Emotet botnet has started using a new malicious attachment that pretends to be a message from Windows Update telling you to upgrade Word.
Emotet is a malware that spreads through spam emails containing malicious Word or Excel documents. These documents use macroscommands to download and install the Emotet Trojan on the victim's computer. The trojan uses the computer to send spam emails and eventually leads to a ransomware attack on the victim's network.
After a brief hiatus, the malware Emotet returned to service on October 14 and began sending malicious spam content worldwide.
These spam campaigns pretend to be invoices, shipping information, information about COVID-19, information about health of President Trump, CVs or purchase orders.
These junk e-mail attachments include malicious Word (.doc) attachments or download links.
When opened, these attachments will prompt the user to "Enable Content" to run malicious macros that will install the malicious Emotet software on the computer.
Upon its return, Emotet released a new template that pretends to be a message from Windows Update stating that Microsoft Word should be updated before viewing the document.
To update Word, the message tells the user to do click on the Enable Editing and Enable Content buttons, which will cause the activation of malicious macros,
These malicious macros will download and install the malicious Emotet software onto the victim's computer, as shown below.
Emotet is now considered to be the most common malware. It is also particularly dangerous as it installs other malicious programs such as Trickbot and QBot on the victim's computer.
While TrickBot and QBot have their own malicious activity, such as stealing saved passwords, banking information and various other information, they also usually lead to attacks ransomware Conti (TrickBot) or ProLock (QBot).
So it is vital that you recognize the malicious document templates used by Emotet so that you do not accidentally become infected.
