Nimda.E/unknown memory resident, internet-aware processes

From: Matt Hornsby (mr.hornsby@attbi.com)
Date: 03/20/03

  • Next message: Johannes Ullrich: "Re: Nimda.E/unknown memory resident, internet-aware processes"
    Date: 20 Mar 2003 06:10:54 -0000
    From: Matt Hornsby <mr.hornsby@attbi.com>
    To: incidents@securityfocus.com
    
    
    ('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)

    Hopefully someone else out there has run across something similar to
    this. After searching the internet for more than a week and finding
    nothing, I am posting to this list in the event that this has been
    discovered before.

    Recently, a client's NT 4.0 server was infected with what appeared to be
    Nimda.E. Their ISP completely shut off their broadband connection after
    detecting large amounts of Nimda related traffic scanning for vulnerable
    systsms.

    The first thing I noticed when I arrived on the scene was what appeared to
    be a complete system compromise. Multiple backdoors and remote
    administration packages were installed. Dameware, psyBNC, several
    backdoor daemons, an FTP server and several other exploits were present.
    Upon running a Nimda.E cleanup utility and discovering the extent of the
    compromise (this system had more holes than swiss cheese), I looked at the
    network traffic and saw several suspect connections. One was to an ICQ
    server, one was to something on Port 6667(presumably an IRC server), and
    one other connection to port 2787.

    Finally, I noticed a box reading "MIRC Windows NT Security" popping up for
    a fraction of a second every minute or so. Unfortunately it was not long
    enough for me to catch what process was spawning it.

    Curious as to what was being communicated, I fired up a packet sniffer and
    discovered that the connection to port 2787 was actually to a private IRC
    server on an non-standard port. This machine was being used as a drone
    along with about 500 other compromised systems on just that one IRC server.

    Later on, I managed to find and log into the IRC server and caught the
    attention of a few people who claimed to be administrators of the IRC
    server and authors of the the code responsible for this compromise.

    They claimed to be Russian coders who have been working on a program they
    called "sysnet.exe" for 1.5 to 2 years. According to them, the program is
    a swiss army knife of backdoors and expoits, all automatically installed
    through IIS vulnerabilities. I was not able to fine sysnet.exe anywhere
    on the affected system or in its registry.

    Shortly after the conversation, the IRC server was shut down.
    Interestingly enough, when I turned the affected system back on, it was
    now connecting to another system, yandex.ru on the same port (2787). Also
    of note were connections to a remote system on ports 59230 and 19736.

    All other attempts to determine the source of these connections have
    failed. FPORT would not display ANY connections, even legitimate ones.
    What little I have found on the subject seems to suggest that any time
    that FPort doesnt return any information is cause for great concern.

    Unfortunately, since it was a production machine that belonged to a
    client, I was unable to study it further before doing a clean OS install.
    All attempts to discover the root of the infection came up dry. The best
    I can surmise is that it was infected with Nimda.E, and then this exploit
    was used to install the rootkit and further compromise the system. The
    system logs showed nothing except failed attempts at calls to cmd.exe.

    Anyhow, this is the first time I have posted here, so if I have posted to
    the wrong place or overlooked some other rule of etiquette I apologize in
    advance. I leave you with some snippets of network traffic that I was
    able to capture:

    Packet data:
    0000: 00 90 27 A4 9A D5 00 20 6F 14 CB 44 08 00 45 00 ..'.... o..D..E.
    0010: 00 7E 9E 4F 40 00 31 06 71 2D 3F F1 B3 46 40 51 ...O@.1.q-?..F@Q
    0020: 06 75 0A E3 04 9B 0D 6A 82 1B 00 02 1B D7 50 18 .u.....j......P.
    0030: 0B 68 5F F5 00 00 3A 69 72 63 2E 43 68 61 6F 53 .h_...:irc.ChaoS
    0040: 2E 4E 65 74 20 33 32 34 20 77 5F 33 33 37 38 36 .Net 324 w_33786
    0050: 6C 5F 20 23 30 32 20 2B 73 6D 74 6E 20 0D 0A 3A l_ #02 +smtn ..:
    0060: 69 72 63 2E 43 68 61 6F 53 2E 4E 65 74 20 33 32 irc.ChaoS.Net 32
    0070: 39 20 77 5F 33 33 37 38 36 6C 5F 20 23 30 32 20 9 w_33786l_ #02
    0080: 31 30 34 39 38 38 38 32 39 31 0D 0A 1049888291..

