New Woody RAT Malware Being Used to Target Russian Organizations
Vulnerabilities mentionedAll →
| CVE | Vulnerability | CVSS | EPSS | Flags | Affected | Exposure | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2022-30190 | MSDT URL Protocol Remote Code Execution in Microsoft Windows (Follina) CVE-2022-30190 (Follina) is a remote code execution flaw in the Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) when MSDT is invoked through its ms-msdt URL protocol by a calling application such as Microsoft Word. Attackers trigger it by luring a user into opening a malicious document — typically a Word/RTF file whose link or remotely linked template launches the ms-msdt: URI with attacker-supplied commands — and CVSS 3.1 rates it 7.8 with a local attack vector and required user interaction. A successful exploit runs arbitrary code with the privileges of the calling application, allowing the attacker to install programs, view, change or delete data, or create new accounts in the user's context. Per the CISA data, affected platforms are Windows 7, 8.1 and RT 8.1, Windows 10 versions 1507 through 21H2, Windows 11 21H2, and Windows Server 2008 and 2012 — essentially any Windows installation that ships MSDT, with Office/Word as the common delivery vector. Exploitation is confirmed in the wild: Microsoft acknowledged it as an exploited zero-day, CISA added it to the KEV on 2022-06-14 with known ransomware use, EPSS puts the 30-day exploitation probability at 99.2% (99th percentile), and contemporaneous reporting also tied its use to espionage actors including APT28. Do: Apply Microsoft's security updates per vendor instructions (the fix shipped in the June 2022 Patch Tuesday releases for the affected Windows versions), as required by CISA's KEV. If patching must be delayed, follow Microsoft's documented mitigation to disable the MSDT URL protocol (remove or restrict the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ms-msdt registry key) and enforce Office Protected View / block Word from fetching remote templates over the network. Hunt for exploitation by checking whether Office processes (WINWORD.exe) launch msdt.exe or sdiagnhost.exe, or whether ms-msdt: URIs are invoked unexpectedly. | 7.8 | 99% | KEV ransomware PoC |
| mass≈1 billion+ Windows devices (effectively the entire supported Windows installed base) |
Full article410 words · extracted from thehackernews.com · click to collapse
Ravie LakshmananAug 04, 2022
An unknown threat actor has been targeting Russian entities with a newly discovered remote access trojan called Woody RAT for at least a year as part of a spear-phishing campaign.
The advanced custom backdoor is said to be delivered via either of two methods: archive files or Microsoft Office documents leveraging the now-patched "Follina" support diagnostic tool vulnerability (CVE-2022-30190) in Windows.
Like other implants engineered for espionage-oriented operations, Woody RAT sports a wide range of features that enables the threat actor to remotely commandeer and steal sensitive information from the infected systems.
"The earliest versions of this RAT were typically archived into a ZIP file pretending to be a document specific to a Russian group," Malwarebytes researchers Ankur Saini and Hossein Jazi said in a Wednesday report.
"When the Follina vulnerability became known to the world, the threat actor switched to it to distribute the payload."
In one instance, the hacking group attempted to strike a Russian aerospace and defense entity known as OAK based on evidence gleaned from a fake domain registered for this purpose.
Attacks leveraging the Windows flaw as part of this campaign first came to light on June 7, 2022, when researchers from the MalwareHunterTeam disclosed the use of a document named "Памятка.docx" (which translates to "Memo.docx") to deliver a CSS payload containing the trojan.
The document purportedly offers best security practices for passwords and confidential information, among others, while acting as a decoy for dropping the backdoor.
Besides encrypting its communications with a remote server, Woody RAT is equipped with capabilities to write arbitrary files to the machine, execute additional malware, delete files, enumerate directories, capture screenshots, and gather a list of running processes.
Also embedded within the malware are two .NET-based libraries named WoodySharpExecutor and WoodyPowerSession that can be used to run .NET code and PowerShell commands received from the server, respectively.
Furthermore, the malware makes use of the process hollowing technique to inject itself into a suspended Notepad process and deletes itself from the disk to evade detection from security software installed on the compromised host.
Malwarebytes has yet to attribute the attacks to a specific threat actor, citing lack of solid indicators linking the campaign to a previously known group, although Chinese and North Korean nation-state collectives have targeted Russia in the past.
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