por There are different types of malware with different levels of complexity and, to know them all, you cannot miss what Emotet is. Some attack methods are easier to use than others and, furthermore, they lead to different consequences for the computer. Some of the most common attack vectors are infected office fileswhich serve as Trojans for the installation of more advanced viruses.
In this post, we will talk about a banking Trojan virus that shook the internet in 2014. Next, we will explain what is Emotethow it works and what consequences it could have on a computer.
What is Emotet?
Emotet is a malware attack with macros that persistently steals confidential data and, in addition, it spreads through email. The process through which Emotet affects its victims is as follows:
First, attackers send an email campaign that contains malicious attachments or links. With this, the attackers want the victim to access and execute the malicious files they contain. he payloadthat is, the malicious code. The user clicks on the infected document. Emotet is a trojantherefore, said file will have a familiar appearance to the victim and, usually, The email will come from someone you know.
Once the computer is infected, he malware establish persistencethat is, it makes the software malicious program starts every time you turn on your computer. Emotet then reports a new infection to a C&C serverwhich will send you instructions to normally download another malware additional. Finally, the malicious action what he commits malware Emotet can vary, but it is usually responsible for steal data from the victim persistently and spread through further email spam campaigns.
Emotet Consequences
We have already seen what is Emotet and how does this type of work malware. Now, let’s look at some of the instructions it could receive from the server that controls it, in order to harm the infected victim.
Outlook Scrapper
The Emotet virus has the ability to extract information from email of its victims and, furthermore, spread through this medium. The worm component of this malware Trojan consists of sending campaigns phishing through the victim’s email account. In the same way, Emotet steals confidential information found among the messages on the infected computer.
WebBrowserPassView
WebBrowserPassView is another of the tools that Emotet uses in order to recover passwords used in web browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox. This powerful keylogger It can give criminals enough information to steal financial or vulnerable information.
NetPass
NetPass is another one keylogger that Emotet uses. This tool save user passwords of a computer and allows escalation of privileges on it. This shows how complex, dangerous and advanced the Emotet virus could be.
Macro attacks
You already know what Emotet is, how it works and what harm it could do to the user. Now, we will see the exploit who uses this malware to infect devices: macro attack.
A macro virus is a software malicious code hiding in an Office file, such as a Word or Excel document. A macro is a program written in the language VisualBasicwhich gives formatting instructions to these documents, but can also be exploited to execute any malicious code on the computer.
By clicking the button «enable editing«We are actually telling the machine to run the macros in the document. Thus, if a virus is found in the macro code, it would execute on the computer and could lead to some of the consequences we just mentioned.
Worm component
Studying in detail what Emotet is, computer researchers discovered that this malware It had the ability to spread between different computers. In cybersecurity, this is known as a worm componentthat is, code that allows the program to create copies of itself in other locations.
The simplest versions of a computer worm allow the malware make copies of itself in other parts of memory from the same computer. The most advanced functions allow the worm to access the network and infect all connected computers.
Emotet is characterized by being polymorphic and exploit a series of vulnerabilities to escalate privileges. However, its worm component is something that really draws attention because it is focused on replicating advertising campaigns. phishing by email.
How to learn more?
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