Actor(s): Mirage
RoyalDNS is a DNS based backdoor used by APT15 that persistences on a system through a service called 'Nwsapagent'.
rule win_royal_dns_auto { meta: author = "Felix Bilstein - yara-signator at cocacoding dot com" date = "2023-12-06" version = "1" description = "Detects win.royal_dns." info = "autogenerated rule brought to you by yara-signator" tool = "yara-signator v0.6.0" signator_config = "callsandjumps;datarefs;binvalue" malpedia_reference = "https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.royal_dns" malpedia_rule_date = "20231130" malpedia_hash = "fc8a0e9f343f6d6ded9e7df1a64dac0cc68d7351" malpedia_version = "20230808" malpedia_license = "CC BY-SA 4.0" malpedia_sharing = "TLP:WHITE" /* DISCLAIMER * The strings used in this rule have been automatically selected from the * disassembly of memory dumps and unpacked files, using YARA-Signator. * The code and documentation is published here: * https://github.com/fxb-cocacoding/yara-signator * As Malpedia is used as data source, please note that for a given * number of families, only single samples are documented. * This likely impacts the degree of generalization these rules will offer. * Take the described generation method also into consideration when you * apply the rules in your use cases and assign them confidence levels. */ strings: $sequence_0 = { 50 e8???????? 8b4dfc 8b85b4fcffff 83c404 } // n = 5, score = 100 // 50 | push eax // e8???????? | // 8b4dfc | mov ecx, dword ptr [ebp - 4] // 8b85b4fcffff | mov eax, dword ptr [ebp - 0x34c] // 83c404 | add esp, 4 $sequence_1 = { e8???????? 83c40c 8bc6 eb15 8d8da1f1ffff } // n = 5, score = 100 // e8???????? | // 83c40c | add esp, 0xc // 8bc6 | mov eax, esi // eb15 | jmp 0x17 // 8d8da1f1ffff | lea ecx, [ebp - 0xe5f] $sequence_2 = { ff15???????? 3d02010000 8b85e0fdffff 7533 6a00 50 } // n = 6, score = 100 // ff15???????? | // 3d02010000 | cmp eax, 0x102 // 8b85e0fdffff | mov eax, dword ptr [ebp - 0x220] // 7533 | jne 0x35 // 6a00 | push 0 // 50 | push eax $sequence_3 = { 4a 759a 8b55fc 85ff 7468 0fb606 c1e802 } // n = 7, score = 100 // 4a | dec edx // 759a | jne 0xffffff9c // 8b55fc | mov edx, dword ptr [ebp - 4] // 85ff | test edi, edi // 7468 | je 0x6a // 0fb606 | movzx eax, byte ptr [esi] // c1e802 | shr eax, 2 $sequence_4 = { 0fb61406 c1ea03 0fb69248132500 8811 0fb61c06 0fb6540601 c1ea06 } // n = 7, score = 100 // 0fb61406 | movzx edx, byte ptr [esi + eax] // c1ea03 | shr edx, 3 // 0fb69248132500 | movzx edx, byte ptr [edx + 0x251348] // 8811 | mov byte ptr [ecx], dl // 0fb61c06 | movzx ebx, byte ptr [esi + eax] // 0fb6540601 | movzx edx, byte ptr [esi + eax + 1] // c1ea06 | shr edx, 6 $sequence_5 = { 80e301 0ac3 8845ed 8a45f8 8ad8 8345e805 } // n = 6, score = 100 // 80e301 | and bl, 1 // 0ac3 | or al, bl // 8845ed | mov byte ptr [ebp - 0x13], al // 8a45f8 | mov al, byte ptr [ebp - 8] // 8ad8 | mov bl, al // 8345e805 | add dword ptr [ebp - 0x18], 5 $sequence_6 = { 8d8dfcfeffff 83c40c 33c0 2bd1 } // n = 4, score = 100 // 8d8dfcfeffff | lea ecx, [ebp - 0x104] // 83c40c | add esp, 0xc // 33c0 | xor eax, eax // 2bd1 | sub edx, ecx $sequence_7 = { 7504 33c0 eb0a 0fb6c8 } // n = 4, score = 100 // 7504 | jne 6 // 33c0 | xor eax, eax // eb0a | jmp 0xc // 0fb6c8 | movzx ecx, al $sequence_8 = { 0fb61c30 0fb6543001 03db 03db c1ea06 0bd3 } // n = 6, score = 100 // 0fb61c30 | movzx ebx, byte ptr [eax + esi] // 0fb6543001 | movzx edx, byte ptr [eax + esi + 1] // 03db | add ebx, ebx // 03db | add ebx, ebx // c1ea06 | shr edx, 6 // 0bd3 | or edx, ebx $sequence_9 = { 8a17 8816 47 46 48 } // n = 5, score = 100 // 8a17 | mov dl, byte ptr [edi] // 8816 | mov byte ptr [esi], dl // 47 | inc edi // 46 | inc esi // 48 | dec eax condition: 7 of them and filesize < 204800 }
import "pe" rule win_royal_dns_w0 { meta: author = "Florian Roth" description = "Detects malware from APT 15 report by NCC Group" reference = "https://goo.gl/HZ5XMN" date = "2018-03-10" hash = "bc937f6e958b339f6925023bc2af375d669084e9551fd3753e501ef26e36b39d" malpedia_reference = "https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.royal_dns" malpedia_version = "20180312" malpedia_license = "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0" malpedia_sharing = "TLP:WHITE" strings: $x1 = "del c:\\windows\\temp\\r.exe /f /q" fullword ascii $x2 = "%s\\r.exe" fullword ascii $s1 = "rights.dll" fullword ascii $s2 = "\"%s\">>\"%s\"\\s.txt" fullword ascii $s3 = "Nwsapagent" fullword ascii $s4 = "%s\\r.bat" fullword ascii $s5 = "%s\\s.txt" fullword ascii $s6 = "runexe" fullword ascii condition: 1 of ($x*) or 2 of them }
rule win_royal_dns_w1 { meta: author = "David Cannings" description = "DLL implant, originally rights.dll and runs as a service" hash = "bc937f6e958b339f6925023bc2af375d669084e9551fd3753e501ef26e36b39d" malpedia_reference = "https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.royal_dns" malpedia_version = "20180312" malpedia_license = "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0" malpedia_sharing = "TLP:WHITE" strings: /* 56 push esi B8 A7 C6 67 4E mov eax, 4E67C6A7h 83 C1 02 add ecx, 2 BA 04 00 00 00 mov edx, 4 57 push edi 90 nop */ // JSHash implementation (Justin Sobel's hash algorithm) $opcodes_jshash = { B8 A7 C6 67 4E 83 C1 02 BA 04 00 00 00 57 90 } /* 0F B6 1C 03 movzx ebx, byte ptr [ebx+eax] 8B 55 08 mov edx, [ebp+arg_0] 30 1C 17 xor [edi+edx], bl 47 inc edi 3B 7D 0C cmp edi, [ebp+arg_4] 72 A4 jb short loc_10003F31 */ // Encode loop, used to "encrypt" data before DNS request $opcodes_encode = { 0F B6 1C 03 8B 55 08 30 1C 17 47 3B 7D 0C } /* 68 88 13 00 00 push 5000 # Also seen 3000, included below FF D6 call esi ; Sleep 4F dec edi 75 F6 jnz short loc_10001554 */ // Sleep loop $opcodes_sleep_loop = { 68 (88|B8) (13|0B) 00 00 FF D6 4F 75 F6 } // Generic strings $ = "Nwsapagent" fullword $ = "\"%s\">>\"%s\"\\s.txt" $ = "myWObject" fullword $ = "del c:\\windows\\temp\\r.exe /f /q" $ = "del c:\\windows\\temp\\r.ini /f /q" condition: 3 of them }
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