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WINDOWS 10 APP INSTALLER ABUSED IN BAZARLOADER MALWARE ATTACKS
By
SERGIU GATLAN
* November 11, 2021
* 04:34 PM
* 0
The TrickBot gang operators are now abusing the Windows 10 App Installer to
deploy their BazarLoader malware on the systems of targets who fall victim to a
highly targeted spam campaign.
BazarLoader (aka BazarBackdoor, BazaLoader, BEERBOT, KEGTAP, and Team9Backdoor)
is a stealthy backdoor Trojan commonly used to compromise the networks of
high-value targets and sell access to compromised assets to other
cybercriminals.
It has also been used to deliver additional payloads, such as Cobalt Strike
beacons that help threat actors access their victims' network and ultimately
deploy dangerous malware, including but not limited to Ryuk ransomware.
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In the recent campaign spotted by SophosLabs Principal Researcher Andrew Brandt,
the attackers' spam emails induce a sense of urgency by using threatening
language and impersonating a company manager who asks for more info on a
customer complaint about the email recipient.
BazarLoader phishing email (SophosLabs)
This complaint is supposedly available for review as a PDF from a site hosted on
Microsoft's own cloud storage (on *.web.core.windows.net domains).
To add to the ruse, those on the receiving end of this spam campaign are double
baited into installing the BazarLoader backdoor using an adobeview subdomain
that further adds credibility to the scheme.
"The attackers used two different web addresses for hosting this fake 'PDF
download' page throughout the day," Brandt said.
"Both pages were hosted in Microsoft’s cloud storage, which perhaps lends it a
sense of (unearned) authenticity, and both the .appinstaller and .appbundle
files were hosted in the root of each webpage’s storage."
App Installer waning (SophosLabs)
However, instead of pointing to a PDF document, the "Preview PDF" button on the
phishing landing site opens a URL with an ms-appinstaller: prefix.
When clicking the button, the browser will first show a warning asking the
victim if they want to allow the site to open App Installer. However, most
people will likely ignore it when seeing an adobeview.*.*.web.core.windows.net
domain in the address bar.
Clicking "Open" in the warning dialog will launch Microsoft's App Installer — a
built-in app since the release of Windows 10 version 1607 in August 2016 — to
deploy the malware on the victim's device in the form of a fake Adobe PDF
Component, delivered as an AppX app bundle.
Once launched, App Installer will first start downloading the attackers'
malicious .appinstaller file and a linked .appxbundle file containing the final
payload named Security.exe nested within a UpdateFix subfolder.
BazarLoader fake Adobe PDF component (SophosLabs)
The payload downloads and executes an additional DLL file which is launched and
spawns a child process which in turn spawns other child processes, eventually
ending the string with the injection of the malicious code into a headless
Chromium-based Edge browser process.
After getting deployed on the infected device, BazarLoader will begin harvesting
system information (e.g., hard disk, processor, motherboard, RAM, active hosts
on the local network with public-facing IP addresses).
This information is sent to the command-and-control server, camouflaged as
cookies delivered through HTTPS GET or POST headers.
"Malware that comes in application installer bundles is not commonly seen in
attacks. Unfortunately, now that the process has been demonstrated, it's likely
to attract wider interest," Brandt said.
"Security companies and software vendors need to have the protection mechanisms
in place to detect and block it and prevent the attackers from abusing digital
certificates."
You can find indicators of compromise (IoCs) related to this BazarLoader
campaign, including malware sample hashes, command-and-control server, and
source URLs, on SophosLabs' Github page.
Microsoft took down the pages used by the attackers to host malicious files in
these attacks on November 4, after being notified by Sophos.
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Windows 10 21H1 now in broad deployment, available to everyone
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SERGIU GATLAN
Sergiu Gatlan is a reporter who covered cybersecurity, technology, Apple,
Google, and a few other topics at Softpedia for more than a decade. Email or
Twitter DMs for tips.
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