Remcos

9
Global rank
3
Month rank
4
Week rank
12550
IOCs

Remcos is a RAT type malware that attackers use to perform actions on infected machines remotely. This malware is extremely actively caped up to date with updates coming out almost every single month.

Trojan
Type
ex-USSR territory
Origin
1 June, 2016
First seen
3 June, 2023
Last seen

How to analyze Remcos with ANY.RUN

Trojan
Type
ex-USSR territory
Origin
1 June, 2016
First seen
3 June, 2023
Last seen

IOCs

IP addresses
3.64.4.198
98.4.100.172
141.95.84.40
104.22.49.74
192.169.69.26
18.192.31.165
172.105.162.84
18.158.249.75
3.125.223.134
3.124.142.205
212.193.30.230
79.134.225.22
3.17.7.232
192.168.100.5
3.14.182.203
3.134.39.220
3.134.125.175
192.169.69.25
3.13.191.225
3.125.209.94
Hashes
e2c60159ad9908ac2a1ab446c1866dfe5a59b1535ca29f111ae56833996d82b8
0294cdf9c9c38ea1f2261b63206293516944cffef513e12701c3092a9244c0b7
50ca98ba2d54858b97cbbfff758edf7f81a29a8a4884a4319ae994cb8a434de3
c9ec59e23695adca831f06aca398c511cac81f2fd65c7353f14b4725791ab80a
925b3f0c28feb07eea91c36354adb0022a621bb20d1f96f3a1ad976c366893a6
0fd2e8f4ce5b3c6f3ecf206683da7e3474781c3f6edf4c384f9af4805e65e6dd
60d448324c236bf17c5b164140f83d180249e4ec56a44ee5a9962e6eda9aed2e
aa8f0cb77774a1f43eefe9952ce8750a2398b6f85abcd11c974ba8fd0c74b30a
9ac4f200dd366142d218f6e872a6ef87aa840dc07fa4ff231803de918647421e
d17ccb455ee24cc30f0bb0bdbfe244a388444b82ec069bb0766870b243f03695
75f6fa2b6b27e284e274706113a51d756d313d7326cb515d77abf7617c4a8295
f3bf68db1550c698eed65c7c8199242388a6370cb59c60375dd3c11d4f5c9043
217a39234802caa4d7cce0bfae3880db5c6b5c3004fddcd0b31298b586f54de5
7bc48731d6206024b65d1b96d931ebcda37dd166352f2c0bb34ffc9fc73cd51d
5251517c9a5cc925e00988f3d9aa30706271cfd0bd6d33d3794e03a92b13b946
5a159a1e3deab9eca53f48c007215faa102fe2c8f7264d5a96e9c0ee45bcb762
83bf929c5b98497b7384872e68b7577fb7f5bd558bf1ebe19d29af70685a379f
a760f8ab66668a69a921639dd9e44bf2bbac1084fd37ed1dc69b68e383c00253
3fd9f0e8c656dd07a47d042a5e218fcace3a836bdf2f9cdaa4801c88f0ff2f47
df76218154f23a4c1c4dd04fe03fd8aa71b7a9952d77c1ac7cb0e6d944c7917f
Domains
njxyro.ddns.net
192-168-100-240.otmn.direct.quickconnect.to
192-168-100-240.otmn.direct.quickconnect.to
fevertoxs.duckdns.org
adenere.duckdns.org
fevertox.duckdns.org
8.tcp.ngrok.io
frederikkempe.com
majul.com
device-local-3193b8ff-0889-41c5-8fd6-67066f88b277.remotewd.com
5.tcp.eu.ngrok.io
qxq.ddns.net
vcctggqm3t.dattolocal.net
rather-twisted.at.ply.gg
string-accepted.at.playit.gg
considered-drugs.at.ply.gg
support-garlic.at.ply.gg
association-secondary.at.ply.gg
directly-clearance.at.ply.gg
required-displayed.at.playit.gg
Last Seen at

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What is Remcos trojan?

Remcos is a remote access trojan – a malware used to take remote control over infected PCs. It has been operational since 2016 when it first became available for sale in the underground hacker communities on the dark web.

Remcos RAT has been receiving substantial updates throughout its lifetime. In fact, this malware is being maintained extremely actively, with new releases coming out almost every month. In April 2019, the malware was available for purchase for as little as just over 60 dollars up to over 400 dollars depending on the selected package.

