EternalRocks: Security researchers just found a new SMB-propagating worm using seven NSA hacking tools instead of the two used by WannaCry.
The discovery was carried out by security researcher Miroslav Stampar, a member of the Croatian CERT. He discovered the worm when he detected an infection in a SMB honeypot, as reported by the Bleeping Computer.
Stampar named the new EternalRocks worm and found that he uses six NSA tools to infect a computer from SMB ports. The exploits EternalBlue, EternalChampion, EternalRomance, and EternalSynergy as well as SMBTouch and ArchiTouch are used together with DoublePulsar, the well-known NSA tool that promotes the worm to new vulnerable machines.
Comparatively the WannaCry only used EternalBlue and DoublePulsar to spread around 300.000 devices.
Comparing EternalRocks to WannaCry, Stampar admits that it is much less dangerous, mainly because it does not deliver malicious content. EternalRocks however, is much more complicated than that ransomware set globally.
How does it work:
Once the worm infects its victim, it uses a procedure two-stage installation, with the second stage being delayed.
In the first phase, EternalRocks downloads the Tor program and sends a signal to a C&C server on the Dark Web. After 24 hours the C&C server sends a response back. This delayed response is a method often used by malware to prevent detection, and even security investigators could stop waiting for a response from the server.
EternalRocks does not seem to use files with the same names as the WannaCry worm, nor does it include any one kill switch domain.
EternalRocks second stage installation includes the λήψη of a file called shadowbrokers.zip. The Shadow Brokers, as you may know, are the group that stole the NSA's classified documents and files. The worm does an IP scan and tries to connect to a random address.
Right now, EternalRocks is not that dangerous. However, it could be a very serious threat if the attackers decide to arm the worm with ransomware, trojans or anything else.
“EternalRocks unlike WannaCry, operates in the shadows, both on the machine and on the Dark Web. Infected machines cannot be detected easily as there is no pop-up asking for bitcoins. The use of leaked exploits gather information such as credentials, passwords access used when accessing websites, personal bank accounts and email accounts,” explains Paul Calatayud, CTO at FireMon.
"To avoid complete control of this malware, it is important to configure your network to prevent network communications with TOR. Most next-generation firewalls can be configured to block TOR."
