{"id":93521,"date":"2021-05-20T10:00:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/\/?p=93521"},"modified":"2023-10-13T08:55:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T15:55:33","slug":"phorpiex-morphs-how-a-longstanding-botnet-persists-and-thrives-in-the-current-threat-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2021\/05\/20\/phorpiex-morphs-how-a-longstanding-botnet-persists-and-thrives-in-the-current-threat-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Phorpiex morphs: How a longstanding botnet persists and thrives in the current threat environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phorpiex, an enduring botnet known for extortion campaigns and for using old-fashioned worms that spread via removable USB drives and instant messaging apps, began diversifying its infrastructure in recent years to become more resilient and to deliver more dangerous payloads. Today, the Phorphiex botnet continues to maintain a large network of bots and generates wide-ranging malicious activities.<\/p>\n

These activities, which traditionally included extortion and spamming activities, have expanded to include cryptocurrency mining. From 2018, we also observed an increase in data exfiltration activities and ransomware delivery, with the bot installer observed to be distributing Avaddon, Knot, BitRansomware (DSoftCrypt\/ReadMe), Nemty, GandCrab, and Pony ransomware, among other malware.<\/p>\n

The botnet\u2019s geographic targeting for bot distribution and installation expanded, too. Previous campaigns focused on targets in Japan, but more recent activity showed a shift to a more global distribution.<\/p>\n

\"World<\/p>\n

Figure 1. Global distribution of Phorpiex botnet activity<\/em><\/p>\n

The Phorpiex botnet has a reputation for being simplistic and lacking robustness, and it has been hijacked by security researchers in the past. Its tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) have remained largely static, with common commands, filenames, and execution patterns nearly unchanged from early 2020 to 2021. To support its expansion, however, Phorpiex has shifted some of its previous command-and-control (C2) architecture away from its traditional hosting, favoring domain generation algorithm (DGA) domains over branded and static domains.<\/p>\n

This evolution characterizes the role of botnets in the threat landscape and the motivation of attackers to persist and remain effective. The threat ecosystem relies on older botnets with large and diverse network of compromised machines to deliver payloads at low costs. And while many of the older botnet architectures have been primarily classified as spam delivery mechanisms, these infrastructures are critical for newer, modular delivery mechanisms.<\/p>\n

Phorpiex also demonstrates that bots, which are some of oldest types of threats, continue to affect consumer users but notably brings increasingly more serious threats to enterprise networks. Despite being traditionally associated with lower-risk activity like extortion and spamming, Phorpiex operators\u2019 decision to move to more impactful malware and actions is entirely at the whim of the attackers.<\/p>\n

Understanding botnets and associated infrastructure, botnet malware, their activities and payloads, and how they evolve provides insight into attacker motivation and helps ensure durable protection against some of the most prevalent threats today. At Microsoft, we continue to conduct in-depth research into these threats. These expert investigations add to the massive threat intelligence that inform Microsoft 365 Defender services and the protections they provide. Microsoft 365 Defender<\/a> delivers coordinated cross-domain defense against the various malware, emails, network connections, and malicious activity associated with Phorpiex and other botnets.<\/p>\n

Distribution, expansion, and operation<\/h2>\n

Phorpiex\u2019s sprawling botnet operation can be divided into three main portions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Distribution of the bot loader: The bot loader has been propagated through a variety of means over the years, including being loaded by other malware, freeware, and unwanted programs, or delivered by phishing emails from already-infected bots. Phorpiex has also spread via productivity platforms, as well as via instant messaging and USB drives.<\/li>\n
  2. Mailing botnet: In addition to spreading the bot loader via email, the botnet is used to generate currency. It does so via extortion and spam campaigns as well as through a variety of other types of financially motivated malware.<\/li>\n
  3. Malware delivery botnet: In recent years, the botnet has been observed installing ransomware, cryptocurrency miner, and other malware types, indicating the expansion of the botnet\u2019s activities by the Phorpiex operators or as part of malware-as-a-service scheme.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    From December 2020 to February 2021, the Phorpiex bot loader was encountered in 160 countries, with Mexico, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan registering the most encounters.<\/p>\n

    \"Column<\/p>\n

    Figure 2. Countries with the most encounters of the Phorpiex bot loader<\/em><\/p>\n

    In December 2020 and January 2021, we observed non-weaponized staging of Knot ransomware on Phorpiex servers. In February, we also detected commodity malware such as Mondfoxia<\/a> (also known as DiamondFox) in these servers. These recent developments indicate new loader and monetization strategies under active development.<\/p>\n

    The combination of the wide variety of infection vectors and outcomes makes the Phorpiex botnet appear chaotic at first glance. However, for many years Phorpiex has maintained a consistent internal infrastructure using similar domains, command-and-control (C2) mechanisms, and source code.<\/p>\n

    The wide range of infection vectors used by Phorpiex requires a unified security approach that ensures protection is delivered on the endpoint, network, email, and applications. Microsoft 365 Defender<\/a>\u2019s advanced threat protection technologies detect malicious activity in each of these domains. Moreover, the correlation of these cross-domain threat data surfaces additional malicious activity, allowing Microsoft 365 Defender to provide coordinated and comprehensive protection against Phorpiex.<\/p>\n

    Bot distribution and installation<\/h3>\n

    Phorpiex maintains and expands its network of bot-infected computers by distributing the Phorpiex bot loader. In 2020 and 2021 we observed the bot loader being spread through Phorpiex bot-delivered emails with .zip or other archive file attachments, downloaded from fake download sites for software (such as photo editing software, screensaver, or media players), or downloaded by other malware also delivered through email. These multiple entry points demonstrate the modular nature of the malware economy.<\/p>\n

    Regardless of distribution mechanism, however, the bot loader operates in a fairly uniform fashion. It uses three distinct types of C2 to fulfil different goals during and after installation:<\/p>\n