General description of Remcos trojan

This trojan is created and sold to clients by a “business” called Breaking Security. Although Breaking Security promises that the program is only available to those who intend to use it for legal purposes, in reality, Remcos RAT gives clients all necessary features to launch potentially destructive attacks. The malware can be purchased with different cryptocurrencies. The program can remotely control PCs with any Windows OS, including XP and newer. It can also capture screenshots, record keystrokes on infected machines, and send the collected information to host servers.

What’s more, it comes equipped with a crypto program that enables the malware to stay hidden from antivirus software. In fact, Breaking Security has released a video on its YouTube channel which demonstrates the analysis of how multiple antiviruses fail to detect the presence of Remcos. In addition, Breaking Security provides attackers with a keylogger that can be used to remotely record keystrokes of the victim, a mass mailer program that can be used to carry out distribution campaigns, and a DynDNS service with a client-server connection. With all additional services combined, purchasers gain all they need to create their own functioning botnets.

The company responsible for selling Remcos RAT to the criminals is registered in Germany. Germany is the only country out of all European Union members that do not allow looking up company details online. Therefore founders of Breaking Security are still not identified. The website itself does not provide any information about the company or the team behind Remcos. The domain name of the website itself is hosted on Cloudflare, and all information related to it is protected by the privacy policy of the hoster organization. Clearly, the people behind Breaking Security have taken a lot of effort to stay anonymous.

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Remcos malware analysis

Remcos RAT execution and analysis can be watched in-depth in a video recorded in the ANY.RUN malware hunting service. Moreover, you can also research other malicious families there such as AZORult and Adwind.

process graph of the Remcos execution Figure 1: Displays the lifecycle of Remcos as presented by a visual graph generated by ANY.RUN

text report 0f the Remcos trojan analysis Figure 2: A customizable text report generated by ANY.RUN is a feature specifically developed to simplify the sharing of research results.

Remcos trojan execution process

Remcos trojan can be delivered in different forms. Based on RAT's analysis, it can be spread as an executable file with the name that should convince users to open it, or it pretends to be a Microsoft Word file that exploits vulnerabilities to download and execute the main payload, obfuscate the server component. In our simulation, after Remcos made its way to infect the device and begin the execution process, it started VBS script execution. Script ran command line and proceeded to drop an executable file from it. This file was the main payload, and it carried out the main malicious activities – stealing information, changing the autorun value in the registry, and connecting to the C2 server.

remcos execution process tree Figure 3: Execution processes of Remcos as displayed by the ANY.RUN malware analysis service

Distribution of Remcos

Although being distributed using multiple methods, being provided in a bundle with mass mailer software, the analysis proves that Remcos RAT usually gets into victims’ machines through malicious attachments in spam email campaigns. The attackers normally use phishing techniques to try and trick users into downloading file attachments, commonly – contaminated Microsoft Office files. Once downloaded, the files would prompt the users to activate the macros required for the execution of Ramcos to start.

Attackers who utilize this trojan are known to target specific organizations and sometimes go a long way to craft custom phishing emails designed to fool their victims. Corporations that are known to become targets of Remcos attacks include news agencies and businesses energy industry-related businesses.

If the victim does enable the macros, they reconstruct a small executable file which is then dropped to a pre-specified location and launched from there. This file then proceeds to download the main payload, which is Remcos itself, from a control server and then begin the execution process. Even though the location can vary from sample to sample, it usually includes one of the following locations, typical for malware creators: %APPDATA% and %TEMP%.

How to detect Remcos using ANY.RUN?

Cybersecurity specialists can easily detect Remcos – the trojan writes its name into a registry. Look at registry events: click on the process and then on the More Info button. If the Registry changes tab has a key like "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Remcos-{digits_letters}", you can be sure it’s Remcos.

remcos log file Figure 4: Remcos registry changes

Conclusion

Remcos RAT is a dangerous trojan available to attackers for a relatively low price. Despite its accessibility, it comes equipped with enough robust features to allow attackers to set up their own effective botnets. What's more, it is modernized with updates released nearly every month by the owner company. Accessibility and powerful feature set helped to make Ramcos into a powerful and dangerous trojan.

Thankfully, malware hunting services such as ANY.RUN gives professionals an equally robust feature set to research threats like Ramcos and respond with effective countermeasures.

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