Description

As per sources, several security researchers have detected a threat actor tracked as DEV-0569 using Google Ads to spread malware to steal victims' passwords and ultimately breach networks for ransomware attacks in ongoing advertising campaigns. Researchers found that these Google Ads pretend to be popular websites like LightShot, Rufus, 7-Zip, FileZilla, LibreOffice, TradingView, WinRAR, AnyDesk, Awesome Miner, and VLC, and redirect visitors to sites that appear as download portals or replicas of legitimate sites, once the user clicks on download links, the users downloads with RedLine Stealer, Gozi/Ursnif, Vidar, and potentially, Cobalt Strike and ransomware. In February 2022, Mandiant researchers discovered a malware distribution campaign using SEO poisoning to rank websites pretending to be popular software in search results. Once the user installed the MSI software from these pages, it executes a new malware downloader called BatLoader on the victim system, which launches a multi-stage infection process that ultimately provides the threat actors with initial access to the victim’s networks. Later, Microsoft found that the attackers behind the BatLoader, tracked as DEV-0569, had begun to use Google ads to promote their malicious sites, which infections deploy Royal Ransomware on breached networks. Experts believe that DEV-0569 uses its malware distribution campaign to breach corporate networks, and then, sell the network access to other malicious actors. Further, it is found that, in the current campaign, RedLine malware is being used to steal data such as passwords, cookies, and cryptocurrency wallets, and Gozi/Ursnif malware to download other malware. After investigating the campaign, researcher Germán Fernández linked these new campaigns to DEV-0569 as they were using the same bitbucket repository and the ads-check[.]com URL used in the reported November/December 2022 campaigns. Similarly, another threat actor tracked as TA505 was found abusing Google ads pretending to be popular websites like AnyDesk, Slack, Microsoft Teams, TeamViewer, LibreOffice, Adobe, and, strangely, websites for W-9 IRS forms. In this campaign, when malware installs on the user system, it runs a PowerShell script that downloads and executes a DLL from the website "download-cdn[.]com," which the TA505 threat actor previously used. Additionally, Google is removing ads due to reports of threat actors creating new ad campaigns and sites to install malware, which is making it difficult for Google to tackle the reports.