The research is based on OSINT evidence analysis, local evidence, feedback from attack victims and MITRE ATT&CK methodology used for actor attribution. SOC Prime would like to express gratitude to independent security researchers and specialized security companies who shared the reverse engineering reports and attack analysis on the public sources and their corporate blogs. On our side, we share this TTP attribution threat brief as well as threat detector SIEM content for ArcSight, QRadar and Splunk.

Executive Summary

Bad Rabbit is a global ransomware worm outbreak that happened on October 24 2017 and impacted high number of organizations across different industries mostly in CIS and APAC countries.

Forensics report by Cisco Talos states that the first initial download was observed around 2017-10-24 08:22 UTC. SOC Prime was informed of attack by one of the transportation organizations in Ukraine at 2017-10-24 10:12 UTC. At the time organization was already encrypted so we agree that most conclusive evidence of attack execution is the one reported by Talos: 08:22 UTC.

As of 2017-10-25 08:24 UTC there is no public evidence that attack is of APT nature. However it was executed in parallel with another Ransomware attack: Loky ransomware hit the same using malicious email attachment as delivery vector and leveraging vulnerability in Microsoft Word DDE. While several researchers have pointed out similarities with NotPetya attack we strongly disagree with this statement as TTP attribution clearly shows that threat actor is not the same. Unless other evidence is presented the attack should be considered a Cyber Crime activity and not a state sponsored attack. However, we have seen the same pattern of launching a decoy attack to cover up for APT operation during NotPetya in June 2017.

Since attack has worm capabilities and distributes quickly it is highly advised to deploy proactive threat detection controls in SIEM technologies and deploy temporary vaccination configurations on Windows host systems.

Threat name: Bad Rabbit

Aliases: Discoder / Win32/Diskcoder.D / Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Gen.ftl / DangerousObject.Multi.Generic / PDM:Trojan.Win32.Generic

Threat type: Ransomware

Actor type: Cyber Crime

Threat level: High

Impact by Geo: Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Turkey, Japan, Romania, Germany.

Impact by Industry: Transportation and Retail (mostly in Ukraine), Media sector (mostly in Russia)

Infection vector: Drive by Download malicious javascript on infected websites

Affected IT assets: Windows OS.

Related APT: no conclusive attribution can be provide due to lack of evidence.

Threat Actor Attribution and TTP Analysis

Several research companies have stated the similarity of the Bad Rabbit attack with NotPetya. We think that this is yet another problem of PR and media promotion and many security experts acting independently to catch “the next big threat”. As of 2017-10-25 08:24 UTC there is no public technical evidence of Bad Rabbit attack being an APT or having TTP similar with NotPetya and Sandworm. Furthermore several research firms reported that there is 13% source code overlap of Bad Rabbit and NotPetya ransomware component which is not enough to pinpoint the similarity as NotPetya had major similarities of code with Petya ransomware to act as decoy and distraction. It is clear that Petya and NotPetya ransomware code is available to multiple actors. Let’s take a closer look at NotPetya TTPs by leveraging MITRE ATT&CK methodology and custom threat model from SOC Prime SVA AI:

The actor behind NotPetya used 30 techniques to execute the attack.

TTPs difference between Bad Rabbit and NotPetya:

Supply-chain attack vector (Modified M.E.Doc software updates) EternalBlue vulnerability (Bad Rabbit does not use it) Indicator removal on host (by clearing up MS EventLog. Bad Rabbit does not do that) PsExec is not used by Bad Rabbit for Windows Admin Shares of Lateral Movement Hardcoded credentials are used by Bad Rabbit and not used by NotPetya Legitimate credentials obtained by NotPetya were managed by C2. This allowed attacker to use specific Active Directory accounts of Lateral Movement such as Microsoft SCCM service account.

Debated similarity:

1. Bootkit is heavily used in NotPetya as “signature” technique of Sandworm actor for data destruction aka “wiper feature” (in BlackEnergy campaigns) and for irreversibly encrypting data at boot time also equivalent to data destruction (in NotPetya campaign). Bad Rabbit does not have a full-blown Bootkit as it only places the ransomware notice to bootloader.

To elaborate more on debate we’ll use a quote from Bleeping computer

As for Bad Rabbit, the ransomware is a so-called disk coder, similar to Petya and NotPetya. Bad Rabbit first encrypts files on the user’s computer and then replaces the MBR (Master Boot Record). Once Bad Rabbit has done its job, it reboots the user’s PC, which gets stuck into the custom MBR ransom note. The ransom note is almost identical to the one used by NotPetya, in the June outbreak.

They key difference here is that NotPetya actually encrypted the data with Bootkit at boot time and modified MFT as additional technique to encrypted them at OS level (original Petya “feature”). Bad Rabbit only replaces the boot screen. Similar screen design is easily spoofed.

TTPs similarity of Bad Rabbit and NotPetya:

Use of the same Mimikatz version for Credential Dumping Use of SMB shares for Lateral Movement Use of WMI for Lateral Movement

Additionally targeted file extensions are significantly different in Bad Rabbit compared to NotPetya: typical ransomware targets more files (Bad Rabbit) while APT attacks which use ransomware as File Deletion technique go after specific files.

There is also debate on the infection vector as Waterhole attack from hacked website. The piece that does not fit is that the hacked sites are not even a top-100 of popularity in affected countries.

