{"id":4789,"date":"2015-04-28T02:07:16","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T06:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=4789"},"modified":"2020-12-22T20:42:05","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T16:42:05","slug":"no-monkeys-for-cozyduke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/no-monkeys-for-cozyduke\/4789\/","title":{"rendered":"No monkeys for CozyDuke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yet another APT of the \u2018Dukes family\u2019 is hitting high-profile targets, including the US government office. This time it\u2019s\u00a0CozyDuke<\/a>, also known as CozyBear, CozyCar or \u201cOffice Monkeys\u201d in honor of the video it employs as a decoy.<\/p>\n

The attack is notably sophisticated, including encrypted components, anti-detection capabilities and a fairly well-developed set of malware components that feature structural similarities with earlier MiniDuke, CosmicDuke, and Onion Duke threats.<\/p>\n

Office Monkeys are dangerous<\/h3>\n

What is really worth mentioning is that this attack\u2019s initial penetration method is based entirely on social engineering techniques. And, unfortunately, it is quite a successful approach for many targeted attacks.<\/p>\n

The attackers are offering an extremely funny video about office-working apes as bait. The archive, including an executable video, is delivered via spear-phishing emails containing an attachment or a link to a website, sometimes a legitimate and even highly-rated site that has already been compromised.<\/p>\n

\"monkeys-2\"<\/p>\n

While the video plays, the attack\u2019s dropper is silently installed into the system, ready to receive commands and second stage malware components from the Command & Control servers.<\/p>\n

The cybercriminals were not mistaken in thinking that many recipients would launch the video. Not only have they launched it; they\u2019ve shared it with office colleagues, thus actively assisting in the malware distribution process. Given the high profile of the targets, the amount of sensitive information potentially stolen could be plentiful.<\/p>\n

So the question is: how do you mitigate such a horrific threat, when even your own trusted employees are working against your carefully built security? For sure, you shouldn\u2019t underestimate the power of social engineering: how many loyal employees would, for example, resist opening a link in a (carefully forged) letter from their boss?<\/p>\n

How to mitigate an Office Monkey threat<\/h3>\n

Actually, several very basic security precautions or Mitigation Strategies can work effectively against even the most sophisticated and thoroughly planned APTs. For example, a simple curbing of administrative rights plus the timely patching of vulnerabilities and restricting the number of permitted apps can mitigate\u00a0up to 85% of targeted attack-connected incidents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kaspersky lab\u2019s Application Control\u00a0would be a valuable asset here. The Monkey video \u2014 as well as the other malware components of CozyDuke \u2014 would simply not be able to launch without being previously approved by a system administrator.<\/p>\n

\n

The White House, US State Department and others are counted among #CozyDukeAPT<\/a> victims \u2013 http:\/\/t.co\/nXaf9mj6cK<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/FSRwlgClmD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) April 24, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n