malware – Page 4 – Scriptingthewhy.com

Phishing with Love

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Erica: I sure hope that the latest script from Z-Daddy behind you.
Sean: What is your obsession with Scriptingthewhy!?
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Throughout the history of mankind, there is one emotion that has driven us to do many things. Some of these may be crazy and unconventional, but the result is done with good intentions…sometimes.

It’s the one emotion that no one can seem to live without unless you have no desire for it because you believe you’re cold-hearted, at this point I would cautiously call you a monster and bid you a good day. What is this emotion I’m alluding to?

It’s called love, love is a very interesting and powerfully intoxicating emotion we humans have. If there is anything to know about love, it’s a good thing. However, if you’re rifling through piles and piles of emails from the weekend only to find one saying “ILOVEYOU” in the subject line followed by a “click here” attachment might not be the love you may want at the current point in time.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Let me script to you what I mean.

Kim: You don’t even know why I’m mad at you.
Tim: It’s because I didn’t read that script thingy.
Kim: That and you didn’t change the toilet paper roll this morning.
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A Lovely Chain Letter

As mentioned earlier, you’re rifling through all of your emails from the weekend, and you find one saying “ILOVEYOU”. While this may seem like someone sent this with the intent to brighten up your day and give you all of those cute, warm fuzzy feelings like reminiscing about grandma’s home cooking, the bad news is it’s not.

This event is referred to as the “Love Bug” or “Love Letter for You”, in other words, you’re getting duped with a computer virus, if you click on the attachment. Just when you thought someone was falling head over heels for you.

That’s a solid question Z-Daddy, I think I was in calculus with my crush Brinda Adams. I wonder if she knows that I exist.
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Frat Worms in College

Here’s a question for you, can you remember what you were doing in the year 2000? If whatever you were doing doesn’t involve sitting in your room making computer viruses, congrats, you’re a part of the majority. I know there is someone reading this script saying “Actually, I was reverse engineering them because of lack of friends.”

Back in the heyday of the year 2000, on May 4^th of that year. A 24-year-old college student from the Philippines, by the name of Onel de Guzman had created this computer virus to steal passwords for internet access because he couldn’t pay for it.

This is very reminiscent of trying to tune to the right frequency on the old-school cable box to get the pre-hub before the now prominent hub, black and orange baby. Page 153 and still can’t find anything, we’re all so broken.

At this junction and for my own sanity, I have to make it known that in some sources ILY is referred to as a virus but overall, it’s a worm. The difference is, viruses tend to come in ones or twos, and they muck up a few files in your computer system whereas worms on the other hand, just need you to open the door, and from there, one can multiply and muck up a whole network. Worms are like the frat boys of the computer world, once in, they like to party.

YES, I AM LOVED…by a guy? Oh whatever, it’s 2023 I’m not judging, I just need someone to hold me and say it’s going to be all right.
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Loving Dollar Decline

Here’s a scenario on the ILY process, yes, I know you’re dying to know. So, let’s say you are friends with Tom, and you get a message from Tom saying “ILOVEYOU” in the subject line. You open the email and see there’s an attachment. With you knowing Tom, you open the attachment thinking nothing of it but that’s when having to explain to someone why you ghosted them, and spontaneously pop back up begins.

This triggers an event of messages being re-sent to, not only everyone in your list of contacts but their list as well. Do you see how it wormed its way into your life? This scenario is what happens on small scale but on a larger one, ILY found its way into corporate networks due to Microsoft Outlook being widely used at the time which resulted in files of every type being wiped from the hard drives and in just about 10 business days resulted in 45 million users and cost about $10 billion in damages. That’s $3.5 billion in today’s currency, the power of the good ole American dollar, am I right?

Jake: So, I walked up that computer virus and was like “What’s up”.
Z-Daddy: Jake…you know that’s not help you deal with computer viruses, right?
Jake: Pfft, whatever bro, waited long enough and screen went off. Mission accomplished.
Z-Daddy: That’s…never mind.
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Effects and After Effects

Now while this worm had spread its way across many, many, many systems, some of which include the Pentagon, CIA, and U.S. Army, and even ventured to the United Kingdom, this one isn’t much to worry about. A part of it was caught on a server that was quickly turned offline and with no other servers to send information to, there was nowhere for it to spread.

Many large companies had to make the decision to completely turn off their emailing systems. As we all may know, being able to email can convey information and information is money, so you can picture a lot of money was lost throughout this whole endeavor. At this junction you have nothing to worry about, however, this doesn’t mean one can run around clicking on emails with “ILOVEYOU” in the subject title.

Being aware of a potential cyber-attack could make a world of difference when it comes to protecting your computer and your life in general. If you get an email from someone you know and you’re curious about it, check with them on another medium (i.e., text message or phone call) to ensure that it was them that sent the email.

Of course, you should have anti-virus and malware protection on your computer and that it and your operating system is up to date as the older systems have vulnerabilities that are not patched. To touch back onto Guzman, while he has one of the world’s first global computer viruses (worm) under his belt which affected 45 million, charges against him and his buddy were dropped, and he regrets unleashing ILY.

