Locky Ransomware Distributed Via DOCM Attachments in Latest Email Campaigns

Locky Ransomware Distributed Via DOCM Attachments in Latest Email Campaigns

Throughout August, FireEye Labs has observed a few massive email campaigns distributing Locky ransomware. The campaigns have affected various industries, with the healthcare industry being hit the hardest based on our telemetry, as seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Top 10 affected industries

Numerous countries are affected, with the United States, Japan, and Republic of Korea topping the list, as seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Top affected countries

From our trend analysis seen in Figure 3, Locky ransomware started being delivered via DOCM format email attachments more extensively beginning in August. This marks a change from the large campaigns we observed in March, where a JavaScript based downloader was generally being used to infect systems.

These detection spikes and change in tactics suggest that the cybercriminals are investing more to infect systems and maximize their profits. Additionally, we have observed that the delivery of Dridex via this distribution channel seems to have stopped, or nearly so, which could explain why we are seeing the Locky uptick.

Figure 3. Massive DOCM related campaigns on Aug. 9, Aug. 11 and Aug. 15, 2016

Our analysis showed high similarity in the macro code that was used in the Aug. 9, Aug. 11 and Aug. 15 campaigns. The following are the key comparisons:

1. Each email campaign has a specific “one-off” campaign code that is used to download the Locky ransomware payload from the malicious malware server (see network pattern in Figure 4).
2. The malicious URL embedded within macro code is encoded using the same encoding function, but with a different key for each campaign. Each character is encoded by multiplying its ASCII code with a specified key (an integer). Hence, its decoder would perform a division using the specified integer (see URL Decoder in Figure 4).
3. The downloaded payload is encoded using 32 bytes rolling XOR key. A different key is used for each campaign. Rolling XOR is described as follows:

Plain [i] = Cipher [i] ^ Key [i % length of Key], where Plain is the computed plain text, Cipher is the cipher text, Key is the xor key, and i is the byte offset (see File Decoder in Figure 4).

Figure 4. Technical Overview

The volume of Locky ransomware downloaders is increasing and the tools and techniques being used in campaigns are constantly changing. In this instance, we are seeing a shift from using a JavaScript based downloader to infect victims to using the DOCM format. On top of that, cybercrime trends have shown that attackers are distributing more ransomware these days than banking trojans, as the former appears to be more lucrative.

These latest campaigns are a reminder that users must be cautious when it comes to opening attachments in emails or they run the risk of becoming infected and possibly disrupting business operations.