Microsoft: Raspberry Robin worm already infected hundreds of networks

Microsoft announced that the Windows worm Raspberry Robin has already infected the networks of hundreds of organizations.

Raspberry Robin is a Windows worm discovered by cybersecurity researchers from Red Canary, the malware propagates through removable USB devices.

The malicious code uses Windows Installer to reach out to QNAP-associated domains and download a malicious DLL. The malware uses TOR exit nodes as a backup C2 infrastructure.

The malware was first spotted in September 2021, the experts observed Raspberry Robin targeting organizations in the technology and manufacturing industries. Initial access is typically through infected removable drives, often USB devices.

“Raspberry Robin is typically introduced via infected removable drives, often USB devices. The Raspberry Robin worm often appears as a shortcut .lnk file masquerading as a legitimate folder on the infected USB device.” continues the analysis. “Soon after the Raspberry Robin infected drive is connected to the system, the UserAssist registry entry is updated and records execution of a ROT13-ciphered value referencing a .lnk file when deciphered. In the example below, q:\erpbirel.yax deciphers to d:\recovery.lnk.”

The malware uses cmd.exe to read and execute a file stored on the infected external drive, it leverages msiexec.exe for external network communication to a rogue domain used as C2 to download and install a DLL library file.

Then msiexec.exe launches a legitimate Windows utility, fodhelper.exe, which in turn run rundll32.exe to execute a malicious command. Experts pointed out that processes launched by fodhelper.exe run with elevated administrative privileges without requiring a User Account Control prompt.

According to the researchers, looking for fodhelper.exe as a parent process it is possible to detect the threat.

Now Microsoft confirmed that the threat was discovered on the networks of multiple customers, including organizations in the technology and manufacturing sectors.

BleepingComputer reported that Microsoft warned its customers via a private threat intelligence advisory sent to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint subscribers.

The IT giants believe that the Raspberry Robin represents a high risk to organizations because it could be used by threat actors as an entry point in the target networks and to drop additional malicious payloads.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, malware)

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