Friday, July 08, 2022

Historical OSINT - The Koobface Gang Mixing Social Engineering Vectors

It's the Facebook message that came from one of your infected friends pointing you to an on purposely created bogus Bloglines blog serving fake YouTube video window, that I have in mind. The Koobface gang has been mixing social engineering vectors by taking the potential victim on a walk through legitimate services in order to have them infected without using any client-side vulnerabilities.

For instance, this bogus Bloglines account (bloglines .com/blog/Youtubeforbiddenvideo) has attracted over 150 unique visitors already, part of Koobface's Hi5 spreading campaign (catshof .com/go/hi5.php). The domain is parked at the very same IP that the rest of the central redirection ones in all of Koobface's campaigns are - 58.241.255.37.

Interestingly, since underground multitasking is becoming a rather common practice, the bogus blog has also been advertised within a blackhat SEO farm using the following blogs, currently linking to several hundred bogus Google Groups accounts :

bloglines .com/blog/gillehuxeda
bloglines .com/blog/chaneyok
bloglines .com/blog/ramosimeco
bloglines .com/blog/antwanuvfa
bloglines .com/blog/tamaraaqo
bloglines .com/blog/josephyhti
bloglines .com/blog/whiteqivaju
bloglines .com/blog/hayleyem
bloglines .com/blog/tateigyamor
bloglines .com/blog/burnsseuhaqe
bloglines .com/blog/jennaup


bloglines .com/blog/jermainedus
bloglines .com/blog/floydwopew55
bloglines .com/blog/arielehy
bloglines .com/blog/onealqypsu
bloglines .com/blog/mackirma
bloglines.com/blog/breonnazox
bloglines .com/blog/sabrinaxycit
bloglines .com/blog/gloverqy
bloglines .com/blog/lisaurja
bloglines .com/blog/greenefayg18
bloglines .com/blog/craigxiw36
bloglines .com/blog/parsonsdos
bloglines .com/blog/martinsutuz
bloglines .com/blog/deandreefe
bloglines .com/blog/briannetu
bloglines .com/blog/kierailpe
bloglines .com/blog/fordyfo27
bloglines .com/blog/litzyracnuj
bloglines.com/blog/darwinupi57
bloglines .com/blog/bonillavaok
bloglines .com/blog/jennyuxe85
bloglines .com/blog/wilkersonin
bloglines .com/blog/nicolasqydby
bloglines .com/blog/darbyeve
bloglines .com/blog/izaiahro83
bloglines .com/blog/parsonsdos
bloglines .com/blog/fullerjeb81


Abusing legitimate services may indeed get more attention in the upcoming year, following their interest in the practice from the last quarter.