Magniber

Threat Trend Report on Region-Specific Ransomware

Background Currently, ransomware creators include individuals, cyber criminal gangs and state-supported groups. Out of these individuals and groups, cyber criminal gangs are the most proactive in ransomware development, while individuals and state-supported groups are less so. Privately developed ransomware is most often for research purposes with the intention of destroying data. Some state-sponsored threat groups also develop ransomware. The purpose of these cases is not for financial gain either but for data destruction, and Wipers, which do not allow recovery,…

Magniber Ransomware’s Relaunch Technique

ASEC (AhnLab Security Emergency Response Center) has been constantly monitoring the Magniber ransomware which has been displaying a high number of distribution cases. It has been distributed through the IE (Internet Explorer) vulnerability for the past few years, but stopped exploiting the vulnerability after the support for the browser ended. Recently, the ransomware is distributed as a Windows installer package file (.msi) in Edge and Chrome browsers. There have been recent reports of systems being reinfected by Magniber. Analysis revealed…

Tracking Distribution Site of Magniber Ransomware Using EDR

AhnLab ASEC has been blocking the Magniber ransomware through various means since its distribution has continued even after, “Redistribution of Magniber Ransomware in Korea (January 28th),” was posted back in January. A particular finding at the time was that the ransomware used the <a> tag to bypass domain blocks. In order to detect this, we have researched response measures by tracking the distribution site URL through a different method. The team is working hard to prevent damages through means such…

Redistribution of Magniber Ransomware in Korea (January 28th)

On the morning of January 28th, the ASEC analysis team discovered the redistribution of Magniber disguised as normal Windows Installers (MSI). The distributed Magniber files have MSI as their extensions, disguising themselves as Windows update files. According to AhnLab’s log system as seen in Figure 1, it can be noted that the distribution increased starting from January 27th. MS.Update.Center.Security.KB17347418.msi MS.Update.Center.Security.KB2562020.msi MS.Update.Center.Security.KB44945726.msi Figure 1. Increase in Magniber distribution confirmed by AhnLab’s log system The site that is currently distributing Magniber is…

Caution! Magniber Ransomware Restarts Its Propagation on December 9th With COVID-19 Related Filenames

On December 9th, 2022, the ASEC analysis team discovered that Magniber Ransomware is being distributed again. During the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, Magniber was found being distributed with COVID-19 related filenames alongside the previous security update related filenames. C:\Users\$USERS\Downloads\COVID.Warning.Readme.2f4a204180a70de60e674426ee79673f.msiC:\Users\$USERS\Downloads\COVID.Warning.Readme.502ef18830aa097b6dd414d3c3edd5fb.msiC:\Users\$USERS\Downloads\COVID.Warning.Readme.a179a9245f8e13f41d799e775b71fdff.msi Table 1. COVID-19 related filenames in circulation In the past, Magniber exploited Internet Explorer’s vulnerability to infect user PCs via Drive by Download which only required users to visit a web page. However, after Microsoft stopped supporting Internet Explorer, Magniber’s…