When ILY did its thing and pretty much destroyed email by storm, Guzman was so shaken up that he took a year off from working with computers. He now runs a phone repair shop with his buddy in the Philippines.

She sent I love you and the attachment was her. Thank you, Z-Daddy, for keeping us aware.
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Made it this far and found this to be entertaining? Then a big thanks to you and please show your support by cracking a like, scripting a comment, or plug-in to follow.

Would like to give sincere thanks to current followers and subscribers, your support and actions mean a lot and has a play in the creation of each script.

Do you think there’s something I may have missed about ILOVEYOU? Script a comment below.

Tech

Never Going Trip Again

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Scriptingthewhy, what do you mean I’ll never vacation again? I can’t do it now.
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After reading this, you just may never trust writing a review ever again. And you know what, we don’t blame you. It’s getting pricey just to exist. We all enjoy traveling to new places, especially with our partners.

You may have seen or shared some photos of yourself or others on their romantic getaways from the kids, job, or life just in general on social media. But let’s say you visited a vacation spot, and it left a sour taste in your mouth, clearly, your next course of action is to fire up your computer and write a review.

However, you may want to hold your horses before letting that Sandals resort owner know how you really feel because not all websites are created equal or with good intentions.

We’re going to be going over what kind of attack this is, who is using it, the functionality and effects upon release, and what are some ways you can prevent this from being the beginning to the end of your vacations.

Oh, would you look at that, someone else filed another complaint. That would hurt my business…if they were complaining on the real website.
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The Attack

We as humans have a common tendency to seek out others who align with our current or pending point of view. Sometimes when we can’t find this we may resort to posting online as a signal for someone to agree or just be wrong in their thought.

But given the current growing threat in the landscape of the internet, it seems like those days are about to be numbered due to malicious actors making use of the complaint form of TripAdvisor as an attack vector for cyber-attacks. This may sound absurd, but like Spandau Ballet, this much is true.

We revamped the malware and made it better. Don’t call it a comeback.
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Who Can It Be Now

So, an old menace brings an onset of new challenges. The group operating behind the Cyclops campaign back in May 2023 had revamped and offered Knight ransomware as RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service)—this is the act of offering the use of ransomware with different payment plans to interested parties, on the RAMP hacking forum.

This was done with the intent to invite affiliates to join their scheme and share the profits from extorting victims. We’re not sure as to how many partake in this invite but it’s something to keep an eye out for.

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I didn’t download a file, did I? How would I remember? I was just trying to get off the computer. 36 hours a day at work is driving me mad.
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That Sinking Feeling

So, how does something like this work, well, we’re glad you asked. This campaign was spotted by Bleeping Computer and after analyzing they found an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) file, “TripAdvisor-Complaint-[random].PDF, htm”. When opening the file, a fake browser window is launched within the real one. This window displays a TripAdvisor website however, this is a spoofed domain name and URL (Uniform Resource Locator). This technique is called browser-in-the-browser (BitB).

This aims to trick users into thinking they’re on a trusted site but in reality, the stealing of your credentials is pending. What makes BitB attacks more dangerous is, unlike normal phishing attacks where the user is redirected to a malicious website, BitB attack does not require the victim to click on any link or download a file because the fake browser window is embedded in the HTML attachment itself. The user may not notice the difference between the real and fake browser windows, this is unless they pay close attention to the details or have security tools in place for detecting phishing attempts.

However, the fun doesn’t stop there, when interacting with this particular BitB, it pretends to be a complaint submitted, asking for the user to review it. When clicking on the “Read Complaint” button, an Excel XLL file is downloaded named “TripAdvisor_Complaint-Possible-Suspension.xll”. This file delivers the malware payload to encrypt files appending the “.knight_l” extension to encrypted files’ names, where ‘l’ portion likely stands for ‘lite’.

Once this process is complete a ransom note will be created named “How to Restore Your Files.txt” in all the folders of the computer. The note will demand a payment of $5,000 to be sent to a listed Bitcoin address. Trust us, even if you find the means to pay the ransom, there will be no restoration of your files.

They said they revamped it and made it better, but it still looks the same to me.
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The Prevention

While reading this you probably think it’s the end of the world and that you may never go on vacation again. We’re here to tell you, that is not the case. A few ways of protecting yourself is familiarizing yourself with the actual website. When visiting a website make sure you look for “https” and a lock image in your search bar as this will ensure that not only the site is secure, but your personal information is encrypted.

Some fake websites will be harder to spot since scammers are kind of clever, so they’ll be sure to come as close to mimicking the real website as possible, but a bit of mindfulness and staying up to date with your operating system and rising threat trends could safeguard you for your next vacation.

Always remember it’s better to file a complaint with the real TripAdvisor. Sure, they might not listen to you and take your money but it’s better than the alternative of scammers holding your data hostage with the intent to sell at a cost way lower than that Sandals resort owner had charged you.

