Fileless PowerWare Ransomware Found on Healthcare Network

[RV_]

This is a disturbing new trend in malware. Do not turn on macros when asked to by an attachment you did not expect/request and you will be safe.

 

Excerpt:

 

"Attackers are not through testing the limits of what they can do with new features in ransomware samples.

That latest found in the wild is called PowerWare and it was discovered a week ago targeting a company in the healthcare industry, researchers at Carbon Black told Threatpost

 

What sets PowerWare apart from other crypto-ransomware samples is that it is fileless, which is a tactic adopted by other malware families pushed in prolific exploit kits such as Angler. Palo Alto Networks, for example, disclosed on March 11 a malware family called PowerSniff that has similar behaviors to PowerWare, including fileless infections.

 

PowerWare is spreading in spam campaigns, the email messages containing a Word document attachment purporting to be an invoice. In order to properly render the attachment, the victim is enticed to enable macros. Once enabled, the macro opens cmd.exe, which then calls PowerShell, a native Windows framework that uses a command-line shell to manage tasks, to download a malicious script. The use of PowerShell avoids writing files to the disk and allows the malware to blend in with legitimate activity on the computer, said Rico Valdez, senior threat intelligence researcher at Carbon Black.

 

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