the word in their site exit page URL. It's buried in the string "nwsexit". OOPS ON ME.

Removed that one detection...  

UPDATE 2: I think I am going to mothball these detections till I can find a narrower way to detect these problem fake linkers. Let us just pray that Google is smart enough to ignore crap referrers.