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AbonnierenZloader: No Longer Silent in the Night
Introduction
Zloader (aka Terdot, DELoader, or Silent Night), is a modular trojan born from the leaked Zeus source code. It surfaced publicly in 2016 during a targeted campaign against German banks1, but its malicious activity traces back to at least August 2015. Zloader’s first run persisted until the beginning of 2018 when its activities abruptly ceased. Its resurgence at the end of 2019, marketed in underground forums as “Silent Night”, came with substantial alterations. The evolution of Zloader progressed steadily, leading to the development of version 2.0.0.0 around September 2021. Similar to Qakbot, the threat actors using Zloader also pivoted from conducting banking fraud to ransomware. In April 2022, security researchers executed a takedown operation2 to dismantle the botnet leading to an extended period of inactivity.
After an almost two-year hiatus, Zloader reemerged with a new iteration that appears to have started development in September 2023. These new changes include new obfuscation techniques, an updated domain generation algorithm (DGA), RSA encryption for network communications, and the loader now has native support for 64-bit versions of Windows. Initially, this new version was labeled with the old version number 2.0.0.0. However, over the past several months, they released version 2.1.6.0 and 2.1.7.0. In this blog, we will explore these new updates to Zloader.
Key Takeaways
- Zloader dates back to 2015 and has been advertised in underground cybercriminal forums under the name “Silent Night” since the end of 2019.
- Zloader has returned after an almost two-year hiatus after being taken down in April 2022 by security researchers.
- The new version of Zloader made significant changes to the loader module, which added RSA encryption, updated the domain generation algorithm, and is now compiled for 64-bit Windows operating systems for the first time.
- Zloader continues to use junk code for obfuscation, as well as API import hashing and string encryption in an attempt to hinder malware analysis.
Technical Analysis
In the following sections, we dive into the technical details surrounding Zloader’s new updates to their anti-analysis techniques, embedded configuration, DGA, and network encryption.
Anti-analysis techniques
Zloader uses a combination of API import hashing, junk code, a filename check, and string obfuscation. The following sections analyze each technique.
Imports and API resolution
The newest Zloader samples only import a few functions from the kernel32 library. The remaining imports are resolved at runtime using checksums to obfuscate the functions that are used. This technique, already present in older versions, changes its implementation, adding an XOR constant which changes between samples. Python code that replicates the API hashing algorithm is shown below.
def calculate_checksum(func_name, xor_constant):
checksum = 0
for element in func_name.upper():
checksum = 16 * checksum - (0 - (ord(element)+1))
if checksum & 0xf0000000 != 0:
checksum = ((((checksum & 0xf0000000) >> 24) ^ checksum) & 0xfffffff)
return checksum ^ xor_constant
Code sample available on GitHub.
Junk code
Similar to previous versions, Zloader uses custom obfuscation. The new version of Zloader adds junk code that consists of various arithmetic operations, as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. Example Zloader 2.1 junk code
In Figure 1, the instructions inside the red box are the junk code.
Anti-sandbox
Each Zloader sample expects to be executed with a specific filename. If the filename does not match what the sample expects, it will not execute further. This could evade malware sandboxes that rename sample files. Figure 2 shows an example of a Zloader sample that expects its filename to be CodeForge.exe.
Figure 2. Example of Zloader’s anti-analysis filename check
ThreatLabz has observed Zloader use the following filenames:
- CodeForge.exe
- CyberMesh.exe
- EpsilonApp.exe
- FusionBeacon.exe
- FusionEcho.exe
- IonBeacon.dll
- IonPulse.exe
- KineticaSurge.dll
- QuantumDraw.exe
- SpectraKinetic.exe
- UltraApp.exe
String obfuscation
Similar to prior versions, Zloader implements a string obfuscation algorithm for some of the malware’s important strings such as registry paths, DLL names, and the DGA’s top-level domain (TLD) using XOR with a hardcoded key. Python code that replicates the string obfuscation algorithm is shown below:
def str_deobfuscate(enc_bin, enc_key):
res = ''
for i, element in enumerate(enc_bin):
res += chr( ((element ^ 0xff) & (enc_key[i % len(enc_key)])) | (~(enc_key[i % len(enc_key)]) & element))
return res
Code sample available on GitHub.
