Mobile Malware Analysis — TryHackMe

Task 1:Introduction

It’s incredible how often our computers are in the scope of cyber attacks. Antivirus has become an indispensable shield to provide us with a more secure environment, since we are exposed to destructible malware and cyber attacks. Inside our pockets, we have computers so powerful, but much smaller, we must be equally attentive on our phones, because we can suffer equally damaging attacks, sometimes even worse, because they can store relevant information such as private conversations and important accounts.

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Task 2: An Unknown Land

It is important to look at the past to understand why things are as they are today. A new technology, due to the lack of exploration, appears to be extremely reliable. Every system is reliable, until someone proves otherwise.You will need to do some research in order to answer the questions in this task.

Q1:What known as the first malware created to affect mobile devices?

Cabir

Q2:What technology does this worm used to multiply?

Bluetooth

Q3:What operating system did it infect?

Symbian

Q4:What message did it show on the screen of the infected mobile phone?

Caribe

Q5:The worm was created and sent out by researchers as a PoC (Proof of Concept), they did not believe that the mobile operating system could be easily exploited. Since then, malicious programs have become more popular.

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Task 3: Small size, a lot of destruction

There is a weird file inside this machine, it looks malicious, but let’s not jump into conclusions.

Deploy the machine in this task and wait for the connection to the machine to be made in your browser.

Wait for the MobSF application to load (this may take a few minutes, but the process is automatic so please just be patient) and you will find the files you should analyse on the machines Desktop.

This view means that MobSF is ready to be used

Deploy the machine & use MobSF to scan the file named “TWFsd2FyZQ.apk” that is located on the Desktop.

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Q1:What is the format of the file?

.apk

Q2:The sample’s size is 10,1 bytes, so it seems that it is not a complex application.

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Q3:Decode the name of the sample.

Malware //TWFsd2FyZQ decode in base64

Q4:Which is the target platform?

Android

Task 4: Digging Deeper

Let’s make a deeper analysis.

VirusTotal is a incredible service, this web site can give us the power of analyze a package with the database of more then seventy Anti-Virus, and the result is fast and accurate.

https://www.virustotal.com/

To analyze the file in VirusTotal, you will need the file hash, you can get it by using the powershell cmdlet “Get-FileHash” or you can analyze the filw with MobSF and it will show the file hash (we will get back to this tool in the next task).

Q1:What does Avast-Mobile can tell us about this software?

Submit SHA256 hash to virus total

[embed]VirusTotal VirusTotalwww.virustotal.com

Android:Metasploit-Q [PUP]

Q2:What program was used to create the malware?

Metasploit

Q3:The results provided by VirusTotal shows that we have a generic malware. It does not serve for attack purposes because we can see that a good part of the Antiviruses are detecting it, this malware is a good one for searching purposes, but it is also used for post exploitation.

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Q4:What is the package name?

com.metasploit.stage

Q5:What is the SHA-1 signature?

74d442594acf11dc6e3492ffea5eb8956afd000d

Q6:By extracting the content, it will create a folder with some files inside, one of which is a XML. It describes some important information about the application for Android build tools, for Android operating system and for Google Play. This file declares items, shows some stuff as the package name and the permissions required to the device. The information that will be needed for the next questions can be found on VirusTotal also.

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Q7:What is the unique XML file?

AndroidManifest.xml

Q8:How many permissions are there inside?

22

Q9:Which permission allows the application to take pictures with the camera?

android.permission.CAMERA

Q10:What is the message left by the community?

THM{V1ru5-T0t4al-TWFsd2FyZS1BbmFseXNpcw}

Task 5: MobSFing the sample

Let’s use MobSF(Mobile Security Framework) to make a deeper analysis of this file, MobSF is a software created to make a security focused analysis of Android and IOS files. It can check for misconfigurations, leaked data and much more in a mobile program.

This tool can be used for static and dinamic analysis, in this room we will focus only in the static analysis but you are free to install it in a virtual machine you own to understand more how the application works, you can install it in GitHub — https://github.com/MobSF/Mobile-Security-Framework-MobSF.

The machine is configured to start MobSF when deployed, if you accidentally closed the web page you can visit the MobSF page by visiting the link http://127.0.0.1:8000 inside the deployed machine. Press the “Upload & Analyze” button and select the file we have been working on.

Q1:What is the programming language used to create the program?

Java

Q2:How many signatures does the package has?

1

Q3:Application is signed with v1 signature scheme, what is it vulnerable to on Android <7.0?

Janus

Q4:MobSF gives all the code decompiled. Just a base of programming make us able to understand a little bit of what is happening.

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Q5:This malware is used to create a connection with the victim that is called a reverse shell.

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Q6:What is the App name?

MainActivity 

Q7:It looks like there is a function calling for the package manager, so it can see all the installed applications. What function is that?

b.getPackageManager

Returning to the manifest.

The flag “android:allowBackup” allows the user to backup application data via USB debugging. It is recommended that this be set as “False”, even if by default it is “True”.

Q8:What is the severity of this configuration?

medium

Task 6:It doesn’t smell good!

I think that now we have the necessary knowledge to analyze bigger stuff.

Our next sample located on the Desktop, the name of the file is sample2.apk, let’s start a MobSF analysis on it.

Q1:What is the SHA-256 hash of the file?

bd8cda80aaee3e4a17e9967a1c062ac5c8e4aefd7eaa3362f54044c2c94db52a

Q2:After finding the sample on VirusTotal, what does the “Avast” anti-virus engine recognizes it as?

Android:Obfus-BM [Trj]

Q3:With what we have, try to find out the name of the sample.

Pegasus

It seems like it is a very dangerous malware and has a big history of destruction.

Q4:This became news for spying journalists, what year was that?

2017

It was reported that the malware was developed by a legitimate intention: The idea behind it was to use the software as a government tool designed to track and combat terrorism and crime.

Q5:This malware has been found infecting people’s smartphones and political activists in more than 44 countries.

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If we search the name we found of the malware in MITRE ATT&CK (https://attack.mitre.org/), we can find some interesting information.

Q6:What is the ID of the MITRE ATT&CK that is associated with our sample?

S0316

Q7:What technique has the ability to exploit OS vulnerabilities to escalate privileges?

T1404

Q8:Now, let’s go back to the MobSF analysis.

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Q9:There is a permission that when accepted, allows the application to access the list of accounts in the Accounts Service. What is the status shown by MobSF regarding this permission. (android.permission.GET.ACCOUNTS)

dangerous

Q10:What org.eclipse.paho.client file refers to properties of Portuguese from Brazil (pt-br)?

org/eclipse/paho/client/mqttv3/internal/nls/messages_pt_BR.properties

Q11:This software has several features that make the identification and the processes it performs to explore the target, harder to handle, even when it is being analyzed.

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Q12:The malware has a special appeal for its safety and its internal components, reducing the risk of compromise. It has a functionality for its cryptographic operations with the feature of a random bit generation service. How can it be identified?

FCS_RBG_EXT.1.1

Task 7:Conclusion

https://github.com/OWASP/owasp-mstg https://attack.mitre.org/matrices/mobile/android/ https://attack.mitre.org/matrices/mobile/ios/

https://tryhackme.com/room/malmalintroductory https://tryhackme.com/room/androidhacking101 https://tryhackme.com/room/iosforensics