Summary

The NanoCore remote access Trojan (RAT) was first discovered in 2013 when it was being sold in underground forums. The malware has a variety of functions such as keylogger, a password stealer which can remotely pass along data to the malware operator. It also has the ability to tamper and view footage from webcams, screen locking, downloading and theft of files, and more.

The current NanoCore RAT is now being spread through malspam campaign which utilizes social engineering in which the email contains fake bank payment receipt and request for quotation. The emails also contain malicious attachments with .img or .iso extension. The .img and .iso files are used by disk image files to store raw dumps of either magnetic disk or optical disc. Another version of NanoCore is also distributed in phishing campaigns leveraging specially-crafted ZIP file which is designed to bypass secure email gateways. The malicious ZIP file can be extracted by certain versions of PowerArchiver, WinRar, and older 7-Zip. The stolen information is sent to the command and control (C&C) servers of the malware attacker.

This RAT gathers the following data and sends it to its servers:

• Browser's user names and passwords
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) clients or file manager software stored account information
• Email credentials of popular mail clients

Capabilities:

• Information Theft
• Backdoor Commands
• Exploits
• Disabling usage capability

Impact:

• Compromise system security - with backdoor capabilities that can execute malicious commands
• Violation of user privacy - gathers user credentials, logs keystroke and steals user information

Infection Details:

Sample Spam - Bank Payment Receipt Attachment Spam

MITRE ATT&CK MATRIX

File Reputation