    this one shows some of the many systems logged in:

    Packet data:
    0000: 00 90 27 A4 9A D5 00 20 6F 14 CB 44 08 00 45 00 ..'.... o..D..E.
    0010: 05 91 9C FA 40 00 31 06 6D 6F 3F F1 B3 46 40 51 ....@.1.mo?..F@Q
    0020: 06 75 0A E3 04 9B 0D 6A 7C B2 00 02 1B CE 50 18 .u.....j|.....P.
    0030: 0B 68 67 30 00 00 3A 77 5F 33 33 37 38 36 6C 5F .hg0..:w_33786l_
    0040: 21 4D 30 32 34 37 35 31 58 40 41 38 35 38 42 42 !M024751X@A858BB
    0050: 36 35 43 35 45 34 42 41 31 35 38 30 42 31 31 44 65C5E4BA1580B11D
    0060: 46 43 42 42 44 36 33 44 78 20 4A 4F 49 4E 20 3A FCBBD63Dx JOIN :
    0070: 23 30 32 0D 0A 3A 69 72 63 2E 43 68 61 6F 53 2E #02..:irc.ChaoS.
    0080: 4E 65 74 20 33 35 33 20 77 5F 33 33 37 38 36 6C Net 353 w_33786l
    0090: 5F 20 40 20 23 30 32 20 3A 77 5F 33 33 37 38 36 _ @ #02 :w_33786
    00A0: 6C 5F 20 71 5F 36 38 31 33 31 7A 5F 20 6C 5F 35 l_ q_68131z_ l_5
    00B0: 39 32 35 35 64 5F 20 71 5F 35 35 32 32 33 78 5F 9255d_ q_55223x_
    00C0: 20 69 5F 37 37 32 34 35 7A 5F 20 61 5F 32 34 32 i_77245z_ a_242
    00D0: 31 39 6A 5F 20 79 5F 35 39 39 32 34 6B 5F 20 71 19j_ y_59924k_ q
    00E0: 5F 36 34 38 39 37 64 5F 20 78 5F 37 36 31 34 34 _64897d_ x_76144
    00F0: 79 5F 20 64 5F 32 39 30 37 31 6A 5F 5B 73 63 61 y_ d_29071j_[sca
    0100: 6E 5D 20 69 5F 38 34 34 33 36 65 5F 5B 73 63 61 n] i_84436e_[sca
    0110: 6E 5D 20 6A 5F 35 35 30 34 32 7A 5F 20 6D 5F 31 n] j_55042z_ m_1
    0120: 39 31 39 39 62 5F 20 6D 5F 38 33 35 35 36 63 5F 9199b_ m_83556c_
    0130: 20 61 5F 39 33 30 36 34 6D 5F 20 63 5F 38 35 32 a_93064m_ c_852
    0140: 33 31 78 5F 20 68 5F 35 34 34 35 38 66 5F 20 69 31x_ h_54458f_ i
    0150: 5F 34 35 30 37 39 78 5F 20 40 4C 20 6E 5F 38 32 _45079x_ @L n_82
    0160: 37 34 30 6B 5F 20 6D 5F 35 38 31 34 30 68 5F 20 740k_ m_58140h_
    0170: 63 5F 34 35 30 39 33 76 5F 20 67 5F 37 34 39 35 c_45093v_ g_7495
    0180: 34 6D 5F 20 62 5F 37 35 38 32 30 69 5F 20 72 5F 4m_ b_75820i_ r_
    0190: 32 30 35 31 35 66 5F 20 76 5F 37 31 39 36 39 6C 20515f_ v_71969l
    01A0: 5F 20 6E 5F 31 36 37 30 31 61 5F 20 67 5F 31 37 _ n_16701a_ g_17
    01B0: 37 39 37 74 5F 20 63 5F 35 34 33 31 36 6D 5F 20 797t_ c_54316m_
    01C0: 63 5F 34 35 37 36 37 65 5F 20 6C 5F 37 35 39 38 c_45767e_ l_7598
    01D0: 32 71 5F 20 74 5F 37 37 30 33 37 6F 5F 20 6A 5F 2q_ t_77037o_ j_
    01E0: 32 37 32 30 31 75 5F 20 69 5F 34 33 36 32 33 62 27201u_ i_43623b
    01F0: 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 73 5F 36 30 31 36 38 69 _[scan] s_60168i
    0200: 5F 20 76 5F 34 33 34 38 39 70 5F 20 68 5F 33 30 _ v_43489p_ h_30
