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Friday, May 8, 2015

Know your Windows Processes or Die Trying | System Forensics

I have been talking with quite a few people lately tasked with
“security” inside their organizations and couldn’t help but notice their
lack of understanding when it came to Windows process information.


I figured if the people I have talked with don’t understand then
there are probably a lot more people that don’t understand. I’m guessing
quite a few people that consider themselves “experts” as well.


I decided to write this post in an effort to help the individuals
that may not have the knowledge, free time, training budgets, etc. to
explore Windows processes. For about $50 – $75 (few books) and some free
time you can learn pretty much everything needed to know about Windows
processes.


My goal isn’t to dive very deep into each of the processes. I figured
a bulleted “cheat sheet” vs. wordy descriptions will be best for my
intended audience.


The people that want to dive deeper can buy themselves a copy of
Windows Internals, 6th Edition Part I and II, fire up Process
Explorer/Process Hacker, start reading the great documentation by the
Volatility team (references below).





Know your Windows Processes or Die Trying | System Forensics

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

TeslaCrypt and Alpha Crypt Ransomware Information Guide and FAQ

TeslaCrypt and Alpha Crypt Ransomware Information Guide and FAQ 

Info: There are active TeslaCrypt and AlphaCrypt support topics that contain discussion and the experiences of a variety of IT consultants, end users, and companies who have been affected by these ransomware programs. If you are interested in this infection or wish to ask questions about it, please visit either the TeslaCrypt support topic or Alpha Crypt Support Topic. Once at the topic, and if you are a registered member of the site, you can ask or answer questions and subscribe in order to get notifications when someone adds more information to the topic.


What is TeslaCrypt and AlphaCrypt?

TeslaCrypt and Alpha Crypt are file-encrypting ransomware programs that target all version of Windows including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. TeslaCrypt was first released around the end of February 2015 and Alpha Crypt was released at the end of April 2015. When you are first infected with TeslaCrypt or Alpha Crypt they will scan your computer for data files and encrypt them using AES encryption so they are no longer able to be opened. Once the infection has encrypted the data files on all of your computer drive letters it will display an application that contains instructions on how to get your files back. These instructions include a link to a Decryption Service site, which will inform you of the current ransom amount, the amount of files encrypted, and instructions on how to make your payment. The ransom cost starts at around $500 USD and is payable via bitcoins. The bitcoin address that you submit payment to will be different for every victim.
When TeslaCrypt or Alpha Crypt are first installed on your computer they will create a random named executable in the %AppData% folder. This executable will be launched and begin to scan all the drive letters on your computer for data files to encrypt. If a a supported data file is detected it will encrypt it and then append a new extension to the filename based on the particular variant you are infected with. For TeslaCrypt, the extension .ECC will be appended and for Alpha Crypt the extension .EZZ will be appended to filenames.
 

Haifei's random thoughts: Integrating Outdated Flash is a Bad Idea, Even Wor...

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Andromeda/Gamarue bot loves JSON too (new versions details) | eternal-todo.com

Andromeda/Gamarue bot loves JSON too (new versions details) | eternal-todo.com



 After my last post about Andromeda different updates related to version 2.07 and 2.08 appeared. Mostly, Fortinet was talking about the version 2.7 features and the new anti-analysis tricks of version 2.08. After that, Kimberly was also mentioning version 2.09 in his blog
but I have not seen too many details about the latest versions of
Andromeda. This is a summary of the interesting details about the newer
versions.