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Home Firewall Daily

This YouTube Bot Malware Increases Views, And Steals Your Data!

Vishwa Pandagle by Vishwa Pandagle
December 26, 2022
in Firewall Daily, Research
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YouTube bot
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YouTube bots have been on the scene for a while. Many YouTubers frequently use these computer codes to boost the view count on videos and accounts in order to improve their ranking in the YouTube algorithm. A new bot steals sensitive data from YouTube users’ accounts, found researchers.

Like all YouTube bots, this too has the ability to engage in actions like viewing, liking, and commenting on YouTube videos. It is also capable of stealing sensitive information from browsers and serving as a bot that receives instructions from a Command and Control (C&C) server for other nefarious purposes.

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YouTube bot malware

Cyble researchers unearthed the workings of this information-stealing YouTube bot malware using the sample hash (SHA256) e9dac8b677a670e70919730ee65ab66cc27730378b9233d944ad7879c530d312. They found that it is a 32-bit executable file and has been made using .NET compiler.

It needs four argument strings such as a video ID for a unique ID of a YouTube video, video duration, like being set to true to like a video, and comment that leaves a comment for a video.

The malware detects threats in the environment using DetectVM() to evade detection. It searches for VMware and VirtualBox. Only after ensuring that no threat to the malware is detected does it starts working, based on its program using the argument strings.

An image showing the antiVM check done by the malware (Source: Cyble)

Next, the malware searches for running processes with the mutex name ‘sm’, calls the DeleteProcessesByMutexName() method and stops them using the taskkill command. If the malware finds that the executable is running from the %appdata% directory, it creates a new mutex in sm:<current process id> format.

If not, the malware changes its name to AvastSecurity.exe by copying itself to the %appdata% folder only after it makes sure that the executable file is not running from the same location. After copying itself as programmed, it runs itself using ‘cmd.exe.’

A copy of itself is dropped after a mutex is created using the RegisterSceduledTask() function. It creates a task scheduler entry for the dropped copy which is used for maintaining persistence in running the malware even when the system restarts. The below image shows the task scheduler entry:

Thereafter, using the ‘AvastSecurity.exe’ file the malware starts collecting systems data such as cookies, autofill data, login credentials, etc. Researchers found these details stolen from a Chromium browser using CookieRecovery(), AutofillRecovery(), and PassRecovery() methods.

YouTubePlaywright method and YouTube videos

The YouTube bot malware calls the YouTubePlayWright.Start() method to pass previous arguments, mimics a real user who is viewing YouTube content and bypasses the security mechanism of the system. It can act on YouTube like a real user and perform tasks such as view, like, comment, dislike, etc.

To add more views to a YouTube video the bot malware goes to the URL using the page.GotoAsync() method, finds the play button using the page.Locator() method and clicks open the video using the ClickAsync() method.

After the programmed tasks are performed, the YouTube bot malware connects to the command and control (C&C) server using the ConnectToServer(). While doing so, it passes the IP, Port, and Webclient as an argument. It receives commands after calling the OnServerMessageReceived() function from the C&C server.

The selfDestruct command leads the malware to delete the scheduled tasks and terminate its process. The getLog command helps send the log file with details about the bot version, server connection status, etc., to the C&C server. The downloadAndRun command leads to the download and execution of other files as programmed by the cybercriminal.

An image showing the commands run by the malware to perform specific tasks (Source: Cyble)

MITRE ATT&CK® techniques

Tactic Technique ID Technique Name
1.      Execution T1204
T1047
T1059
User Execution
Windows Management Instrumentation
Command and Scripting Interpreter
2.      Persistence T1053 Scheduled Task/Job
3.      Privilege Escalation T1055 Process Injection
4.      Defense Evasion T1036
T1562
T1497
Masquerading
Disable or Modify Tools
Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion
5.      Credential Access T1003 OS Credential Dumping
6.      Discovery T1057
T1082
T1518
Process Discovery System
Information Discovery
Security Software Discovery
7.      Collection T1005 Data from Local System
8.      Command and Control T1071
T1105
Application Layer Protocol
Ingress Tool Transfer

(Source: Cyble)

 

 

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Tags: cyber express newsinfo stealing YouTube malwareThe Cyber ExpressYouTube bot malwareyoutube playwright
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Vishwa Pandagle

Vishwa Pandagle

Vishwa Pandagle is a Technical Writer at The Cyber Express. She writes cybersecurity news related to data breaches, ransomware, phishing, and best practices among others. She also writes about cybersecurity developments and likes interacting with experts in this field. When not working, she likes self-reflecting, meditating, volunteering, and going for long walks.

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