New Infostealer Discovered in The Wild

A new malware variant has been discovered which has been dubbed ‘Paipeu’ by security researchers after observing an attack in an attempt to steal data.

Threat ID:: CC-1420
Category:: Spyware
Threat Severity:: Medium
Threat Vector:
Published:: 18 May 2017 12:00 AM

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Summary

A new malware variant has been discovered which has been dubbed ‘Paipeu’ by security researchers after observing an attack in an attempt to steal data.

Affected platforms

The following platforms are known to be affected:

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows - all versions

Threat details

The new piece of malicious code has never been spotted before or connected to any known malware family. Paipeu is an infostealer that gathers confidential information from a compromised system.

Paipeu collects information such as the NetBIOS name of the local computer, the language identifier for the system, disk space, active processes on the specified terminal server and list of members of local groups. The malware can also add a user account, assign a password and privilege level.

The method of delivery remains unknown at the time of writing, but the attack has ties to a Korean IP address when researchers connected the malware to a test server. The collected sample uses a unique way for communication called ‘named pipes’ which has only been used by two other malware families (PlugX and Duqu). It is typically used for communication between different pieces of malware on a host, or between infected systems inside a LAN.

Infostealers are designed to stay hidden so that an attacker can collect as much information as possible, or remain on a system until they find what they are looking for.

Remediation steps

Type	Step
	A robust program of education and awareness training is delivered to users to ensure they don’t open attachments or follow links within unsolicited emails. All operating systems, antivirus and other security products are kept up to date. All day to day computer activities such as email and internet are performed using non-administrative accounts. Strong password policies are in place and password reuse is discouraged. Network, proxy and firewall logs should be monitored for suspicious activity.

Type

Step

A robust program of education and awareness training is delivered to users to ensure they don’t open attachments or follow links within unsolicited emails.

All operating systems, antivirus and other security products are kept up to date.

All day to day computer activities such as email and internet are performed using non-administrative accounts.

Strong password policies are in place and password reuse is discouraged.

Network, proxy and firewall logs should be monitored for suspicious activity.

Last edited: 17 February 2020 11:36 am