The encryption key differs between samples and is also hardcoded in the .rdata section as shown in Figure 3 below.
Figure 3. Example string obfuscation key used by Zloader
A list of Zloader’s obfuscated strings is shown in the Appendix.
Static configuration encryption and structure
The Zloader static configuration is still encrypted using RC4 with a hardcoded alphanumeric key, but the structure is slightly different. The botnet ID, campaign name, and command-and-control servers (C2s) are set at fixed offsets, in addition to an RSA public key that replaces the old RC4 key that was used for network encryption. ThreatLabz has observed 15 unique new Zloader samples and all of them have the same RSA public key, likely indicating there is currently only a single threat actor using the malware.
An example Zloader static configuration is shown below.
00000000 00 00 00 00 42 69 6e 67 5f 4d 6f 64 35 00 00 00 |....Bing_Mod5...|
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 4d 31 00 00 00 00 00 |.........M1.....|
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 68 74 |..............ht|
00000030 74 70 73 3a 2f 2f 61 64 73 6c 73 74 69 63 6b 65 |tps://adslsticke|
00000040 72 68 69 2e 77 6f 72 6c 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |rhi.world.......|
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000002b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 |................|
000002c0 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 42 45 47 49 4e 20 50 55 42 4c 49 |-----BEGIN PUBLI|
000002d0 43 20 4b 45 59 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 0a 4d 49 47 66 4d |C KEY-----.MIGfM|
000002e0 41 30 47 43 53 71 47 53 49 62 33 44 51 45 42 41 |A0GCSqGSIb3DQEBA|
000002f0 51 55 41 41 34 47 4e 41 44 43 42 69 51 4b 42 67 |QUAA4GNADCBiQKBg|
00000300 51 44 4b 47 41 4f 57 56 6b 69 6b 71 45 37 54 79 |QDKGAOWVkikqE7Ty|
00000310 4b 49 4d 74 57 49 38 64 46 73 61 0a 6c 65 54 61 |KIMtWI8dFsa.leTa|
00000320 4a 4e 58 4d 4a 4e 49 50 6e 52 45 2f 66 47 43 7a |JNXMJNIPnRE/fGCz|
00000330 71 72 56 2b 72 74 59 33 2b 65 78 34 4d 43 48 45 |qrV+rtY3+ex4MCHE|
00000340 74 71 32 56 77 70 70 74 68 66 30 52 67 6c 76 38 |tq2Vwppthf0Rglv8|
00000350 4f 69 57 67 4b 6c 65 72 49 4e 35 50 0a 36 4e 45 |OiWgKlerIN5P.6NE|
00000360 79 43 66 49 73 46 59 55 4d 44 66 6c 64 51 54 46 |yCfIsFYUMDfldQTF|
00000370 30 33 56 45 53 38 47 42 49 76 48 71 35 53 6a 6c |03VES8GBIvHq5Sjl|
00000380 49 7a 37 6c 61 77 75 77 66 64 6a 64 45 6b 61 48 |Iz7lawuwfdjdEkaH|
00000390 66 4f 6d 6d 75 39 73 72 72 61 66 74 6b 0a 49 39 |fOmmu9srraftk.I9|
000003a0 67 5a 4f 38 57 52 51 67 59 31 75 4e 64 73 58 77 |gZO8WRQgY1uNdsXw|
000003b0 49 44 41 51 41 42 0a 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 45 4e 44 20 |IDAQAB.-----END |
000003c0 50 55 42 4c 49 43 20 4b 45 59 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 0a |PUBLIC KEY-----.|
000003d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000003fc
Domain generation algorithm
When the primary C2 server is not available, Zloader reverts to a DGA. The DGA algorithm has changed in the latest version and no longer contains a different seed per botnet. Python code that replicates Zloader’s new DGA algorithm is shown below.