    0210: 37 39 37 6B 5F 20 6E 5F 32 35 30 33 32 71 5F 20 797k_ n_25032q_
    0220: 6A 5F 35 34 35 38 32 63 5F 20 75 5F 32 32 36 34 j_54582c_ u_2264
    0230: 30 73 5F 20 77 5F 34 31 38 36 38 6E 5F 20 79 5F 0s_ w_41868n_ y_
    0240: 35 33 35 31 30 6C 5F 20 0D 0A 3A 69 72 63 2E 43 53510l_ ..:irc.C
    0250: 68 61 6F 53 2E 4E 65 74 20 33 35 33 20 77 5F 33 haoS.Net 353 w_3
    0260: 33 37 38 36 6C 5F 20 40 20 23 30 32 20 3A 6D 5F 3786l_ @ #02 :m_
    0270: 31 31 34 32 37 79 5F 20 70 5F 39 34 30 33 30 70 11427y_ p_94030p
    0280: 5F 20 68 5F 39 32 38 37 38 65 5F 20 75 5F 31 36 _ h_92878e_ u_16
    0290: 31 35 31 70 5F 20 78 5F 35 34 30 34 35 6F 5F 20 151p_ x_54045o_
    02A0: 72 5F 39 33 30 34 37 6E 5F 20 65 5F 32 37 39 39 r_93047n_ e_2799
    02B0: 33 79 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 67 5F 37 31 33 39 3y_[scan] g_7139
    02C0: 37 6A 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 6F 5F 37 38 34 39 7j_[scan] o_7849
    02D0: 31 6E 5F 20 73 5F 39 37 34 36 36 70 5F 20 6A 5F 1n_ s_97466p_ j_
    02E0: 32 30 31 34 36 79 5F 20 69 5F 39 39 37 34 36 6C 20146y_ i_99746l
    02F0: 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 64 5F 32 36 33 36 35 67 _[scan] d_26365g
    0300: 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 76 5F 32 39 37 30 36 6F _[scan] v_29706o
    0310: 5F 20 70 5F 31 34 30 35 31 69 5F 20 72 5F 33 35 _ p_14051i_ r_35
    0320: 32 37 39 6F 5F 20 6E 5F 34 30 31 35 39 72 5F 20 279o_ n_40159r_
    0330: 64 5F 33 38 32 34 31 68 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 d_38241h_[scan]
    0340: 66 5F 35 33 31 34 39 70 5F 20 73 5F 37 37 36 36 f_53149p_ s_7766
    0350: 38 6B 5F 20 79 5F 31 35 33 31 37 68 5F 20 6C 5F 8k_ y_15317h_ l_
    0360: 33 38 33 38 38 63 5F 20 76 5F 31 35 31 31 33 79 38388c_ v_15113y
    0370: 5F 20 64 5F 33 38 39 32 37 74 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E _ d_38927t_[scan
    0380: 5D 20 73 5F 35 31 34 37 38 74 5F 20 6E 5F 33 30 ] s_51478t_ n_30
    0390: 34 32 39 7A 5F 20 71 5F 35 39 39 36 33 76 5F 20 429z_ q_59963v_
    03A0: 66 5F 32 36 34 36 34 65 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 f_26464e_[scan]
    03B0: 64 5F 31 36 32 35 32 74 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 d_16252t_[scan]
    03C0: 66 5F 36 31 32 33 34 67 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 f_61234g_[scan]
    03D0: 72 5F 33 34 34 34 39 66 5F 20 63 5F 36 36 34 32 r_34449f_ c_6642
    03E0: 36 79 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 69 5F 31 37 32 37 6y_[scan] i_1727
    03F0: 33 6E 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 77 5F 36 39 30 39 3n_[scan] w_6909
