Professionals Suspect ISIS On A Hacking Spree

Politics

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ISIS is not willing to just sit there and listen to all of the negative things people are saying about them. They’ve taken it to the extent that their computer programmers have created malware that is allegedly able to detect insulting, anti-ISIS material posted in forums, websites, blogs and various other web channels.

Researchers from Citizen Lab in Toronto, Canada were the first to detect the malware whose sole purpose is to find those groups or people who oppose ISIS and its laws.  The malware was purportedly first targeted at only one anti-ISIS group, Ar-Raqqah, and now Raqqah is being slaughtered silently for their speaking out.

This malware is usually sent via an email, Citizen Lab tells us. The sender of the email claims to be from a Canada-based group that will help support the fight against ISIS. Once the reader is convinced and chooses to join the group, they simply need to click on a link in the email and it redirects them to TempSend servers which then automatically initiates the download of a file called “slideshow.zip”.

The downloaded “slideshow.zip” file (MD5: b72e6678e79cc57d33e684528b5721bd) contains “slideshow.exe” (MD5: f8bfb82aa92ea6a8e4e0b378781b3859) which is the software itself. The file is a self-extracting executable with an icon to fool the victim into believing that it is a slideshow.

When clicked on, the file opens a slideshow of Google Earth and shows the location of ISIS Headquarters, amongst other images, including images of the US airstrikes that have been recently carried out.

However, when you look at the details of what the zip and executable files are actually doing when opened, we can see that they write and execute several other files – below are the details:

C:Users[Username]AppDataLocalTempIXP000.TMPAdobeR1.exe
C:Users[Username]AppDataLocalTempIXP000.TMPpictures.exe

AdobeR1.exe is a malicious file, while pictures.exe is a real presentation. The funny thing is when the slideshow is closed both the “AdobeR1.exe” and “pictures.exe” files delete themselves.

AdobeR1 writes a series of executable files that are programmed to collect information from within the following locations:

C:Users[Username]MicrosoftWindowsZ0xapp8T.tmpAdbrRader.exe
C:Users[Username]MicrosoftWindowsZ0xapp8T.tmpAdobeIns.exe
C:Users[Username]MicrosoftWindowsZ0xapp8T.tmpGoogleUpate.exe
C:Users[Username]MicrosoftWindowsZ0xapp8T.tmpGooglUpd.exe
C:Users[Username]MicrosoftWindowsZ0xapp8T.tmpnvidrv.exe
C:Users[Username]MicrosoftWindowsZ0xapp8T.tmpnvisdvr.exe
C:Users[Username]MicrosoftWindowsZ0xapp8T.tmprundl132.exe
C:Users[Username]MicrosoftWindowsZ0xapp8T.tmpsvhosts.exe
C:Users[Username]MicrosoftWindowsZ0xapp8T.tmpnvidrv.exe

Once they are saved, the nvidrv.exe adds itself to the Windows ‘autorun’ command located at: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun under name “UpdAdbreader” – creating a series of registry keys about programs that communicate:

DefaultKeyboardUserF124-5KK83-F2IV9-FDN293JIPC7-K2ODP-OFnD3-FJCC3J1K6F-DKV8J-FKVJI-GVKBU6nvisdvr.exe:

DefaultKeyboardUserF124-5KK83-F2IV9-FDN293JIPC7-K2ODP-OFnD3-FJCC3J1K4F-DKV8J-FKVJI-GVKBU4GoogleUpate.exe:

DefaultKeyboardUserF124-5KK83-F2IV9-FDN293JIPC7-K2ODP-OFnD3-FJCC3J1K3F-DKV8J-FKVJI-GVKBU3AdbrRader.exe:

DefaultKeyboardUserF124-5KK83-F2IV9-FDN293JIPC7-K2ODP-OFnD3-FJCC3J1K2F-DKV8J-FKVJI-GVKBU2nvidrv.exe:

DefaultKeyboardUserF124-5KK83-F2IV9-FDN293JIPC7-K2ODP-OFnD3-FJCC3J1K1F-DKV8J-FKVJI-GVKBU1