import time
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
def uint32(val):
return val & 0xffffffff
def get_dga_time():
now = datetime.now()
ts = time.time()
utc_offset = (datetime.fromtimestamp(ts) - datetime.utcfromtimestamp(ts)).total_seconds() / 3600
midnight = now.replace(hour=0, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0)
midnight = midnight + timedelta(hours=utc_offset)
return int(midnight.timestamp())
def generate_zloader_dga_domains():
domains = []
t = get_dga_time()
for i in range(32): # number of domains to generate
domain = ""
for j in range(20): # domain name length
v = uint32(ord('a') + (t % 25 ))
t = uint32(t + v)
t = (t >> 24) & ((t >> 24) ^ 0xFFFFFF00) | uint32(t << 8)
domain += chr(v)
domains.append(domain+".com")
return domains
Code sample available on GitHub.
The code generates 32 domains per day by using the local system time at midnight (converted to UTC) as a seed. Each of the DGA domains have a length of 20 characters followed by the “.com” TLD.
Network communications
Zloader continues to use HTTP POST requests to communicate with its C2 server. However, the network encryption is now using 1,024-bit RSA with RC4 and the Zeus “visual encryption” algorithms. Zloader uses the custom Zeus BinStorage format where the first 128 bytes are the RSA encrypted RC4 key (32 random bytes) and, the remaining bytes are encrypted with the RC4 key and visual encryption as shown in Figure 4:
Figure 4. Zloader BinStorage object for a hello message (prior to encryption)
The Zeus BinStorage structure uses an ID integer value to represent the information stored, followed by the length and data. The BinStorage ID values in this example are shown in Table 1.
Value (Decimal) | Value (Hexadecimal) | Description |
---|---|---|
10002 | 0x2712 | Botnet ID |
10025 | 0x2729 | Campaign ID |
10001 | 0x2711 | Bot ID |
10003 | 0x2713 | Malware version |
10006 | 0x2716 | Unknown flag (set to 0x1) |
Table 1. Zloader BinStorage hello message fields
ThreatLabz has observed samples containing the following botnet IDs:
- Bing_Mod2
- Bing_Mod3
- Bing_Mod4
- Bing_Mod5
All of the campaign IDs have been set to the value M1.
Conclusion
Zloader was a significant threat for many years and its comeback will likely result in new ransomware attacks. The operational takedown temporarily stopped the activity, but not the threat group behind it. Returning after almost two years, Zloader has brought notable improvements to the loader module such as RSA encryption, an updated DGA, and enhanced obfuscation techniques, with more junk code, API import hashing, and string encryption to thwart malware analysis.
Zscaler ThreatLabz continues to track this threat and add detections to protect our customers.
