Microsoft Windows
"Avalanche" refers to a large global network hosting infrastructure used by cyber criminals to conduct phishing and malware distribution campaigns and money mule schemes. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is releasing this Technical Alert to provide further information about Avalanche.
Cyber criminals utilized Avalanche botnet infrastructure to host and distribute a variety of malware variants to victims, including the targeting of over 40 major financial institutions. Victims may have had their sensitive personal information stolen (e.g., user account credentials). Victims' compromised systems may also have been used to conduct other malicious activity, such as launching denial-of-service (DoS) attacks or distributing malware variants to other victims' computers.
In addition, Avalanche infrastructure was used to run money mule schemes where criminals recruited people to commit fraud involving transporting and laundering stolen money or merchandise.
Avalanche used fast-flux DNS, a technique to hide the criminal servers, behind a constantly changing network of compromised systems acting as proxies.
The following malware families were hosted on the infrastructure:
Avalanche was also used as a fast flux botnet which provides communication infrastructure for other botnets, including the following:
A system infected with Avalanche-associated malware may be subject to malicious activity including the theft of user credentials and other sensitive data, such as banking and credit card information. Some of the malware had the capability to encrypt user files and demand a ransom be paid by the victim to regain access to those files. In addition, the malware may have allowed criminals unauthorized remote access to the infected computer. Infected systems could have been used to conduct distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Users are advised to take the following actions to remediate malware infections associated with Avalanche:
ESET Online Scanner
https://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/
F-Secure
https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/online-scanner
McAfee Stinger
http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/free-tools/index.aspx
Microsoft Safety Scanner
https://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
Norton Power Eraser
Trend Micro HouseCall
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
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