They charged me an “existence fee”. How do you someone for just being in the area!?
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Made it this far and found this to be entertaining? Then a big thanks to you and please show your support by cracking a like, sharing this with whomever, scripting a comment, or plug-in to follow.

Would like to give sincere thanks to current followers and subscribers, your support and actions mean a lot and has a play in the creation of each script.

Do you feel like there is something I may have missed on Knight ransomware? Script a comment below.

Programming, Security, Tech

Fishing Made Fun with Bots!

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Quick note: if you’re viewing this via email, come to the site for better viewing. Enjoy!

You know, every time I read one of these scripts, I learn something new.
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Okay, so the threat isn’t coming from the future to wipe us out as we once thought. Maybe, and by maybe meaning actually, the threat is here with us in the present day. They attack us every day when checking our email or simply picking up the phone because the scam likely function wasn’t working this go around.

The rise of ChatGPT has not only given people that little nerdy kid to complete their essays for them but people are using a bot to trick a bot in order to land job interviews. But again, with good intentions soon follows malicious ones.

We’re going to be going over what kind of attack this is, who is using it, its functionality and effects upon release and what are some ways you could protect yourself from being on the receiving end of a malicious connection.

I haven’t been living underneath a Volvo, but I guess hiding isn’t doing me any good neither.
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The Attack

Like most of the computing world and people who haven’t been living underneath a VW 1984 Volvo, that’s a little easter egg for all the old faithful readers. If you’re not one, feel ashamed. Again, for the better part of the internet, most people already know what phishing emails are, but in case you’re unfamiliar and have been living underneath that Volvo, worry not, we have you covered on that one.

Phishing is the act of posing as someone or as part of an organization that an individual may or may not know. The whole objective is to get you (the victim) to interact with the provided link and give up your sweet, sweet information. Once this happens, a number of things can happen, however, the main result is you lose money in some form or fashion.

Who is Greg from accounting, and why did he send me a link?
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Who Could It Be Now

Unfortunately, no individual or group has been named for using ChatGPT for malicious scams but that doesn’t mean we can’t tell you why they’re doing it. Scammers vary in diversity in ethnicity but many of them don’t diversify in skill level and sometimes… in common sense. Yes, scammers will even try to scam cybersecurity professionals, we don’t know why they do it but, it’s a thing.

Scammers typically use social engineering attacks, mainly phishing. Why? Because it’s easy to obtain an email address for a company, however, they have resorted to spicing up these emails by using ChatGPT.

For those who don’t know what ChatGPT is, we’ll tell you. ChatGPT is a chatbot that is trained to offer humanlike responses in dialogue. In a nutshell, you ask it a question and it gives you something it thinks an average person would say.

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Thomas: I told you we lure in more people with ChatGPT.
Simone: Shut up Thomas and keep entering their credit card information.
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That Sinking Feeling

How do scammers use ChatGPT to improve their phishing emails you ask? Well, simple, the same way people are using this little chatbot to beef up their resume to outsmart the resume reviewer bot. The scammers simply input into ChatGPT something professional to say to you, adding a few official logos here and there, and before you know it you have what seems to sound like an official email from someone you may know or that job opportunity you’ve been looking for.

Once you fall victim to the scam a number of things can happen and none of them are good. Interaction with a malicious link or attachment could have your system compromised by downloading or visiting a redirected site for a drive-by download, at this point depending on the programming in the payload, the file could execute with or without your interaction.

This, in turn, leads to a back door being created for data exfiltration—this is the act of collecting all the information on your machine and sending it to a command-and-control server for either personal use or marketing on the darknet, and possibly seizing control of your machine at a later date.

Learn the scam, then you can play ball.
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The Prevention

So, what are some ways one could be able to protect oneself in the vast sea of the internet? Well, double-checking with people who send you emails with attachments to verify it was indeed them is one way of helping yourself.

Always carefully read the body of the message to see if you can spot any misspellings or grammatical errors as this will tip you off into saying, “I know Greg from accounting might be a bit special, but he wouldn’t write something like this.”

If you have encountered a phishing email and downloaded something or interacted with their link, changing all passwords on all accounts you own will be your next best course of action as this will quickly hinder the attacker’s progress into mucking up your life.

Pair this action with monitoring your accounts for any suspicious activity and keeping your financial institution’s number on speed dial in case you have to make that call saying, “Um, yeah, that latest activity wasn’t you,” will see you better in the years to come.

ChatGPT may be helping the scammer’s game, but common sense and a little know-how still outperform all.

I never thought protecting my information would be this easy. Thank you Scriptingthewhy. Love you Z-Daddy!
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Made it this far and found this to be entertaining? Then a big thanks to you and please show your support by cracking a like, sharing this with whomever, scripting a comment, or plug-in to follow.

Would like to give sincere thanks to current followers and subscribers, your support and actions mean a lot and has a play in the creation of each script.

Do you feel like there is something I may have missed on Phishing with ChatGPT? Script a comment below.