Prevention: host-based vaccines and network protection

Network Protection controls

Block network access to 185.149.120[.]3 on perimeter level devices

Block all infected URLs on security web gateways / proxies.

Host-based Vaccination

The downloaded file named install_flash_player.exe needs to be manually launched by the victim. To operate correctly it needs elevated administrative privileges which it attempts to obtain using the standard UAC prompt. If started it will save the malicious DLL as C:\Windows\infpub.dat and launch it using rundll32.

Disable WMI service where possible as temporary mitigation measure

Create the following files C:\Windows\infpub.dat and C:\Windows\cscc.dat and REMOVE ALL PERMISSIONS (inheritance) from these files.

Indicators of Compromise

IP’s



IP Source 185.149.120[.]3 https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/http://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/10/bad-rabbit.html

HashOfFile FileName Source 0b2f863f4119dc88a22cc97c0a136c88a0 127cb026751303b045f7322a8972f6 cscc.dat http://blog.talosintelligence.com 16605a4a29a101208457c47ebfde788487be788d https://www.welivesecurity.com 1d724f95c61f1055f0d02c2154bbccd3 infpub.dat https://securelist.com 2f8c54f9fa8e47596a3beff0031f85360e56840c77f71c6a573ace6f46412035 http://blog.talosintelligence.com 301b905eb98d8d6bb559c04bbda26628a942b2c4107c07a02e8f753bdcfe347c http://blog.talosintelligence.com 3d05f09fb436c0e4dea85a8c6a12d47502016795df6ea5c8844da1655f1657b4 dispci.exe https://www.virustotal.com 413eba3973a15c1a6429d9f170f3e8287f98c21c https://www.welivesecurity.com 4f61e154230a64902ae035434690bf2b96b4e018 page-main.js https://www.welivesecurity.com 579FD8A0385482FB4C789561A30B09F25671E86422F40EF5CCA2036B28F99648 infpub.dat http://blog.talosintelligence.com 630325cac09ac3fab908f903e3b00d0dadd5fdaa0875ed8496fcbb97a558d0da http://blog.talosintelligence.com 682ADCB55FE4649F7B22505A54A9DBC454B4090FC2BB84AF7DB5B0908F3B7806 cscc.dat https://www.welivesecurity.com 7217fae6f3634cde7d54eba3858e8958eb1e5e85e2c36d968818cdce75a3fae9 Invoice_file_06565.doc https://www.hybrid-analysis.com 79116fe99f2b421c52ef64097f0f39b815b20907 infpub.dat https://www.welivesecurity.com 80c336a30aa746f5a05a21056e36328b9527c4ace59cd9e2fbb5211e87e5841d Invoice_file_06565.doc https://www.hybrid-analysis.com 84ac3d2f1ca70bc83149bec52b00009639e9006f941caed3ca83e4e8e47f64bd https://www.hybrid-analysis.com 8ebc97e05c8e1073bda2efb6f4d00ad7e789260afa2c276f0c72740b838a0a93 dispci.exe https://www.hybrid-analysis.com 8fd96bb2ce94146f1b0271d18ba52f176d4ebf8fabd275f1d16d59ed9d91d2da https://www.hybrid-analysis.com afeee8b4acff87bc469a6f0364a81ae5d60a2add dispci.exe https://www.welivesecurity.com b14d8faf7f0cbcfad051cefe5f39645f dispci.exe https://securelist.com de5c8d858e6e41da715dca1c019df0bfb92d32c0 install_flash_player.exe https://www.welivesecurity.com fbbdc39af1139aebba4da004475e8839 install_flash_player.exe https://securelist.com

User Name Source Administrator https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ Admin https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ Guest https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ User https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ User1 https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ user-1 https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ Test https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ root https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ buh https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ boss https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ ftp https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ rdp https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ rdpuser https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ rdpadmin https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ manager https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ support https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ work https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ other user https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ operator https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ backup https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ asus https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ ftpuser https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ ftpadmin https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ nas https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ nasuser https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ nasadmin https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ superuser https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ netguest https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ alex https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/ Scheduled Tasks names Task name Source viserion_ http://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/10/bad-rabbit.html rhaegal http://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/10/bad-rabbit.html drogon http://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/10/bad-rabbit.html

External references

1. https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-not-petya-back/

2. https://securelist.com/bad-rabbit-ransomware/82851/

3. http://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/10/bad-rabbit.html

4. https://gist.github.com/roycewilliams/a723aaf8a6ac3ba4f817847610935cfb

5. https://gist.github.com/Belorum/7b57e925a0bcc6ed6a72b6af07006ace

6. https://www.hybrid-analysis.com/sample/8ebc97e05c8e1073bda2efb6f4d00ad7e789260afa2c276f0c72740b838a0a93?environmentId=100

7. https://www.hybrid-analysis.com/sample/99b695b3d2ce9b0440ce7526fea59f7a4851d83d9a9d9a6cf906417068bc7524?environmentId=100

8. https://twitter.com/craiu/status/922911496497238021

9. https://blog.qualys.com/news/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-ransomware

10. https://threatprotect.qualys.com/2017/10/24/bad-rabbit-ransomware/?_ga=2.71482960.293546626.1508923179-346340547.1500997518

11. https://analyze.intezer.com/#/analyses/d41e8a98-a106-4b4f-9b7c-fd9e2c80ca7d

12. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/bad-rabbit-ransomware-outbreak-hits-eastern-europe/