Zscaler Coverage
In addition to sandbox detections, Zscaler’s multilayered cloud security platform detects indicators related to Zloader at various levels with the following threat names:
Indicators Of Compromise (IOCs)
SHA256 | Description |
---|---|
038487af6226adef21a29f3d31baf3c809140fcb408191da8bc457b6721e3a55 | Zloader sample |
16af920dd49010cf297b03a732749bb99cc34996f090cb1e4f16285f5b69ee7d | Zloader sample |
25c8f98b79cf0bfc00221a33d714fac51490d840d13ab9ba4f6751a58d55c78d | Zloader sample |
2cdb78330f90b9fb20b8fb1ef9179e2d9edfbbd144d522f541083b08f84cc456 | Zloader sample |
83deff18d50843ee70ca9bfa8d473521fd6af885a6c925b56f63391aad3ee0f3 | Zloader sample |
98dccaaa3d1efd240d201446373c6de09c06781c5c71d0f01f86b7192ec42eb2 | Zloader sample |
adbd0c7096a7373be82dd03df1aae61cb39e0a155c00bbb9c67abc01d48718aa | Zloader sample |
b206695fb128857012fe280555a32bd389502a1b47c8974f4b405ab19921ac93 | Zloader sample |
b47e4b62b956730815518c691fcd16c48d352fca14c711a8403308de9b7c1378 | Zloader sample |
d92286543a9e04b70525b72885e2983381c6f3c68c5fc64ec1e9695567fb090d | Zloader sample |
eb4b412b4fc58ce2f134cac7ec30bd5694a3093939d129935fe5c65f27ce9499 | Zloader sample |
f03b9dce7b701d874ba95293c9274782fceb85d55b276fd28a67b9e419114fdb | Zloader sample |
f6d8306522f26544cd8f73c649e03cce0268466be27fe6cc45c67cc1a4bdc1b8 | Zloader sample |
fa4b2019d7bf5560b88ae9ab3b3deb96162037c2ed8b9e17ea008b0c97611616 | Zloader sample |
fbd60fffb5d161e051daa3e7d65c0ad5f589687e92e43329c5c4c950f58fbb75 | Zloader sample |
URL | Description |
---|---|
https://adslstickerhi[.]world | Zloader C2 |
https://adslstickerni[.]world | Zloader C2 |
https://dem.businessdeep[.]com | Zloader C2 |
Appendix
Tools
The code snippets in this blog have also been uploaded to our GitHub tools repository here.
Decoded strings
user32.dll |
nbsp; |
%s |
reg add HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run /f /t REG_SZ /v %s /d "%s" |
wininet.dll |
td |
tr |
br |
Software\Microsoft\ |
h3 |
Local\ |
hr |
POST |
gdiplus.dll |
NtWriteVirtualMemory |
https:// |
* |
\??\ |
ntdll.dll |
ws2_32.dll |
_alldiv |
NtProtectVirtualMemory |
NtGetContextThread |
shell32.dll |
%s %s |
psapi.dll |
crypt32.dll |
S-1-15 |
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/ |
_aulldiv |
\"%s\" |
samlib.dll |
S:(ML;CIOI;NRNWNX;;;LW) |
NtCreateThreadEx |
regsvr32.exe /s \"%s\" |
NtResumeThread |
bcrypt.dll |
netapi32.dll |
RtlGetVersion |
strtoul |
winsta.dll |
wldap32.dll |
NtReadVirtualMemory |
Basic |
0:0 |
version.dll |
h2 |
InstallDate |
h5 |
NtAllocateVirtualMemory |
.com |
cabinet.dll |
S:(ML;;NRNWNX;;;LW) |
li |
kernel32.dll |
%s\tmp_%08x |
h6 |
aeiouy |
div |
rpcrt4.dll |
{%08X-%04X-%04X-%08X%08X} |
iphlpapi.dll |
mpr.dll |
C:\Windows\System32\ntdll.dll |
Connection: close |
gdi32.dll |
C:\Windows\System32\msiexec.exe |
Global\ | |
wtsapi32.dll |
NtCreateUserProcess |
shlwapi.dll |
RtlUserThreadStart |
%s |
NtOpenProcess |
HTTP/1.1 |
ncrypt.dll |
INVALID_BOT_ID |
_aullrem |
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run |
dnsapi.dll |
ole32.dll |
.dll |
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msiexec.exe |
bcdfghklmnpqrstvwxz |
ftllib.dll |
User metrics |
ThreadStart |
MSIMG32.dll |
\* |
JKLMNOPQRSTUVW$$$$$$XYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopq |
h1 |
NtSetContextThread |
*/* |
GET |
userenv.dll |
urlmon.dll |
Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion |
_ThreadStart@4 |
dxgi.dll |
NtOpenSection |
script |
/post.php |
advapi32.dll |
h4 |
secur32.dll |
imagehlp.dll | |
%s_%s_%X |
winscard.dll |
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