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 malicious software which spreads through spam emails containing malicious Word or Excel documents. These documents use macros 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 short hiatus, the Emotet malware is back in mode on October 14 and started sending malicious spam globally.
These unwanted campaigns pretend to be invoices, shipping information, COVID-19 information, President Trump's health information, 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 click the Activate buttons processings and Enable content, 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 considered the most widespread malware today. It is also highly 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 passwords, banking information and various other information, they also often lead to ransomware Conti (TrickBot) or ProLock (QBot) ransomware attacks.
So it is vital that you recognize the malicious document templates used by Emotet so that you do not accidentally become infected.