    0400: 38 6D 5F 20 66 5F 33 34 37 33 32 72 5F 20 76 5F 8m_ f_34732r_ v_
    0410: 39 36 37 31 35 77 5F 20 0D 0A 3A 69 72 63 2E 43 96715w_ ..:irc.C
    0420: 68 61 6F 53 2E 4E 65 74 20 33 35 33 20 77 5F 33 haoS.Net 353 w_3
    0430: 33 37 38 36 6C 5F 20 40 20 23 30 32 20 3A 73 5F 3786l_ @ #02 :s_
    0440: 37 39 35 34 31 76 5F 20 73 5F 32 39 34 38 32 77 79541v_ s_29482w
    0450: 5F 20 61 5F 33 36 33 39 30 71 5F 20 74 5F 39 36 _ a_36390q_ t_96
    0460: 32 36 38 66 5F 20 7A 5F 34 37 34 34 37 79 5F 5B 268f_ z_47447y_[
    0470: 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 75 5F 31 39 35 39 33 79 5F 20 scan] u_19593y_
    0480: 61 5F 36 31 33 39 30 68 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 a_61390h_[scan]
    0490: 63 5F 31 37 36 37 34 72 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 c_17674r_[scan]
    04A0: 79 5F 33 31 31 35 37 62 5F 20 73 5F 38 30 33 39 y_31157b_ s_8039
    04B0: 38 6A 5F 20 65 5F 38 37 38 35 36 70 5F 5B 73 63 8j_ e_87856p_[sc
    04C0: 61 6E 5D 20 62 5F 31 34 34 32 35 77 5F 5B 73 63 an] b_14425w_[sc
    04D0: 61 6E 5D 20 68 5F 32 36 35 31 32 6A 5F 5B 73 63 an] h_26512j_[sc
    04E0: 61 6E 5D 20 65 5F 34 35 36 35 36 6F 5F 5B 73 63 an] e_45656o_[sc
    04F0: 61 6E 5D 20 76 5F 32 38 36 32 36 69 5F 20 64 5F an] v_28626i_ d_
    0500: 34 33 37 32 34 6E 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 6D 5F 43724n_[scan] m_
    0510: 37 38 33 37 35 69 5F 20 73 5F 35 38 36 36 30 6E 78375i_ s_58660n
    0520: 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 66 5F 35 39 38 32 30 68 _[scan] f_59820h
    0530: 5F 5B 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 73 5F 33 33 30 32 35 75 _[scan] s_33025u
    0540: 5F 20 74 5F 37 37 35 38 34 6F 5F 20 6F 5F 33 32 _ t_77584o_ o_32
    0550: 35 32 36 62 5F 20 64 5F 36 39 37 30 37 64 5F 5B 526b_ d_69707d_[
    0560: 73 63 61 6E 5D 20 0D 0A 3A 69 72 63 2E 43 68 61 scan] ..:irc.Cha
    0570: 6F 53 2E 4E 65 74 20 33 36 36 20 77 5F 33 33 37 oS.Net 366 w_337
    0580: 38 36 6C 5F 20 23 30 32 20 3A 45 6E 64 20 6F 66 86l_ #02 :End of
    0590: 20 2F 4E 41 4D 45 53 20 6C 69 73 74 2E 0D 0A /NAMES list...

    The ones with [scan] in them, according the the coder I spoke with, were
    those systems that were in the process of scanning the net for new
    vulnerable hosts.

    Anyone seen this before?

    Cheers!
    Matt Hornsby

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  • Next message: Johannes Ullrich: "Re: Nimda.E/unknown memory resident, internet-aware processes"

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